Illegal Immigrant [12/03/2023] CH19+20 [Important Subscribestar Update]

[Mee]

On 9/3/2022 at 7:19 PM, Panther Cub said:

Wait a minute! Are Katherine and James aware of some of the way darker things Amazons have done to their adopted littles?

Hypnosis, sex change, surgeries to remove teeth, the ability to speak, the ability to walk, as well as sex things? And I think I remember reading about littles being used for breeding.

Or do they just disbelieve in stuff like that? Or maybe try to explain it away?

 

(I myself picture Katherine being horrified by all that, and James being equally disgusted.)

I'm not going to commit to anything specific, necessarily. The extent of what goes on in this DD will only be revealed as Dawn learns about it, so I wouldn't be listing off all those things as a given certainty. That being said, there have been indicators about some of the more mild (but just as inhumane) stuff. You've seen a lack of mention of it from James and Katherine, as well as Katherine's reaction when James was getting even remotely close to that stuff.

On 9/3/2022 at 11:11 PM, TerranV said:

James at one point mentioned mental regression being a possibility if Dawn wound up in an etiquette center. So he's at least aware of some of those possibilities. 

But no I don't think him or Katherine would ever go for it. They wanted to adopt a willling Little afterall so presumably stuff like that would be off the table for them.

Yep! Without trying to scrutinize what I wrote too heavily or trying to recall, that sounds about right. James and Katherine definitely seem like the more "conservative" types, (really depends on how you look at things...). But just based on their actions and how they've spoken, you can probably infer some of their positions on things.

On 9/3/2022 at 11:40 PM, AbyMatt said:

If Dawn could get some perspective on the situation she would see that she has to let James and Katherine lean in to babying her to make a good show for LPS. James at least seems willing to try to get Dawn home, unless he's changed his tune. Even if Dawn can't get home James and Katherine are trying to be nice to her so she should make the best of it.

Dawn's definitely in the stage of testing limits. Because she isn't getting full answers or simply finds reality too hard to believe, she's pushing boundaries until something will inevitably pushes back. She should be making the best of it, but I think the fear of this possibly being her life from now on is why she absolutely refuses to even try and get comfortable with it.

On 9/4/2022 at 12:01 AM, Panther Cub said:

I figured that stuff was off the table, but I'm wondering if they're aware of stuff like that. And now that I think about it, are they aware of some TV channels or shows having hypnotic capabilities targeting littles as well? Would they have to block those channels for Dawn's own good?

The diaper dimension can be difficult, because even though everyone uses the same name, just what can go on in it is wildly different from other iterations. I don't have every detail ironed out about how and why things work the way that they do, but I am trying to establish some chain of logic. With hypnosis as an example, my favorite take on that has been from a story I feel like I read forever ago... @WBDaddy wrote it, I think? The premise was about a Little going undercover at a daycare trying to rescue her sister that'd been adopted, and pretty mutilated, if I remember correctly. (Sorry if I'm incorrect, and I can change this if that's the case!) Point is, one thing they did that I got on board with was having hypnosis available on a hard to get kind of VHS tape, or something. I wouldn't say though that hypnosis seems nearly as hard to get in my take on the DD, but I don't think I'd want it flashing on everyday TV screens on a whim, either. But who knows, maybe it'll work into something like that.

But kind of just "doing the math," I wouldn't expect Katherine and James to just spring hypnosis on Dawn.

[WBDaddy]

3 hours ago, Mee said:

. @WBDaddy wrote it, I think? The premise was about a Little going undercover at a daycare trying to rescue her sister that'd been adopted, and pretty mutilated, if I remember correctly.

Not me.  My only contribution to this milieu was the Little on trial for murder. 

[kerry]

4 hours ago, Mee said:

The premise was about a Little going undercover at a daycare trying to rescue her sister that'd been adopted, and pretty mutilated, if I remember correctly.

The story is The Promise. I had to search for it before locating it on the Old AR Archive. Here is the url:

 https://old.ararchive.com/index.php?option=com_ewriting&Itemid=7&func=storyinfo&story=1400

[Sarah Penguin]

he is not a good man

[Mee]

On 9/5/2022 at 1:56 PM, WBDaddy said:

Not me.  My only contribution to this milieu was the Little on trial for murder. 

Oops. Apologies for the mistake! Goes to show I really did read it a while back...

On 9/5/2022 at 2:30 PM, kerry said:

The story is The Promise. I had to search for it before locating it on the Old AR Archive. Here is the url:

 https://old.ararchive.com/index.php?option=com_ewriting&Itemid=7&func=storyinfo&story=1400

Thank you for helping clear that up! Now I might have to take a trip down memory lane!

On 9/25/2022 at 8:39 PM, Sarah Penguin said:

he is not a good man

Yet who are we to question the ways of disciplining Littles? Sometimes they've just got some barriers that need a little breaking down!
 

[Mee]

15 - Simmering Emotions

Dawn was forced to quietly stew elsewhere in the house, resigning herself to Waver’s dog bed where he lay. The one place of refuge she had in the house was being transformed into something else entirely. She had no words for opposition, because she knew they wouldn’t take her anywhere. Whatever influence she had on the situation, it was well-gone by now. She had the chance to at least pick her poison at the store, but she waived that right entirely. Now, annoyingly so, her mind was too busy not thinking about the things she didn’t do, but the way Katherine must have felt every time she was put in one of Dawn’s most compromising positions.

It was probably a shitty feeling, maybe just as shitty as how sore Dawn’s butt was feeling right then. She made sure to lay on her hip rather than her bottom, lest she agitate the feeling any more. But truly, an annoying point she couldn’t ignore was what that spanking did to her. Quite truly, it made her reflect. She was still angry. She still didn’t think of either Amazon as pure of heart, but...her animosity to them was less, and in James’ case her fear towards him had only gone up.

“Dawn? Honey, you doing alright?” Katherine was peering over the couch with a toolbox in hand. Not as the user, but the gofer. She’d gone back to using pet names at some point, but Dawn was hesitant to ask for any of that to stop right now. Truly, she was afraid of James somehow escalating what she believed was a fair request…

“I’m fine...” she quietly commented. She wasn’t fine, but fine was enough to get herself some space.

“How about some tv? I can turn it on for you?” She gestured to the large black screen.

“I’m fine.”

Dawn could feel Katherine’s quiet look wait a little longer before asking, “Did you want some juice? I had James pick some up on his way from work?” The juice that she never asked for.

“No thank you...” Even manners were something she was scared into being wise to. To think physical force could make her so compliant…

“Okay...well, think about what you might like for dinner, okay? We’re gonna order out tonight.”

Dawn didn’t answer, but eventually she heard Katherine moving around again by the metal clanks of the box in her hand.

By a wide margin she was currently bonding with her most favorite person in the house. Waver, Amazon dimension or not, at least seemed the same kind of dog one would expect to find back in the other dimension. Just a normal, goofy and friendly four-legged friend. One who was busy sleeping, which made for the perfect pillow for Dawn.

She never did get her pants back, but she also never asked. She didn’t want to interact. She just wanted to lay low and stay quiet, which was everything that the diaper around her hips wasn’t. Though she did hear the noise of a drill upstairs, albeit mild, the whirring noise still traveled all the way down here.

Waver would occasionally look over Dawn in the same direction at the stairs, but would go right back to laying there. Maybe out of courtesy for Dawn. At least someone finally understood her, even if it was on such a depressingly simple level.

The sun had just about set as the warm glow through the living room window was fading away like a closing door. Her window of escape had probably closed long ago. That was it.This was it.  At some point during the day, some time, the tour group went back home. And here she was, stuck. Stranded with two Amazons who say that they are going to try and find a way to get her back home. But with talks of what they were having for dinner, buying her clothes, furniture for a bedroom, it felt like nothing but cheap lip service. They said one thing while their actions said another. All they could give her were words, and they’d proven themselves once already that they couldn’t be trusted, so what was left?

Finally getting on her feet, Dawn walked over to the stairs with eventually a curious Waver in tow, finally freed of his obligations as a pillow to investigate as well. Climbing to the top of the stairs the drilling noise was louder than whatever kind of conversation James and Katherine were having.

By chance, Katherine yet again poked her head out into the hallway.

“Oh! Did you want some juice?” Katherine smiled, as if she was anew again and reborn. All the mental and emotional damage Dawn had done seemed to be gone completely, but her sense of pessimism argued that the deepest cuts never show on the surface.

“No...” though her throat was dry, “I...I was wondering where the bathroom was.”

“Well...” Katherine turned her head, “upstairs it’s right over there...” back to Dawn, “but what do you need in there, honey?”

It couldn’t have felt any more obvious, to the point Dawn already felt the inklings of annoyance. But then she remembered James, quickly smothering the flame. “I need to use the bathroom...” she calmly answered.

Katherine didn’t miss a beat, like a knee-jerk reaction was triggered, saying, “That’s okay, I’ll just change you when you need it?” She gave the curious head tilt, magically ignorant to Dawn’s continence.

Deep breaths. Stay calm.

“N-no, Katherine...I...I know how to use the bathroom. I don’t actually need diapers.”

“But today at the store...”

“--Yes!” Dawn interrupted, already feeling herself blush from the memory. “Yes...that happened, but it wasn’t me. It was that chocolate, I’m telling you! Please, just let me go...” She hesitated, stooping to a new personal low, but if the ends justify the means… “I can even show you that I know how. Please? Just humor me?” Isn’t this what they wanted? Dialogue? She was giving it, so it should beget her something, right?

“The toilet’s very big, Dawn…” The uncertainty in her voice was thick and potent. “I don’t think that it’s safe for you to sit on it...”

And then Dawn’s heart sank. An odd little trinket she’d taken for granted at her retrofitted hotel room. As low effort as the accommodations were for a Little, the one thing that was done right was an assisted seat for the Amazon sized toilet… A set of steps combined with a raised and smaller seat closer sized to back home that was fit for someone Dawn’s size. Of course an Amazon house in the suburbs wouldn’t have one.

“Th...the hotel I was staying in...” God, of all things she could finally ask for. But she was asking for once, so that had to count for something too!

“Mhm?” Katherine crouched down with her hands on her knees, listening patiently like a preschool teacher.

“The toilet was Amazon sized, but it had a seat for Littles...so I was able to sit on it.”

“Really?” Katherine bounced off the statement with curiosity to the point that Dawn almost thought of it as artificial, but it probably wasn’t. Fate was too cruel to make it as simple as that. “I’ve never heard of those before!”

“Hey hon?” James called from the room. “Do you know where the screwdriver is?”

Katherine looked over and called, “Yep! Let me grab it for you.” As she stood back up and walked to the door, Dawn followed as well. The Amazon casually looked down then hurriedly stopped her.

“Ah-ah! Wait out here, okay? It’s gonna be a surprise, and I don’t want you accidentally getting hurt, okay?”

“I wouldn’t get hurt...” Dawn tried to make her argument without sounding agitated.

“There’s just screws all over the place, and actually, you’ve been doing such a great job at keeping Waver busy!” Another deflection. Did Dawn have any pride left to care about?

Katherine was careful in opening the door by just a crack and then closing it on the way in. A minute later she was back out in the hall again.

“First, thank you very much for talking to me about that,” she smiled with a soft chuckle, then looked ready to break the bad news. “I’m sorry though, but James and I don’t really have anything like that; it’s the first we’ve heard of it… We can take a look into it later, but for now, while we’re dealing with LPS, we’re going to stick to diapers for now, okay?”

“B-but...” How could she say it so easily? Just “deciding” that diapers were the better fit for her? Pretending that she was incontinent for the sake of appearances?

“--Tell you what, let’s go get you a drink, okay? You sound thirsty.” Without asking, Katherine pulled her up into the air and started to descend the stairs after patting her thigh for Waver to follow. And on the way down, Dawn’s discomfort was more evident than anything.

“Dawn, please? Please don’t be upset with me?” She tried to rub her back on the walk down, but it didn’t make the thought of being in diapers any easier and it certainly didn’t make her any less upset.

“I’m not upset with you...” She one-hundred percent was. “I’m just annoyed with the situation… I’m an adult, Katherine! I don’t use diapers!”

Katherine nodded placatingly, hearing her words, but failing to truly process any of them as she opened up the fridge. “Uh-huh… You know, James and I don’t think of you any differently for it, you know? It’s okay if you need to wear diapers?”

“But I don’t need to! It was just one accident in the store! It was the chocolate, but you don’t believe me!” And in the pursuit of making her argument, she raised her voice which apparently invalidated it the moment she was gently being shushed.

“Indoor voices...” Katherine gently reminded. God...it was like James’ punishment gave her a whole new level of backbone. She really was able to walk all over her this morning... “Okay, maybe that chocolate really did give you an upset tummy.” That was the problem. The way she phrased it, she voiced it like a matter of chance and not a certainty, like there wasn’t something malicious in it. A small spat of indigestion rather than a laced candy designed to make someone shit themselves. “Don’t you think it’s a lot safer then to be wearing some protection for if something like that happens again?”

Dawn wasn’t watching her reach up into the cabinet for a glass, busy with her own thoughts. She wasn’t convincing Katherine one bit. Instead, all her words were getting tangled and used against herself like some kind of reversal.

“...Okay, there. That should do it. Both hands?” Katherine raised the cup up to her and Dawn instinctively accepted. What only hit her a second later though was that it wasn’t a glass. Not an open top kind of one.

Looking down she didn’t see any actual juice. Instead, a turquoise plastic top with a small stout protruding from the side. Tilting the cup forward didn’t spill any of the contents as she looked at the googly-eye frogs and smiling dragonflies all around the translucent plastic sides. The cherry on top were the two plastic handles sprouting from either end like solid holds for the ones who might still be learning to control their hands.

“This is a sippy cup.” Dawn said in a voice meant to imply that something was very wrong.

“It’s so you can have your drinks anywhere in the house?” Katherine thoughtfully included. “It was one of the things we got today. Do you not like it? I wish we could have picked out a design you liked...”

“No, but...I...” She tried not to sigh. The broken record was already on its umpteenth loop. “I don’t use sippy cups. I use normal glasses like you do.”

“You can’t bring big cups all over the house, though?”

“That’s fine,” Dawn tiredly stressed, “I can just drink it here.”

“This one’s a better fit for you?” There was always a point to argue why she shouldn’t have adult privileges…

“Fine. Then I’ll just take the top off.” And so she did. Or so she tried. Trying to turn as best as she could, she grunted uselessly as her strength gave out before the top so much as turned a millimeter. “Please...” She held out the sippy cup. “Please just take the top off for me?”

A war was being waged inside Katherine’s head, but there was apparently a ceasefire long enough for Katherine to give in. “...Okay, but, you need to finish it all in the kitchen, and if you spill any of it, the top goes back on. Deal?”

“Yes!” Dawn couldn’t sound any happier if she tried. A meaningful compromise! Finally!

Katherine borrowed the cup and twisted it off with ease.

“And both hands, please.” Katherine reminded right before Dawn did go for a one-hand swig. Unfortunately, the cup was unusually wide, which is why Dawn was quickly starting to prefer both hands, otherwise she could see herself dropping it. Was that intentional? Was it made this way to make specifically sure she couldn’t use a single hand? After all, what made a Little drinking from a cup any more endearing than needing to overcompensate by holding it with both appendages?

Using both hands on the cup specifically and not the infantile handles, she sipped from the threaded edge of the cup like a coffee mug and drank the reddish juice. It was...sort of good, actually. Like a tropical fruit punch. It had a taste that sort of made her think of lemons, but without that clingy taste in her mouth intentionally meant to make her crave more. She did crave more of the juice, but at least it wasn’t caused by a film clinging to the inside of her mouth.

“Is it good?” Katherine smiled, looking like she had her own treat to enjoy just from looking at her.

“...Yeah...” She finished another long sip. The cup itself was actually fairly large. Maybe almost twice the size of a normal cup. But more importantly, the drink was refreshing after a long spat of not having anything to sip on.

“All done for now?”

“Mhm.” Dawn nodded. “I can come back for it later.” And in the kitchen it would remain until she needed it.

Katherine opened back up the fridge and took more of the juice out, topping off whatever Dawn had managed to drink. Then she picked up the plastic top and screwed it back on.

“But you said I could drink it without the top?” Dawn frowned as the cup was handed back to her. “I’m gonna drink it later.”

“You can when you’re in the kitchen,” she enunciated the devil in the details, “but since you’re done, you can bring it with you in the house now. Isn’t that convenient?”

“I...guess...” She looked down at the sippy cup, trying to think of it as more of a bottle than a children’s safety cup.

“You know, I’m jealous you can have a drink whenever you want around the house!”

“Yeah? I’m sure they make adult sippy cups that you could use.”

Katherine laughed, but in the sort of way that dismissed Dawn’s point like a joke. “Maybe,” she said placatingly, “but are you all set until we talk about dinner? Have any ideas, yet?”

“Uhm...I don’t really care...” She rathered that she wasn’t the one who decided. She didn’t even know what was considered good here. The food she had at the hotel seemed fine enough, but to be honest, she didn’t even know what most of it was. At least, she never got to order anything, it was instead decided for her.

“Mm...” Katherine hummed with a sign that she wasn’t satisfied with the answer, “...Alright. See if you can think of something though, okay?” Back in the living room, without asking this time Katherine turned on the tv and lights over the living room, dimming them somewhat.

The middle of a cartoon was already in full swing as colorful and overly animated characters scurried across the screen and simple backgrounds with chase music. Katherine watched for a few moments herself before deciding it was appropriate, more than likely, then set her down on the couch.

Waver, the astute servant that he was, hopped up on the couch himself before Katherine could even set Dawn down.

“Wow! I really think he likes you!” she laughed. “Waver’s friendly, but he’s really warmed up to you.”

“Uh-huh...” Dawn said while she patted his large head. It was still crazy to think that there were dogs bigger than her just from standing on four legs. That truly scared her to think of encountering one that wasn’t friendly and just as big, if not bigger.

“James and I shouldn’t be much longer upstairs, but I’ll be back downstairs often, okay?”

“Mhm...thanks.” Sort of thanks. Still there were conclusions to this that she didn’t like, but apparently what was practical mattered more, even if she hated it…

Then, a gesture Dawn didn’t expect was when Katherine left she dragged her fingers through the hair atop Dawn’s head. It was strange and sent a ticklish sort of feeling throughout her body. She squirmed a small bit much like her diaper crinkled; a “benefit” from being dry.

With nothing left to do though, she begrudgingly tried to sip from the sippy cup. It was heavy too, now that she thought on it, and the plastic wasn’t textured for friction that made it easy to hold. It was like it was designed to… And so, with unfortunately much more ease, she held the sippy cup by both its handles which made the action a lot more doable. Lifting it up she put her mouth around the spout and sucked. Two small, yet constant streams shot from the inside and into her mouth, rewarding her efforts with an ample amount of juice. And when she pulled it away there wasn’t anything left residually other than her own small bits of saliva on the top.

Fuck. It actually did work…

Unfortunately, all she did have to do was watch the basic cartoon. The plot was simple and as telegraphed as one might expect from a generic children’s show. That in itself was weird, come to think of it. From all the propaganda and wild advertising for babying Littles, Dawn expected something along those lines from tv. Somehow had it become the one safe haven? Doubtful, but no less confusing.

Her mind wandered elsewhere, onto more upsetting things. Home. She had essentially disappeared. A Little on an overstayed visa that was having her existence rewritten back on Earth. How long would it take for people to notice she was gone? Her boyfriend would definitely find out first...but her parents? Stacy alluded to the forces at work that made it so easy to lose her in the system. Extra steps taken just to create the illusion that she returned. Probably all the paperwork to prove it just to make sure the trail goes cold back there and not here.

How long would it take to get back? She was a college student, she had classes she needed to take! If this took more than a week she’d definitely be panicking. A month? Two? By that point her graduation would be delayed by a semester…

It sucked thinking about the time, and it sucked even more to hear James working away at what felt like a long term solution. She didn’t want long term, not even short. She wanted instantaneous and was still trying to get over the bitterness of feeling she was cheated from that.

“I still can’t believe you set it all up so quickly…!” Katherine with the toolbox in hand followed James back downstairs.

“Sort of quick. Looks like the sun came down?”

“Thank you again!” Dawn had the pleasure of hearing a wet kiss on the cheek. “Dawn…? Did you want to see your new room?” Her excitement was clear and obvious.

“Uhm...” She looked up at Katherine, then noticed James next to her, also smiling. It didn’t matter what face he made though; it all rubbed her the wrong way. “Sure...”

Shortly she was whisked into the air and Waver hopped off as well to join the caravan.

Dawn hardly wanted to see any of what she was about to, because she had a sickeningly strong indication of what it would be. Katherine couldn’t stop trying to gaslight the girl despite them being on totally different wavelengths.

“Now this isn’t the final look, okay? It’s just what we need to get by for now. We can think about getting it painted, maybe a different carpet, a dresser and a toy chest...” She opened up the door for the big reveal.

And in Dawn’s perspective, it wasn’t surprising at all, which is why her feelings of dread didn’t change.

Gone was her bundle of blankets and pillow on the floor of the empty room, and in came the barebones of a budding nursery. A large, dark stained kind of walnut crib sat in the corner of the room with a mattress and bedding set already inside it. Against the adjacent wall was a high wooden counter space of matching material with a cushion kind of padding laid across the top, but she quickly deduced its function when she saw the wicker baskets of diapers underneath on the shelves. A tall white trash bin for a very specific kind of trash was next to it, and another trinket was a tall, empty bookshelf, probably for babyish knick knacks that would come to be.

By and far the room still felt very empty, lacking a lot of accents, details and other small things to really make the space feel lived in, but it was livable, and it was where Dawn would be living.

“Ta-dah!” Katherine sounded far too giddy for it to be a gift for someone else. “Do you like it? It’s okay if you don’t yet! This is just the start, but I think we can really make this into your own space!”

The moment the bed was decided to be a crib and for there to be a changing table, it quite frankly stopped being her room. But, recent events were making her mind her vocal opinions a bit better, so…

“Thanks...Thank you both for doing this for me...”

“James used the drill, so he’s the one who put it all together! I helped put your mattress and bedding in, though!” Katherine couldn’t have sounded prouder to contribute.

“Thanks James...”

“You’re welcome,” he said from the back. “Like Kath said, it’s not a whole lot right now, but we can take our time filling it out now that we have what you’ll need.”

Changes. She’d need changes. Constantly, apparently.

“Oh! And look!” Katherine hurried them both over to the bookshelf. “Do you know what this is?”

“Sh...shelves?”

“Well, they can be if you’d like, but I meant it to be your own library! We can keep all your books here!”

It was a suggestion and reveal that truly caught Dawn by surprise. She...remembered? Yesterday there was some talk between them in the car about education and reading… So, so long ago. Before the horrid shopping trip, before the LPS and timeouts, before the mental breakdowns in and before the hotel, before all of it. All of the trauma and madness, they had talked.

Dawn was strangely taken aback. Of all the things they shared with each other and been through, it constantly felt like her cries and concerns went through one ear and out the other, cherry picking the words and actions that suited an Amazon’s diapered bias. But this was different. She actually remembered something about Dawn. This wasn’t some twist or uncanny mimic of Dawn’s wants and needs. Books. She knew she liked books.

“You remembered?”

“Hm? Of course I did. You told me, after all?” Katherine smiled so sweetly, so lovingly. And then it hit Dawn. It hit her like a ton of bricks.

More than the residual guilt from when she kicked and screamed Katherine away from the car. More than the indirect apology she relayed through James at the hotel. More than the hesitation she felt each time she bitterly or coldly walked all over Katherine. More than the spanking she just had a few hours ago. More than…

“Dawn, what’s wrong?”

“It’s...it’s nothing...” she sniffled as she wiped her eyes. It was a small gesture and a basic gift. It didn’t excuse the crib or the changing table. It didn’t excuse the diapers, the sippy cup, the scolding or the childish punishments. It didn’t get her home any faster or counted for any progress or discovery to resolving this entire conflict. But in spite of all the mistreatment they’d done unto her and she unto them, it rocked her core in such a raw way that made her bleary-eyed.

“Why…?” She wiped her eyes. “Why are you still so nice to me? I...I was so mean to you. Why don’t you hate me?” It was truly something that made her feel like absolute garbage. After everything, Katherine could still be so unconditional and loving. It made no sense. It wasn’t right. It couldn’t be natural, could it?

“I’d never hate you!” Katherine shifted her for a hug. “It’s been hard for you, Dawn, I know that. It’s not fair that you’re stuck here, and James and I are going to do our best to make sure you’re as comfy and cared for as possible. Are you listening? I want this to be your home too, Dawn. If we can do anything to make you more comfortable here, please, tell us, okay? It makes me so happy to know how much you like it! But I want you to keep sharing your feelings with us, okay? Tell us when you're upset, angry, or confused. We’re not perfect...I know that, but I think we’re still better than average?”

It was a vulnerable moment as everything hit her at once. Katherine’s words implied what Dawn feared, that it wouldn’t be a fast way out, but they were still going to tolerate her no matter what. She had her grievances, they were still far from perfect people, and she was certain she would find more ways to be angry with them.

But a small laugh left her mouth anyway. It was enough to make Katherine’s eyes widen with glee as she laughed too, hugging her even tighter.

Dawn hated it here, but at least there was a bookshelf…

 

---

“What’s wrong with pepperoni?” Dawn asked, never seeming not perplexed by the way an Amazon could question her answers.

“It may be a little too spicy for you, Dawn...” Katherine warned. “How about sweet tomatoes, instead?”

Sweet tomato, never a topping she’d heard of, but she didn’t like the idea of sweet things paired with a cheesy, sharp and salted taste of pizza.

“Pepperoni is fine, though...” Dawn insisted, simply because Katherine and James insisted that she insisted. And yet, here Katherine was, insisting that she insist on something else.

“How about we get one slice with sweet tomatoes?” James said to Katherine. “If she doesn’t like the taste she’ll still have something.”

“That’s true...”

“Why only one slice?” Dawn asked. She wasn’t a glutton, but one of eight slices for three going to her sounded a bit unfair.

“Because we’re getting a large, so one or two pieces should be more than enough for you,”  Katherine explained, which...sounded fair when she thought about it. Need she forget her size difference compared to Amazons, their idea of a large was probably double the pizza she was used to… But she needn’t cap herself at just one. She wasn’t interested in a pizza with more tomatoes than just the ones in the sauce. They were underestimating her, as usual, hence the diaper… But even she knew it was enough arguing for one night. The pit in her stomach was still sore from what she missed today, so all she wanted was to take her mind off of it.

“Oh, all done with your juice?” Katherine took the mostly empty sippy cup from Dawn. She did finish it, because it was good juice… But aside from that, her stomach felt full with liquid and it wasn’t doing her bladder any favors. She was feeling the need to go, but obviously was still holding out hope for an actual toilet. “You can have some more with dinner,” Katherine told her, phrasing it as if she already knew what Dawn wanted. “Now let’s order some dinner...” she muttered with a phone to her ear.

And added to the witty banter was a sudden startling bark from Waver.

“Oopsies, forgot! James?” Katherine called over her shoulder, “Could you please feed Waver?”

“On it!” he called back from the living room couch. Dawn made herself scarce or at least distant by the time he came in. Waver could either understand human tongue or was used to the routine, because an overactive tail and following James straight to the pantry said a lot about his expectations.

“Sorry, bud, guess we can be a little neglectful...”

And as James carried the bag of dog food like it was practically a pillow, Waver once again had to be impatient with his bark.

“Shh!” In unison, both husband and wife made the gesture to the dog both with fingers on their lips. At first it seemed like a funny way to engage with their pet, but almost immediately Waver slumped his head down and forward with his butt raised in the air, paws on his snout. It was a...trick? Sort of.

Dawn couldn’t help but smirk at the intricate act. How smart was this dog?

“We taught Waver how to use his indoor voice,” Katherine cheekily whispered to Dawn. “Before that he would always-- Oh, hi! Yes, delivery?” With a change in audience, so did her tone. After a few more seconds Waver ceased his submissive pose and padded over to the bowl James was pouring into.

“Water too, I know, I know,” James spoke to him preemptively, likely anticipating another complaint from the four-legged customer. What caught Dawn off guard was when he looked down at her. “Did you want anything to drink? Water? Juice?”

“Uh...no, I’m fine...thanks.” She awkwardly declined. James seemed friendly enough, but she relied heavily on the seeming part after the thrashing to her throbbing backside she was given by him. He couldn’t expect her to just get over something like that, could he? And frankly, it both upset her and made her angry to think he’d do such a thing to her. She wasn’t going to push it tonight, but it did irk her to talk like nothing had changed between them…

“She’ll be fine until dinner,” Katherine added between moments on the phone, bolstering Dawn’s words, while also overriding her agency. “No snacks,” she suddenly added, “either of you!”

Dawn turned her head back over to James, who’d been caught red-handed with a bag of something in his hand. With a frown, he put the chip bag back from where he got it.

“Sorry about that!” Katherine had the phone over her ear again. “Yes, yes… Okay, so one large...”

“Dawn? Did you want to watch some cartoons?” James asked her.

“What? No...I’m fine.” She looked up at him, but not all the way.

“Oh, alright then. Kath said you were watching some earlier; I figured we could find something you might like.”

And somehow the rumors and misunderstandings could spread like wildfire.

“No, I wasn’t really watching them...” Ah, yes, very convincing. “Katherine just put them on and I didn’t have the remote.” Just background noise, really, and background visuals… The point was, even if half the plot from one of those episodes was sitting in her brain like a benign tumor taking up space, it didn’t mean she was watching it.

“Why don’t we pick something out that seems good then?” James offered her.

“No thanks,” Dawn stayed reserved, “I’m fine. Thanks though...”

James didn’t say anything, but maybe he was making a face. Regardless, Dawn watched him turn away as he called, “Okay, suit yourself. I’ll be in the living room if hanging out with Kat gets boring though!” Nope. Nuh-uh. It didn’t matter how friendly he was now. Dawn could hardly connect with a person that just finished spanking her in the form of a punishment that wasn’t her actual parent.

Now that James was gone, Dawn glanced up at Katherine who still seemed busy on the phone ordering dinner. Waver was still going through his own meal, and that meant all eyes were off of her.

A tinge of pain ached her heart when she looked at the front door. Well-locked and definitely impossible to get around now. She was stuck for now, and there definitely would not be another escape like earlier…

But as her full bladder liked to remind her, life unfortunately did not consist of just one problem. She wasn’t being watched. She could sneak away somewhere in the house, maybe the bathroom? But then she looked down at herself. What she was wearing. A puffy diaper specifically designed to prevent a Little from taking it off. It was essentially handcuffs. Even if she could outrun the police, it didn’t do anything for her restraints. She could sneak off to the bathroom, but how would that get the diaper off her?

She was stuck and trapped in what would eventually be a sponge containing her own waste. What was even worse was her mind trying to rationalize it. She’d wet something like this once already out of pure fear, so it’s not like this’d be her first as an adult. The sooner she did it, the sooner she could forget the stress, swallow her pride and try to forget the shame of it rather than later.

But she was at a loss. It was one thing being completely forced, but it still felt like she had a choice. A chance to finally change the course of things, even if it took pestering.

“Katherine…?” Dawn was tugging on her pant leg from where she was sitting on the stool with her phone. With no vocal recognition, Katherine turned her head down at her, flashing a cheery smile like Dawn had just been looking for some attention.

“Bathroom...” she whispered with a blush, dreadfully cupping the front of her diaper and pointing out of the room to hopefully communicate the message. Whether that translated or not, Dawn wasn’t sure, because all Katherine did was smile and pat her head before going back to the order. What was that? Was she ignored, or did Katherine fully get the message? That’s right. Even if she did understand, she had already decided. She wasn’t going to let Dawn use the toilet. She didn’t trust her and seemed to wave the magic “LPS is watching” wand like it really was an all-purpose excuse to get her to bend over backwards.

Further denial only added stress to the mind, and that went straight to her bladder. She was trying not to fidget, at a loss for a solution, but knew she wouldn’t find it in the kitchen. Hurriedly pacing, she traveled down the hall, all the while trying to tug on the diaper tapes. The adhesives were no joke. For all she knew, the tape and diaper were chemically bonded by now and virtually the same substance it was so strong.

There’s no way I’m peeing in a diaper. Not by choice!

Dawn slipped into a dark room with two windows as points of reference. She felt her way around across the hardwood floor until she squatted, sitting on her feet and bottom. By now the urge was unbearable and her body cried for release.

But unfortunately it wasn’t much longer until she finally gave up, or her body partly gave up for her. Seeing no change in sight, Dawn grimaced as she grunted and beared down on her bladder. It didn’t need much of a concentrated effort as it did one small push. She gasped with the first spurt of warmth into her underwear, then it was a full stream from then on. Hot, warm, and weird. As fast as she felt her own waste creep around her hips and between her legs, just as quickly it was wicked away, yet the warmth never completely left.

Helplessly, she tugged at the diaper tapes, groaning over and over, “Gross...gross...gross…!”

It wasn’t by a lot, yet when she stood, the added weight was unmistakable. It was one thing to be glad that she didn’t leak, although the prospect in itself was beyond disgusting, and frankly she didn’t mind the thought of getting their floors dirty if it meant to send a message. The scenario played out in her head.

This is why I don’t need diapers!

Well if you’re leaking, then it was a good decision to keep you in them?

Not when you made me wear them to begin with!

Because you shit yourself in the store…

Articulated in a way to suit Dawn’s personal word palette more, but the gist still remained. Damned if she did, damned if she didn’t. She had tried to “do” already, and came to find she was physically incapable.

But her sanctuary in silence and darkness could not last forever. She could hear the warden calling for headcount, “Dawn? Honey?”

It was like she had a scent any apex Amazon predator could seem to sniff out. Maybe it was the abundance of baby powder coating her nether regions. A darkened face poked its head into the doorway, and with the flick of a switch the lights came on.

“There you are! What are you doing here, little explorer?” Katherine chuckled while Dawn tried to rub away the sudden blindness.

It turned out that she was in an office of sorts. The large swivel chair with a tall desk and computer. A few short shelves and a tiny filing cabinet. Printer, papers, scanner…

“Nothing...just seeing the rest of the house,” Dawn sort of lied. She would have died where she stood if she openly came out just to say she was here to do her business.

“Uh-huh?” Katherine nodded. “This is James’ office when he works from home.”

Dawn turned her head all around, trying her best to feign interest. “...Oh… Okay, I just wanted to see...”

“In the dark?” Katherine gave her a weird smirk. “Was there anything else, maybe?”

Dawn could feel her cheeks getting warm, but remained resolute. “Nope. Did you order the food?” She tried for a quick change in subject. She made for a brisk walk to the exit where Katherine stood, suddenly intensely aware of the lessened crinkle to her step now. It unfortunately tracked now that her diaper was fuller… The diaper. Not her diaper.

And with a single hooked finger, Dawn was grabbed. Not by the scruff of her neck, or the back of her shirt. Instead she could hear the paper crinkle as the diaper’s waistband stretched from her backside, inadvertently being the perfect aid to Katherine’s diaper check.

Dawn stammered leaping forward, “S-Stop! What are you doing?!” She spun around now with both hands between her legs, feeling the warmth of the front of her infantile underwear.

“I was checking your diaper,” Katherine said plainly. “You’re wet, but you don’t need changing just yet.”

“I...you don’t just get to do that!” Dawn shouted. “I can tell you that I need to change. And I want to change. Now!”

“I just asked if there was anything else you wanted to tell me though?” Katherine, as perceptive as she wanted to be when she felt like it. “Why didn’t you tell me a second ago?”

“B-...because it’s my business and not yours!” Dawn frustratingly quipped.

“Dawn… If you’re not going to tell me when you use your diapers, I need to check myself so I know when you need a change. It’s okay if you didn’t notice that you--”

“I KNOW that I pissed myself!” Dawn cried with balled up hands. “YOU made me do it because you’re making me wear these stupid diapers!”

“Indoor voices,” Katherine calmly reminded her, with a face that seemed to be hardly pulled the same kind of way as it could’ve been this morning. “And yes, I made you wear diapers,” Katherine nodded, but it couldn’t have felt any farther from an actual admission if she tried. It was hollow, a meager morsel for Dawn to latch onto just to feel like her feelings were validated. The way Dawn saw her seeing it, she needed diapers from the start and Dawn was quickly losing her edge to give any kind of doubts to that. “Since I made you wear them, can I take full responsibility and check them too?”

Stupid, twisted Amazon logic! “Stop.” Dawn frowned heavily. “I’m getting angry. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” There. How was that for communication?

“...Okay,” Katherine stood back up, but not before lifting up Dawn with her. “I’m sorry for making you upset like that. Do you accept my apology?”

Dawn remained quiet for a second. She was dropping it. Just like that. Never fully, surely, because this would be inevitable, but at least she was being given some space. “...Fine. I accept. Th...thank you.”

Her halfway acceptance was enough to put a delighted look on Katherine’s face. “And thank you for talking to me about how you feel!” she rosily smiled. “Dinner should be here soon, so how about we go watch some tv with James?” And as she explained, Katherine walked them into the hallway, closing the office door on the way out.

“I’d rather not...” Dawn respectfully declined, not looking forward to another series of cartoons.

“No?” She frowned. “There isn’t a lot for you to do right now… We haven’t bought you any toys yet...” Katherine mulled.

“I don’t play with toys. I’m in my twenties.” Dawn hoped to contradict whatever was happening in the Amazon’s headspace.

“I’m sure we can find some stuff you’ll like? We might have a chance to go to the store tomorrow, but that’s after work for me and James. Shoot, that’s right...”

Dawn, wise enough to read the room, “I’ll be fine here by myself, you know...”

Unfortunately though, not wise enough to anticipate Katherine saying, “Absolutely not.” Her voice dismissed it like a given certainty. “You know there are a lot of reasons why it’s not safe to leave you here without someone to watch you...” And today’s final stunt may have happened to be one of them...

“I don’t need anybody watching me.”

“Who’s going to change you when you need one then?”

“I don’t need changes because I don’t need diapers!”

“Heyy...” James’ voice called from the living room. Not the friendly sort of "hey," but the "watch your mouth" kind. It did reach Dawn’s ears and it did unnerve her, but she tried to ignore it.

“Remember that we’ll get in trouble if that lady from LPS sees us mistreating you?” It was like her justification for diapers changed every time just to keep Dawn’s head spinning in circles. “I know you can handle it, so please show me what a trooper you can be?”

“Just...” Dawn sighed in frustrating defeat, “just don’t put me in some daycare! Those must be a thing for enslaved Littles, right?” Everything she’d seen so far seemed to support as much.

“There won’t be any Daycare,” Katherine assured. “It would be a little hard to find one that could take you on such short notice...” And like that assurance had gone to disappointment. Daycare wasn’t out of the question, it was simply a matter prolonged for a different day.

Dawn tensed up, but she had to remind herself that it was one dreaded battle at a time. “Fine. But I’m never going to a daycare. Ever.”

Katherine squeezed her. “Thank you for being so cooperative! Do you wanna play with Waver while we wait for dinner?” It was either that or cartoons, apparently.

“I want to go outside,” Dawn decided, opting for option number three.

Katherine started to wear a concerned expression, then had a sudden change of tune. “I didn’t get a chance to water the garden today… Okay, you can play on the deck, alright?”

“Uh-huh.” She just needed some fresh air and something to take her mind off of a wet diaper.

“James?” Katherine called, “Dawn and I are gonna be in the backyard, so listen for the door, please!”

“Roger!”

And off to the backyard they went.

One of the most distinct features about their backyard was its fence. Tall and wooden, but the most concerning part being that it was tall. Much too tall for Dawn to climb, and even taller than Katherine.

“You don’t have any shoes on,” Katherine said, like Dawn couldn’t keep track of her own clothes, “so I don’t want to see you running out on the grass, okay?”

No pants was more in line with Dawn’s concerns, but thankfully that’s where the fence came in. Certainly she felt exposed, but at least it was a warmer night. Looking up she could see some of the stars beginning to show. She wasn’t one for constellations back home, so the jumbled mess of twinkling lights above her head could’ve been the same exact alignment she could’ve seen from Earth. From home…

The saying “So close, but so far away” may have been appropriate one night ago, but the longer the day went on the further she drifted from closeness, becoming far from a solution in every sense of the word.

Instead of trying to drum up a solution or devote any brainpower to conceiving one, Dawn sat on the edge of the wooden deck steps, gazing up at the stars, desperately trying not to cry over an overwhelming sense of loss. This wasn’t defeat, just a strategic retreat. A crippling retreat that hurt morale so dearly, that the meager promise of words from people she hardly trusted was her new lifeline. And sitting there, listening to the hypnotic hum of thousands of crickets hiding away, her knees fighting to be together despite a warm bulk between her legs, Dawn breathed in and out, slowly and quietly.

“Anyone hungry?” James called from the crack left in the door. A resounding bark from Waver doubled down on the greeting.

“Starving!” Katherine called back, waving with her wrist the last few spurts of water gently spraying from the hose nozzle. “How about you, Dawn?” Katherine started walking toward her as she coiled up the hose. “Think you can eat?”

“Mhm,” she nodded, “sure.” With her mind in other places and wanting to stay there, she didn’t say much.

A large pizza box was sitting on the center of the kitchen table, gallantly illustrated with a large and round Italian-stylized chef with cheeks so red and a handlebar mustache so black and curly that you might start to be suspicious of Santa’s off-season work.

“Could you get out the plates? I need to go get Dawn’s chair,” Katherine asked her husband while Dawn was set back down.

“My chair?” Dawn’s head followed Katherine’s figure right up until she was out of sight. Another oversight Dawn hadn’t considered. Obviously she was too small for an Amazon chair, and she wasn’t fond of sitting in Katherine’s lap either. So what did that leave her with? Of course. She already looked annoyed without even needing to see the reveal. A high chair. Yet another thing to make her blood boil, and another drawn-out, pointless explanation of why it wasn’t making her a baby when it absolutely was.

“I wish I had set this up earlier!” Katherine jokingly miffed with a device in her arms. Big, but far, far too handheld to be a giant high chair. It was a chair, or a seat, but a small one, without any discernible legs to stand on its own.

Dawn tried to give it a scrutinizing look before asking, “What...what’s that?” She watched Katherine pull back a chair before sliding her trinket against the edge of the table.

“Isn’t it great!” Katherine excitedly spoke, likely mistaking Dawn’s cautious curiosity for enthusiasm. “I was thinking of getting a high chair...but this way we can all eat at the table together!” And no plastic trays for Dawn, which was a plus…

If it weren’t for the bright coloring of the padded bucket seat, childish designs and buckle between the legs, Dawn would have completely considered it a fair and functional compromise for her size. That being said, it did vastly weigh better in her mind than a high chair…

“Cheaper too, I’m guessing?” James added without judgment.

“Don’t worry about that,” Katherine kissed James with an undertone of dismissiveness, implying that apparently pricing did not correlate with material cost. “What matters is that we can all sit together,” she nodded to her own statement affirmingly.

It felt wrong thanking a captor for their “mercy”, yet Dawn said nonetheless, “Thank you for not getting a high chair.” By the tone of her voice, it showed just how low the bar of standards were, but apparently to an Amazon like Katherine, it made no difference.

The floating seat was essentially “biting” on the edge of the table. In place where one of the normal chairs went, Dawn’s new specialized seat was suctioned on the table.

“Whoosh!” Katherine cheered as Dawn rocketed off the floor and was deposited into the seat. And an insufferable feeling she tried to ignore immediately was the warm feeling of her own pee-soaked diaper her butt was now forced to get acquainted with.

The seat was curved back towards the bottom so she couldn’t accidentally slide forward, and even if it did come to that, she could already feel her legs brushing the strap in between. Even when it wasn’t a high chair, it essentially had just as many restrictions… But if nothing else, at least she could argue that she was sitting at the table.

And soon a large porcelain saucer, one of those large platters used at fancy parties for fancy hors d'oeuvres to service twenty guests at a time, was put in front of her. Then a spot for James, and then for Katherine. Only with Amazons as her reference did it finally click that they were Amazon plates.

“Mmm!” Katherine’s voice enthused once James opened the top. “I can’t remember the last time we had pizza!”

“Sure has been a bit,” James nodded, then strolled over to the fridge. “Want some water?”

“That’d be great,” Katherine called, “and don’t forget to fill up Dawn’s sippy cup with her juice?”

“It’s just a cup.” Dawn disagreed promptly. “And it’s not my juice. It’s juice that you bought.”

“Would you like it if we called it something else?” Katherine, the wisest king of them all, bestowed unto the Little a grand compromise.

“Just call it a cup...” she groaned, finding that the more she concerned herself with the semantics, the more foolish it made her feel. It was a catch-22. Take the time to argue every little detail and make yourself look like a kid fidgeting over the tiniest things, or stay quiet and unknowingly signal silent approval that only builds up to bigger and badder standards. Hence the paradox, neither route ever felt like winning. “And I want water too.” she demanded.

“But I thought you liked your juice?” Katherine asked once more.

“It’s fine.” she modified the question to suit her answer, as well as play things down. She didn’t “like” anything about this. She simply endured what she had to and identified the things that made it all bearable, to put it in extremes. “But I don’t want any more. I want water too.”

“Oops.” James interrupted tactfully by setting a sippy cup down in front of Dawn, and she could see the reddish tint of the liquid inside. “Sorry, Dawn, shoulda said something sooner.”

“It’s fine, just pour it back into the bottle.” She quipped right back, feeling particularly annoyed. It was just juice, but she wasn’t in the mood.

“It doesn’t pour back into the bottle. Finish this and you can have some water.” James spoke like it was law put into effect, and effectively, it was. Dawn didn’t look happy though, feeling cheated as always.

“You said you liked it, didn’t you?” Katherine right beside her tried to be supportive in her typical motherly fashion. And at least to Katherine’s credit, she grabbed the sippy cup and unscrewed the top, but left it right next to the cup. Just in case. A reminder that Dawn wasn’t far from falling back even further.

“Whatever. I don’t care anymore.” She shut herself right down, then huffed her way into a different subject. “Can we eat now? I’ll have a slice of pepperoni.”

It was like every time she spoke it was some sort of bomb that needed collective Amazon brainpower to defuse.

“Dawn, honey,” Katherine started to say after sharing a look with James, “it may be a bit too spicy for you…”

“What? You guys think pepperoni is spicy?” Dawn looked a bit taken aback. Were Amazon’s taste buds that sensitive? “I mean I guess it kind of is...but no, I’m fine. I’ll have a slice of that.” Not only that, but sweet tomato pizza just sounded weird. Life was about the salts and spices of a food. Sweetness was reserved for desserts, and pizza is not a dessert, and even Amazons couldn't convince her of that inalienable fact otherwise.

“Hon, we’ll just finish what she doesn’t eat,” James told Katherine, speaking of the girl’s regret like it was a casual certainty. This wasn’t missed by Dawn, hence the passive annoyance on her face. But even if it was about to be her tiniest, insignificantly non-issue victory against these two, taking a stand in some way felt good.

“Then one slice of pepperoni,” Katherine reached for the box, “coming right up!”

At least pizza in this world didn’t look different from what Dawn knew back home. Sort of, at least. Cheese was cheese, and crust was crust, but proportions were a whole new ballgame here, expectedly. It was twice the size of a slice she’d normally expect, which made everything so bizarre when it still fit perfectly on her plate which was a reminder of how much a saucer that was too. And the pepperoni looked...recognizable.

Same circles, same sort of texture, though they sort of looked like inverted domes, but even Dawn knew that not all pepperonis were made equally, yet hopefully loved all the same.

And suddenly her slice of pizza was executed. Beheaded as it lost its tip, sliced and diced into smithereens by sharp tools of murder. In Dawn’s moment of totally paralyzing shock, she looked up at the executioner herself.

“There,” Katherine smiled, pulling back the fork and knife once half of the poor slice had been mutilated into perfect squares, “that should be a bit easier to eat?”

The pizza was big, very big. Even if it was a “hold with your hands” kind of food, an edible umbrella for a Little was only asking for grease to drip everywhere with each lift and bite. The math simply did not support Little's hands preventing any sort of droopage from such a big piece of food.

Albeit not her ideal way of eating it, Dawn picked up a square of her pizza, popping it in her mouth. It was good. Pizza was pizza, and that was comforting enough. Cheesy cheese, tomato sauce...and...juice. A good helping of juice. She was already sipping from her cup.

“Is it too much?” Katherine asked, casually eating her own slice like nothing was amiss.

“Ahm...” Her tongue was nearly hanging out from her mouth just to give it some fresh air. She tried not to pant and continued trying to nurse the burning spice on her tongue with more and more of that juice.

How? It was just a single bite! It didn’t even have pepperoni on it! That’s what was so spicy, right? This wasn’t normal. This was spiked, or something. Like that chocolate! “I’hm fine...” Dawn tried to say, sniffling from her sinuses starting to clear themselves. She felt like she needed to move, but that was hard in a baby seat, so she kicked her legs underneath the table, just to burn off some of the taste!

“Do you wanna try some of the sweet tomato instead?” James asked, and he too, looked absolutely unbothered by the pizza. What was wrong with them? Were they made of steel, or something? Did their taste buds not work?

“I’m fine...” Dawn said a bit more confidently, finally feeling her tongue calm down. This was a battle of attrition. If she could outlast the spice, she could finish the food. “I like spicy, anyway.” Questionable, but it was the ongoing battle to continuously try and prove these Amazons wrong, and she needed a victory. Desperately.

Mostly Katherine and James chatted about things that mostly went over Dawn’s head. Figuratively and literally. People she didn’t know. Shows she didn’t watch. Who got a dog. who was going where. Eerily enough, it almost made them sound like normal people. Like this wasn’t some land of giants keeping other adults in diapers.

And Dawn, meanwhile, was unfortunately trying to psych herself up to her second bite of food. She wasn’t scared. She liked the food. She liked spicy. She liked spice.

Hesitantly, but with some resolve, Dawn plucked a square with a pepperoni on it. She could see herself now. The new fresh meat in the prison block, and she was staring down the toughest guy of the litter. As she stared at his red, pepperoni eyes, she knew that all it took was one good punch to knock this fool on his feet. Then she’d be top dog, and all the lackeys around him would be trivial. Take on the toughest first...she quietly sighed before opening wide and sticking the whole piece in.

The funniest part about spicy food is the delayed reaction it can often have. That’s why this wasn’t so funny. Almost immediately the moment her tongue touched the thin slice of meat atop the square of pizza, the devil himself came down to rake the coals across her tongue.

Her head felt warm and her cheeks were hot. Everything was on fire and her throat was already closing, before she could even swallow the spice bomb in her mouth. She tried to chew, she tried to endure, but tears were tears and there was no hiding that.

“Dawn? Honey?” Katherine asked, then her eyes widened with surprise the moment she saw the state that she was in.

James sitting across from us was caught off guard as well. “Maybe we shouldn’t have let her try...”

“H-Hawt...” Dawn breathed through her mouth, continuously sniffing up the sinuses leaking out of her nose. What had she just tried to eat? This wasn’t pepperoni, this was poison!

A napkin was pressed against her mouth though, held there by the ever doting Amazon beside her.

“It’s okay sweetie, you can spit it out, okay? Come on, I know you’ll feel a lot better once you do, yeah?”

It wasn’t even a choice. Dawn’s body decided for her that she would not be finishing the pizza from hell. She spit into the napkin her half-chewed, soft, unrecognizable chunk of pizza. After round two she was already tapping out, but even without the substance her tongue was still barely feeling any better from the beating it’d just taken.

She was full-blown sobbing now. From pizza.

“Want some juice?” Katherine was already holding out her sippy cup, and Dawn swiped for it like the last bottle of water in a desert. She leaned back and swigged it all away down to the very last drop.

And then Katherine’s glass of water, supported by the Amazon herself.

“Sweetie, I’m so sorry...” Katherine apologized, oddly enough, in a pained voice. “If I knew it was going to be this bad, I wouldn’t have let you try it…!”

Dawn was too preoccupied to answer, but she wanted to disagree. Failure was learning, even if learning was painful.

“Howh...” Dawn sniffled, breathing heavily through her mouth like she’d just run a full sprint, “how do you guys eat that stuff?”

“It’s what we like, sweetheart...” Katherine rubbed her back the whole way through.

She sharply exhaled with her teeth baring, just to make it feel like cold bursts of wind across her searing tongue. “You guys like how this feels?” Dawn asked incredulously, snot leaking from the nose. Were they masochists? Or was it like mutual sadism where they enjoyed seeing their partner struggle with the taste instead? Like how they enjoyed demeaning Littles?

“Let me get you some more juice…” Katherine quickly disappeared with the sippy cup.

“It doesn’t have as much of a kick for us as it does for you, Dawn,” James explained, “Amazons just have a higher tolerance for spice.”

Higher didn’t even describe it. It was like calling the difference between cardboard and steel marginal. Easily, that was the hottest thing Dawn had ever had in her whole life, and these people were writing it off as some mild little thing?

Dawn finally realized what Katherine set out to do and tried to chase her with words, calling, “W-wait, I said I wanted water--hey!”  she shouted with a nasally tone as James ambushed her with a napkin to the nose, pinching off her fresh streams of nose juice.

“You’re leaking like a faucet,” James commented, then squeezed her nose, “honk-honk!” he teased.

“Egh...cut it out!” Dawn shouted back, unable to leave her chair, so all she could do was lean her head back and turn the other cheek.

“If you can use your outdoor voice then I think that means you’re feeling better...” Katherine sighed with relief as she set the sippy cup back down, top still unscrewed. But Dawn’s plate was promptly pulled from her reach, paired with Katherine saying, “but I think that’s enough adventure for one night. Don’t you wanna try some of the sweet tomato? I bet you’re gonna like it a lot?”

“No. I’m fine with this.” Dawn sniffled, a small, but clear detriment to her resolve. Her resolve to not feel demoted in some way compared to these two.

“Do you really want to be in tears every time you take a bite of your food?” James made an obvious point, but logic was starting to lose its effect on the increasingly irrational girl; a product from trying to perceive the world she was currently stuck in.

“That’s my decision. And yes, I do.” Dawn huffed. “Now give it back. I’m finishing my food.”

“What’s wrong with the other kind?” Katherine frowned. “We got some just for you?”

For her. It was always for her, and yet Dawn could hardly remember a single time when she asked for any of it. “And I didn’t ask for it. Katherine, James,” she crossed her arms, looking as dignified as one could in a baby seat, “I don’t want to fight.”

“We don’t either.” James agreed, but did not extend an olive branch. “But you need to drop it. You’re being picky right now.”

“I’m not being picky when I say that--!”

“Alright, alright,” Katherine shushed Dawn promptly, even giving her husband a look. “Dawn? How about we share a slice? Actually, I’ve never had sweet tomato before; I was a little curious about how it tastes…?”

“Then you can have some yourself,” Dawn groaned. “Whatever. Forget it. I’m done. I’m done eating.”

“Dawn, don’t be like that,” James admonished.

“You only had two bites?” then Katherine to finish the one-two. She was already pulling a slice out of the box. Dawn watched her plate be emptied onto Katherine’s and was quickly seated with a new piece of pizza. It looked like softened tomato sauce cubes dotted the top of the pizza. No circular cuts of meat that looked salty and tasty (and unfortunately spicy to an unholy degree).

Just like before the pizza was cut into bite-sized pieces and things were about to loop once again. And as Katherine was cutting, Dawn knew how the song and dance would go. Sit there and force her to finish her food. Nowhere to go if the only way out of your seat was by getting on the good side of the two only people capable of it. Frustrated, she swiped a piece of the bite-sized pizza from the plate and stuffed it in her mouth.

It was fine. It tasted like normal pizza. The not overtly spicy kind. Unfortunately sweet, even. Stupid tomatoes…

“Ooou, is it good?” Katherine enthusiastically asked.

“It’s pizza. And it’s sweet.” She was already trying to lean out of her seat for Katherine’s plate. “Let me have some of the other stuff now.” she demanded, like negotiations were still on the table.

But apparently good will and masked intent were low in supply, because Katherine firmly remarked, “No, it’s too spicy for you.” Finally without beating around the bush. “If you can finish this though, we got two slices for you.”

And didn’t that make her feel special. More humiliation as a reward for being so willing to be humiliated.

“Just taste it yourself! It’s sweet! Pizza isn’t supposed to be sweet!”

Katherine was still smiling, but something about Dawn’s taunt made her visibly stiffen just slightly. Her hand hesitated for a moment as it reached out for the food on the plate, then seemed to double down with commitment. Playing hot potato with the pizza, Katherine couldn’t have been holding it longer than a second before getting it into her mouth.

“M--...Mmm…!” In a loud, exaggerated tone of voice, Katherine nodded approvingly with a hand politely covering her mouth. Her eyes were shut and her brow was furrowed while she forced a somewhat pleasant reaction. But it was clear as day. She hated it.

“What, do you not like sweet things?” Dawn frowned. Again, pizza had no business being sweet, but it obviously wasn’t the end of the world. The nerve they had to call her the picky eater?

“Sweet tomato is usually a flavor meant for Littles.” James commented, looking a bit amused at the look on Katherine’s face, who just finished washing down the food with a large swig of water.

“Amazons don’t do well with sweets normally, like how Littles can’t handle spice...” Katherine sighed, her one-hit wonder performance far behind her now.

“Well I can handle spicy. You guys just put a ridiculous amount of it on your food. Why even?”

“It doesn’t taste that bad to us, sweetheart...” Katherine further emphasized by the unbothered look, or rather, a face of glee to be eating something palatable again. “Kind of like how that doesn’t taste bad to you?”

“Well it does.” Dawn crossed her arms. Not bad in the unbearable sense, but bad in an unusual way. It was good. Sort of. But that wasn’t pizza. Not her kind of pizza. She’d rather nostril-flaring, throat-closing, tear-inducing pizza over something that validated the social disparity between the big and small.

And so dinner went on. A continuous wear and tear to Dawn’s mental fortitude, eventually convincing her to eat some of her food, and finally just giving in completely. It wasn’t torture. It didn’t even taste bad. She just hated giving in at this point. Katherine and James chatted, Dawn listened.

“So?” But finally, Dawn interrupted, specifically looking at James. “Did you find anything out today?”

He blinked, glancing at Katherine like she might have the answer. “Anything about what?”

She stowed away her annoyance just this once, taking into account what a busy day today had been. “About getting me back home?”

“Dawn, I’ve been at work all day, and Katherine’s been watching you. There hasn’t been a chance all day--”

“Weren’t you just watching tv though?” Dawn interrupted without hesitation, already prepared for a counterattack. “That was free time, wasn’t it?”

“Because it’s been a long day, Dawn,” James seemed to answer without much apology. “This is just after I finished setting up your room so that you’re able to stay with us while we figure something out.”

Dawn’s mouth tensed as her palms started to press against the table. But she shot a hot burst of air from her mouth, scoffing with a mumble, “Yeah, for a crib I never asked for...”

Then a brazen hand caught her by the chin.

“Dawn, don’t be rude,” Katherine looked down at her with a stern look. “James works hard and he’s trying just as much as I am to make you feel comfortable. He doesn’t deserve an attitude.”

“...” Dawn grimaced. There was truth, but it hardly subsided the frustration. “...Fine. But I’m angry.”

“And that’s one thing, but it’s another to take it out on others. Apologize.” Katherine, with a firm grasp on the situation now, reprimanded the relatively small girl.

“Sorry.” It was plain, undressed and crude, but it was an apology. “I’m done eating,” she looked up at Katherine, making a statement rather than a request. She hesitated to ask, but then remembered just how little of a secret her own modesty was anymore between these two. “Can you change me now? Or let me change myself?” Preferably the latter, which in retrospect she should have asked before the former.

“Before bed,” Katherine answered, rewriting the rules of the game on the spot. “And good job eating your dinner,” she smiled, “I’m proud of you for finishing something you didn’t like.”

She didn’t want Katherine to be proud of her for anything. Anything an Amazon probably found pride in with regards to a Little was more than likely something to do with either blind obedience or a diaper...

“It...it wasn’t that bad. It was different.” And so too if Katherine could change her mind, so could Dawn.

“How about some more cartoons before it’s time to go upstairs?” Katherine was already lifting her out of the seat. “James and I are gonna still be eating, so the TV is all yours. You might have to share with Waver, though!” she playfully taunted.

“Fine.” It wasn’t even worth fighting anymore, but she would certainly be finding herself in need of some other kind of entertainment soon. TV was hardly a pastime for her under normal circumstances, so she was certain to break if that’s all she could get in a place like this.

[Panther Cub]

YAY! New chapter!

 

But now I have to wonder, are Amazons like Katherine and James aware of just how adult-oriented Dawn's homeworld is? Wars, drugs, corruption, Michael Bay, genocide? I mean, that's a lot of terrible things to color one's culture, and also proof that her world isn't essentially a bunch of toddlers running around getting booboos and crying about it. That would have to be some sort of uncanny valley for Katherine, but also maybe for James.

[TerranV]

Well it looks like things have improved somewhat. Even if its only because Dawn's been cowed by the spanking.

Now she's scared of James. Thats gonna be tough to fix. 

The part with the bookshelf was nice too.

[dmavn]

Is it mean that I hope she accidentally stumbles on one of those hypno channels?

[diaperboymi]

AWESOME chapter!!!!  Dawn needs to chill out.   She'll just make things worse acting out.  I see another spanking in her future ????

[Panther Cub]

56 minutes ago, diaperboymi said:

AWESOME chapter!!!!  Dawn needs to chill out.   She'll just make things worse acting out.  I see another spanking in her future ????

I can't wait to see what happens next! I do wonder if her first night in her new crib will be a restful sleep? And I have a sneaking suspicion that James is aware that Dawn is now a bit afraid of him, and hopefully he'll address it!

[Arendeth]

Thanks for the chapters.

[TerranV]

12 hours ago, Panther Cub said:

I can't wait to see what happens next! I do wonder if her first night in her new crib will be a restful sleep? And I have a sneaking suspicion that James is aware that Dawn is now a bit afraid of him, and hopefully he'll address it!

James went from the one Dawn hated least to the one she hates the most. Yeah, I hope he tries to address it. Kath didn't seem to be completely okay with him spanking Dawn when he did either.

[Mee]

On 10/5/2022 at 1:54 AM, Panther Cub said:

YAY! New chapter!

But now I have to wonder, are Amazons like Katherine and James aware of just how adult-oriented Dawn's homeworld is? Wars, drugs, corruption, Michael Bay, genocide? I mean, that's a lot of terrible things to color one's culture, and also proof that her world isn't essentially a bunch of toddlers running around getting booboos and crying about it. That would have to be some sort of uncanny valley for Katherine, but also maybe for James.

James has indicated that he's aware at least a little of what goes on, but mostly how their own dimension compares to it. I'm sure that the DD has its own share of troubles and bad history (for instance, the given situation with how they treat Littles), but I think you're definitely right in guessing just how incomprehensible that'd be for Katherine. If I had to guess, Dawn could practically throw a history book in her face and she'd still spin it as some strange kind of inappropriate fiction. She is aware that where Portal Littles come from a place without Amazons, and that's likely the extent of her knowledge, and serves as a basis for the "dangers" that she assumes Dawn comes from.

Another way I'd think about it is like culture shock times twenty. A world and place so different that it's one step even further beyond horrific and confusing fiction (in the eyes of Amazons).

Thank you for reading and commenting!

On 10/5/2022 at 7:44 PM, TerranV said:

Well it looks like things have improved somewhat. Even if its only because Dawn's been cowed by the spanking.

Now she's scared of James. Thats gonna be tough to fix. 

The part with the bookshelf was nice too.

I can't quite imagine that fear is the best long-term motivator...

Right, I don't think Dawn is quite so indifferent to James, anymore and he just helped her pick a side of the fence.

Bookshelf! Girl's gotta read! In all seriousness, it's one of those weird moments that shows James and Katherine are listening to Dawn, but based on their values and beliefs they're only able to show that in so many ways. I'm sure that they hear her out when she pleads that she's an adult, capable of doing X-Y-Z and so on, but it's likely far from something that they take at face value.

On 10/6/2022 at 2:54 PM, dmavn said:

Is it mean that I hope she accidentally stumbles on one of those hypno channels?

Kinda sorta. In fairness of her Amazonian guardians, I don't think that they want her having baby brain either!

On 10/6/2022 at 10:10 PM, diaperboymi said:

AWESOME chapter!!!!  Dawn needs to chill out.   She'll just make things worse acting out.  I see another spanking in her future ????

Dawn probably could use some chilling out, but I don't really know if she will. If nothing else, a spanking just forces a lid on her problems-- not really solve them. Play her cards wrong (as per usual) and round two of spanks is definitely possible! Thank you for reading!

On 10/6/2022 at 11:05 PM, Panther Cub said:

I can't wait to see what happens next! I do wonder if her first night in her new crib will be a restful sleep? And I have a sneaking suspicion that James is aware that Dawn is now a bit afraid of him, and hopefully he'll address it!

Dawn? Going down easy in a crib? This is an awful lot of wishful thinking! Haha, in all seriousness, I think Dawn really could use a good night's rest after everything she's been through, and likely will continue to go through. Maybe James is clued in on Dawn's unease, but at the same time he may not be fully aware of it yet? Either way, I don't think it'll be ignored forever. Thank you for commenting!

On 10/7/2022 at 8:58 AM, Arendeth said:

Thanks for the chapters.

Thanks for the reading!

On 10/7/2022 at 11:51 AM, TerranV said:

James went from the one Dawn hated least to the one she hates the most. Yeah, I hope he tries to address it. Kath didn't seem to be completely okay with him spanking Dawn when he did either.

Hmm...we may be witnessing a clash of parental styles...! Katherine's definitely got the softer heart, given we know that she wanted this sort of thing the most. James at least so far definitely seems more in it for his wife's sake than his own or Dawn's, which can create a conflict of interest at points... Either way, I'm looking forward to letting this dynamic develop, and I hope you all continue to enjoy! Thank you for reading and commenting!

[kerry]

20 hours ago, Mee said:

Bookshelf! Girl's gotta read! In all seriousness, it's one of those weird moments that shows James and Katherine are listening to Dawn, but based on their values and beliefs they're only able to show that in so many ways. I'm sure that they hear her out when she pleads that she's an adult, capable of doing X-Y-Z and so on, but it's likely far from something that they take at face value.

I was wondering what level of books they will put there? I kind of expect only this dimension's version of Dr. Seuss...

[Panther Cub]

26 minutes ago, kerry said:

I was wondering what level of books they will put there? I kind of expect only this dimension's version of Dr. Seuss...

In the town of Span-Dittle, where it is so much fun to be a Little, riding around in a Kar-pittle, while playing a fiddle.  

[Panther Cub]

Okay, after re-reading this story again it just has to be said... Katherine, despite her general Amazonness, is adorable.

And I do have to wonder. I James starting to view Dawn as their little? I.e. l looking at her through slightly parental eyes?

[TerranV]

3 hours ago, Panther Cub said:

Okay, after re-reading this story again it just has to be said... Katherine, despite her general Amazonness, is adorable.

And I do have to wonder. I James starting to view Dawn as their little? I.e. l looking at her through slightly parental eyes?

I think so. He at least seems to feel responsible for her beyond just her basic safety.

Of course, with LPS involved Dawn might legally end up as their Little anyway.

[Panther Cub]

1 hour ago, TerranV said:

I think so. He at least seems to feel responsible for her beyond just her basic safety.

Of course, with LPS involved Dawn might legally end up as their Little anyway.

Makes me wonder if he'll go full "Daddy" mode at some point. Still recognizing, somewhat, her adulthood but also treating her like his little princess.

[Mee]

On 10/12/2022 at 2:04 PM, kerry said:

I was wondering what level of books they will put there? I kind of expect only this dimension's version of Dr. Seuss...

Hmm, I imagine Katherine would definitely want to share some of the classics with Dawn!

On 10/12/2022 at 2:29 PM, Panther Cub said:

In the town of Span-Dittle, where it is so much fun to be a Little, riding around in a Kar-pittle, while playing a fiddle.  

Off the top of my head, I think I have zero clue on how to write a clever DD's Little storybook...

On 11/8/2022 at 7:31 AM, Panther Cub said:

Okay, after re-reading this story again it just has to be said... Katherine, despite her general Amazonness, is adorable.

And I do have to wonder. I James starting to view Dawn as their little? I.e. l looking at her through slightly parental eyes?

Yepp, Katherine's a favorite of mine, so I hope to nail down her nuances or at least communicate the kind of character I want to show! James at this point I'd say is a little of a toss up. He might be feeling some kind of attachment, sure, but without some more concrete examples, I can see it totally just as him acting in Katherine's, his wife's, interest.

On 11/8/2022 at 11:12 AM, TerranV said:

I think so. He at least seems to feel responsible for her beyond just her basic safety.

Of course, with LPS involved Dawn might legally end up as their Little anyway.

Never know with that pesky LPS...

On 11/8/2022 at 1:09 PM, Panther Cub said:

Makes me wonder if he'll go full "Daddy" mode at some point. Still recognizing, somewhat, her adulthood but also treating her like his little princess.

It's a wait and see! After all, who knows if Dawn will even be in this dimension long enough for that to happen? It's a wait and find out!

Early Christmas, enjoy the double release!
16 - Sun Set & Sun Rise

“Okay, Dawn, time to go upstairs,” Katherine made herself known by becoming the physical barrier between Dawn and the cartoon.

“Sorry?” Snapping out of her tv-mode, Dawn blinked as she looked up at her.

“What are you sorry for? It’s bedtime, hon. Let’s get you upstairs and changed.” Katherine said once again, though this time reaching for a remote on the coffee table, killing the motion picture as a final measure.

A package deal, it was. Go to bed, get the, not her, diaper changed. One was good, one wasn’t preferable. Dawn drew out her tone, as if to make it clear just how much they were not on the same page, maybe even the same bookshelf. “Yes…I want to be changed, but I’m not going to bed just yet.”

Whether her words held weight or not, Katherine picked her up regardless with an exasperated sigh. “It’s been a long day for you, hasn’t it? I know it’s been for me!”

“In that case maybe you should go to bed early?” While it could have been delivered as witty or an attempt to be funny, her voice didn’t have the humor nor the amusement.

“I definitely think I will in a bit.” Katherine, oh-so clever with her words, appended the small loophole to her words. In a bit. Not now. Later. At a time that wasn’t permissible for Littles. They stopped short of the stairs right by the entrance to the kitchen. “Say goodnight to James, okay?”

“But I’m not going to bed yet.” Nothing against James, in this particular moment, ignoring the physical abuse that he had dished out, but Dawn was making a point of not being on board with Katherine.

“Goodnight, Dawn!” James waved for just a moment over the noise of a gushing faucet whilst he scrubbed.

And as if Dawn could be spoken for, Katherine playfully cooed right back, “Goodnight, James!” And on they went. To the stairs.

“What time is it, even?” Dawn complained, looking out the window on the stairs. It was dark and the night sky was out, but she was hardly feeling tired yet. Back at the hotel she definitely stayed up later than this.

“Time for bed.”

And an important question unanswered only begets a pissy attitude. “You know what I mean.”

“It’s late,” Katherine repeated only with a different dress of words, signifying no numbers whatsoever. “We talked about this, remember? How the days here are a lot longer than what you’re used to?”

“Yeah and I’ve already been here for like a week. I got used to it.” They entered the room she was staying in, which had an uncanny resemblance to, but was most certainly not, a nursery. By Dawn’s opinion, at least.

“You know, I bet you’re really tired and your body just hasn’t noticed it yet?”

Suddenly, Dawn was on her back, but she wasn’t in the crib. She was on the…

“Wait, no, stop,” Dawn immediately started rising from her seat. “Let me do it.”

Katherine held her hands back right as they were about to reach, like folded arms from a T-rex. “Let you do it?”

“Yes! You know what I mean! I can…change myself! Just…just take the tapes off for me!”

“Dawn, that’s not how it works. Don’t be silly. You know it has to be me, James, or someone that we trust that handles your diaper changes.”

Raising her voice with agitation, Dawn fired back, “And I told you that I trust myself!”

Katherine with a tinge of sternness and a firm press on Dawn’s shoulders back onto the pad, said, “That’s enough. I know you’re upset and there’s a lot about this you’re uncomfortable with, but if LPS ever saw that we were mistreating you…”

“I’d what, be taken away?” Not back to Earth, most likely. “There’s no LPS here, so who cares if I change my own underwear like I should be able to?” Then, with heavy sarcasm just to mock Katherine for trying to convince her with fault logic she added, “Unless they put bugs in the house, or something?”

Then came a move Dawn didn’t expect. Not in the way of words this time.

A snug strap was suddenly pulled over her chest and arms as it sounded like velcro bonding with another end.

“H-hey! What the hell?” Dawn fidgeted but to no avail. “Katherine? What the fuck?!”

“Dawn, please, language?” Katherine reprimanded, but it didn’t stop her hands. The diaper tapes were torn by Amazon hands while Dawn’s smaller ones feebly tried to grab at nothing but air, forced so closely to her sides.

“So what? You lose the argument so you just take advantage of me physically? Rich.” Dawn scoffed, no less pissed than before. The passive pissiness pivoted to direct rejection the moment Dawn felt her ankles be bundled into Katherine’s grip. “Wait! Stop!“

Her very unfortunate moment with James in the car was embarrassing, humiliating, but this time it had five more degrees of shame to go with it. There was no commonplace car, but instead a mock-nursery with a changing table to boot.

“That’s fucking cold!” And a cold wet wipe this time, too.

Katherine could only make tired pleas as her hands worked through the motions. “Dawn, please…”

Dawn could only attempt to thrash as she was strapped to the table and shout obscenities that changed nothing in the short term for her. No amount of anything she did could accomplish anything, hence why her anger with a beet red face stayed pent up by the time Katherine was done pressing the tapes of a new, horrid and crinkly diaper on her hips. This one was certainly different and in no way a choice of Dawn’s. It was simple, yet no less damning.

White, yet decorated with more puppies, as far as Dawn could tell, yet quite unfortunately with a tinge bit more of oppressiveness between the legs, or maybe the same, Dawn wasn’t quite the expert, courtesy of Amazon-engineered diaper bulk.

“Is it comfy?”

“It’s too thick and noisy!”

Katherine finally undid the strap over Dawn’s chest before lifting her off the table. “It’s not going to make any noise while you’re asleep.” It hadn’t gone unnoticed by Dawn, Katherine’s lack of acknowledgement for the first complaint.

Dawn only rolled her eyes and doubled down. “Yeah, too bad I’m not going to sleep, so it is a problem.”

“You’re going to bed, Dawn.” There. Just like that, she’d done it. Finally no more gentle pushes or willfully ignoring protests. Katherine acknowledged and promptly responded. “It’s getting late and I think some quiet time would be good.”

Dawn did fidget and squirm, but it would have saved space on this page not to make mention of it at all given the lack of effect her efforts had. Down, down, down she went.

“Down we go…” Katherine cooed as she deposited Dawn into the crib, or as Dawn saw it, confined to her cage. Four walls, its two broad sides being all wooden bars. “Oh! That’s right,” Katherine with a puff of air in her cheek looked for her forgotten thought. “Did you want some PJs for bed?”

Dawn huffed as she stood on the mattress, feeling her feet sink slightly into the dense, soft material. “No. I’m not going to bed!” And immediately she grabbed onto the bars, bringing her bare feet against them as she tried to climb. If she needed any more physical reminders to put this world into perspective, surely it was crib bars going well above her head.

It wasn’t that the bars were lubed or lathered in oil, but that they seemed to defy the laws of physics in having achieved near complete lack of friction.

For Dawn, an English major, she hardly touched math and sciences, but it didn’t take the knowledge of a physicist to take issue with her hands and feet slipping down the bars immediately as she tried to hold onto them.

Katherine stayed by the crib and watched with a disapproving look. “Dawn, your crib is not for climbing.”

“TAKE. ME. OUT!” Dawn raged with her hands on the bars, doing her utmost to shake and rock the bed, but all that did was shake herself.

Katherine only watched with a concerned look, one hand on the railing of the crib. “Dawn…I think you need some sleep, sweetheart… I promise you’ll feel a lot better in the morning?”

“Just put the side down or something, at least! I don’t sleep in cribs! Ask James! He saw my hotel room! It was a normal fucking bed!”

“Why don’t you like your crib?”

Did Katherine somehow cease to empathize yet again? “It’s not my crib! Now get me out!”

“I can’t do that, honey…not until tomorrow when it’s bright and sunny.”

Finally deciding to play bullshit linguistics herself, Dawn fired right back, “Can’t or won’t?”

“...Won’t.” She answered back simply.

“Won’t?” Dawn scoffed with a sickened laugh. “Just like you won’t take me home? How you won’t let me wear panties? Won’t let me eat what I want, won’t let me go where I please?”

“No, Dawn. Won’t because you need your sleep, and because of everything that’s happened today. All day you’ve been misbehaving. Naughty words, arguing, being rude to other grown-ups, running outside on your own?”

And maybe it was a phantom pain, but some sensation on her bum still burned regardless. “Y-you said that we settled all that, though!”

“Yes, we did, which is why you aren’t in trouble, Dawn, but it’s why we’re going to do better in keeping you safe, and that involves rules. We have rules to keep you safe and not get in trouble with LPS…”

“By keeping me locked up in a cage?!”

“By keeping a tired girl from staying up too late.” Katherine crouched on her knees, coming to eye-level with Dawn standing in the crib. “It might feel a little scary being in a new room and in a new bed, but James and I are gonna be downstairs and up here, okay? I’ll come check on you in a little bit, but I want you to start trying to get some sleep.” Maybe she was waiting for Dawn to say something, but when she didn’t, Katherine asked, “Can I tuck you in?”

That was enough to trigger a response. “No, you can’t, and I’m not sleeping.” Dawn stated with her unwavering will.

After a small sigh, back in a disappointed voice Katherine said, “Then I’ll see you in a little bit.” She rose from her slouch, taking her hands off her knees as she walked over to the door.

Unfortunately, her poker face was as fickle as her footing on the plush mattress, as Dawn made a noise of distress, quickly realizing that without an Amazon to negotiate with, all was lost. Watching the Amazon leave and being so powerless to chase as she shook herself against the bars. “Katherine! Wait! Let me out! I’ll sleep on the floor, fine! Just don’t make me sleep in a fucking crib!” Christ, swearing, that apparently played a factor into all of this. It wasn’t a time for pride, but maybe a tinge of humility.

“I-I’m sorry! Okay? I’m sorry! Just let me out of this stupid crib! I’ll sleep! Sure! I’m tired! Just don’t lock me in this thing!”

Maybe something she said held some weight. Katherine paused by the doorframe with her hand on the door.

“I-I’m sorry!” Dawn repeated again with desperation. Words were as meaningless as you made them in your mind, so what was an apology to Dawn if she didn’t fully mean it?

But the Amazon stood by the door, smiled, and said, “Tomorrow’s a new day, Dawn, so let’s all be on our best behavior, okay?”

“Fine! Yes! So take me out of this crib!” Dawn was doing her best, but begging was starting to become an apt descriptor of how she was speaking.

And yet the desperation was somehow ignored or missed, because Katherine continued in a soft, jovial voice, “Goodnight…!” as the door came to a near full close, but never quite reaching completion. A sliver of light peered through, but that was that.

Katherine was gone, and Dawn was confined. In a crib. In a nursery. Her nursery.

“KATHERINE!” Dawn shouted, trying to shake the bars but only folding on her arms and pressing against them. “Let me out! LET ME OUT!”

It was dark, but not pitch black. Moonlight came through the window, though it was dampened by the translucent curtains along the top.

Helplessness only seemed to be redefining itself in more and more confining ways. Trapped in another world. Trapped in a house for giants. Trapped in her own underwear, and now trapped in a crib.

She shouted, shook, and screamed, but no one came. No one ever did. Were they ignoring her, or was she not being loud enough? It made her upset. Angry. Who were they to decide when she goes to sleep?

“You…YOU CAN’T JUST IGNORE ME!” She screamed into the void for minutes on end, but the words hardly matched her beliefs. They could ignore her. They probably were ignoring her. Just like she had ignored them. Just like she had ignored Katherine all day until it was a moment of convenience or necessity.

How was any of this keeping her safe? Emotionally starved, neglected, belittled, confined and caged? Why couldn’t that LPS or whatever it was come any sooner? See just how horrible of a situation this was and rescue her?

And with a much more somber, dried and exhausted voice, she whimpered, “Please…”

Standing on her knees, partially sunk into the tempurpedic mattress while her hands struggled to hold onto the slippery bars, leaning her forehead against her cell.

In darkness and in silence it was only reality and her own thoughts that came as comfort. Yet comfort only came on good days, and this wasn’t one of them. All she had was reality, and it was crippling. It was the same thoughts she’d been having at every point since yesterday and today.

This time, right now, in a different life, a better one, she’d be getting out from a long post-vacation shower, calling her boyfriend, kicking back and decompressing. Instead, all she had was a diaper compressing her nether regions.

When would people notice that she was gone? Missing? A week? A month? Her stomach felt queasy just from the thought of being here for that long. Absolutely not. Never…right?

If she tried, maybe she could just faintly hear noise from downstairs. The tv? James and Katherine? Solitude could somehow make curiosity fester and unbearable. What overshadowed it all though was the ongoing war cry of what sounded like crickets from beyond the window. Muffled by the wall of the house, but audible nonetheless.

She listened and thought. Falling in and out of tearful fits as a sense of pride kept her from falling on her back or stomach, simply leaning her head against the bars. But even Dawn couldn’t become a statue, which is why the occasional shift or slightest move sent shockwaves throughout the room as the god of thunder himself crackled with might. And yet, there was no god to be seen, and instead the unbearably noisy diaper on Dawn’s hips.

But it was a package deal, as the juice she’d been forced into drinking was on a new wave of catching up to her bladder.

“Katherine…!” Dawn yelled once again with a crumbling voice, knowing on some level of what the outcome was certain to be.

She tried pressing her hand against her amply padded crotch to somehow “hold it in”, no pun intended, yet the padding felt tantamount to chastity. Had only her captors gotten the memo that there wasn’t a treasure left to protect…

Dawn groaned as she fidgeted in place, “Fucking fuck!”

Without an inkling of sleep passing through her mind and her eyelids feeling weightless and taught, she knew it was to be a long and dreadful night, and anything but quiet.

 

---

“Shh…I put Dawn down a couple hours ago, but just in case we should–”

The sound of another voice was the adrenaline that shocked her system.

“Katherine?!” Dawn perked up immediately. Somewhat, having committed herself to her upright position just to prevent the absolute worst case scenario: actually falling asleep.

There was a moment of pause coming from the hallway, or in other words no response to Dawn’s call from the crib. Just a second later however and the door quietly crept open. The hallway light had been turned off and into the darkened room entered Katherine, James, and Waver. Need it be mentioned that the sight of the four-legged friend still up and about slighted her even more. Apparently even the pets got to stay up later than her.

“Dawn…” Katherine looked and sounded with disapproval, all hushed and calm, however, “what are you still doing up?”

“Looks like someone’s been trying real hard to stay awake?” James chimed in with a grin, but Dawn wasn’t seeing the humor with her tired glare.

“I told you I wasn’t t…tired.” She tried to put some edge on her tone but interrupted her own attempt halfway with a mouth glued shut just to keep down a trembling yawn.

“You look awfully tired to me, sweetheart.” Katherine said simply, James let his wife talk, and Waver did whatever the hell he wanted, which was a freedom far from Dawn’s grasp.

Waver trotted up to the front of the crib, slipping his nose between the bars, sniffing Dawn unashamedly.

Trying to ignore the dog, Dawn said back, “I wasn’t when you put me in here! You’re not being fair and you know it!”

“And I know how cranky someone can be if they don’t sleep enough,” James suddenly took to the stage. “Dawn, we’re all going to bed now. Sound fair?”

“No.”

By the look on his face, was her take really that surprising? “Why not?”

“Because I’m in a crib. I did not want a crib and I still don’t. Just take the sides off! Let me at least think it’s a normal bed!”

“It is a normal bed, Dawn,” Katherine with her own sense of tiredness, but maybe emotional rather than biological, added soothingly. “Honey, what if you rolled out of bed? You could get hurt.”

“I don’t roll in my sleep! I don’t use diapers! I don’t have a bedtime! Please! When are you going to get any of that?!”

“It’s bedtime for real, Dawn,” James said, so tactfully dismissing all her complaints, “get some sleep now.”

“Do you want someone to stay with you until you fall asleep?” Katherine offered.

“No! I…” Dawn between choking down yawns was caught in a difficult place. They’d wronged her in a new way, and she’d technically defied and persevered, even if it meant exhausting herself for no real benefit other than just to see them on their way upstairs. She complained, they dismissed, but she’d technically won on some front. Exhausting herself just to defy two Amazons…

Dawn pushed off the bars, falling on her cushioned backside into the cushioned mattress. “I don’t care anymore.”

“Get some sleep,” Katherine said once more, only with an affectionate hand on Dawn’s head. “Lay down, I’ll tuck you in.”

Dawn did lay down, but swiped the blanket for herself, draping it atop before Katherine could complete what she set out to do.

“I’m fine,” Dawn muttered, head against the pillow, facing away and consequently the wall on the other side of the bars.

Katherine didn’t have much to say other than, “Goodnight, Dawn…”

James too. “Night, Dawn.”

Dawn didn’t answer, but she could hear them move across the carpet to leave.

“Come on, Waver! Not tonight.” Katherine did the signature pat on her thigh.

And once more she never heard the door close. After enough time she peered over her shoulder, finding that they had gone but the door still remained 90% closed and 10% open. Not like she could physically get out of bed and change that though.

So she laid there instead, unfortunately noticing just how soft the mattress was. How light and comfy the blanket felt, even on a warmer night… The pillow was plush and cushiony in its own way, too. The hotel bed wasn’t soft like this, and the sheets weren’t all that amazing either. The pillow was stiff and flimsy. Far worse by comparison.

But that’s how hotels were. There wasn’t anything special about them, hence the quality. Hence why…this felt inarguably much better. But not the crib. The bed frame was an entirely different matter that frankly Dawn was far too tired to entertain. Too tired to fight. Too tired to uphold her resistance, stowing it away for the morning to come.

 

---

The next morning was an early and uncomfortable one. In her half-asleep slump Dawn could barely tell what the blaring noise was that filled her ears. Still in her own swampy mind of drifting, sleepy thought, it took her a moment to even register the noise at all. In and out, here and there, only when she moved…?

Peering underneath the blanket, enough early morning sunlight could show the pattern of puppies prancing on her underwear. Dry underwear, at that, but also in the midst of a crisis. She shuffled her legs uncomfortably with a fullness that’d had all night to store up. Her bladder, of course.

She whimpered a tired groan for just about every reason under the sun. Tired and sleepy, who ever wanted to get up and use the bathroom? Then again, how could she use the bathroom if she lacked the strength  to take off her diaper? What’s more, why ponder the thought when no Amazon was going to let her do her business anywhere other than in her own pants? And lastly, though sorely feeling like the most important, yet treated as the most insignificant by others, her pride.

Certainly she was a fool for thinking so, but as little as others thought of it, her pride wouldn’t let her take every embarrassment lying down.

“What time even is it…?” Dawn groaned, lazily propping herself up with her hands. She must have been stuck in the past because her only tool to tell the time was the sunlight itself. No clocks, no phone, no nothing. Why would you put a clock in a nursery? What baby needs to tell the time?

“Hello…?” Dawn communicated the only way she knew how in her cell, shouting out to the partly open doorway. “Is anybody awake?!”

No response. Great, she was up before everyone else.

Or so she thought.

Instead of footsteps down the hall she heard the telltale jingle of dog tags trotting closer and closer, until a soft nudge of the head knocked the door to swing open a bit, just so a furry friend could peer through.

“Why is it always you…?” she groaned, trying to squeeze her legs together more and more as time went on, yet she was quickly reaching a hard limit with the padding stored between them.

Waver came over to the crib to visit the prisoner, tilting his head curiously as Dawn sat there in annoyed misery, unsure of what to do. Keep shouting?

The dog was close enough for Dawn to reach through the bars, running her hand through the fur atop his head.

“Can’t you go wake up your owners, or something?” Better yet, unlock the crib himself.

Maybe it was somewhere out of place, because no matter where she looked from her limited space, no sign of any locking mechanism was evident. Yet another “Little-proofed” invention, as the twistedly sadistic liked to describe it. Maybe it was some kind of buzz word for Amazon advertising in this universe…

“Get. Katherine.” Dawn recited both words, broken up by a commanding pat on Waver’s head each time. Her animal whispering abilities were failing her though, as all Waver did was a few circles in place before parking himself on the carpet in front of the crib, now too low for Dawn to reach.

“Some help you are…” And back to square one, minus a bit of a more open doorway, which would hopefully get her somewhere.

“Hello?! Is anybody actually awake?!” Dawn was back on her feet, calling once more. Anxiously she bounced ever so slightly, far too fidgety and full to not keep still. “No! Not you!” Dawn barked immediately as Waver turned his head and started to stand.

“KATHERINE! JAMES! I NEED TO PEE! WAKE UP ALREADY!”

And on and on she went.

“KATHERINE! JAMES! WAKE UP!”

“WAKE UP!”

“WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE U–”

“I’m up, I’m up…!” Katherine rushed in with a tired look, only physically drained this time, or just coming off of a well-needed rest. She was wearing a simple pajama set, shirt and drawstring pants and her hair a bit out of place from just being in bed, but her Amazon genetics didn’t betray her looks, even just after waking up. “What’s wrong, honey?”

Dawn had half a mind to criticize her tardiness, but instead got to the point. “I need to pee. Now.”

Katherine rubbed her eye with a confused look, still lagging behind. “You…what? You need to go potty?”

“Pee. Yes! I can’t take off this stupid diaper and I can’t get out of this crib by myself! How does this even unlock, anyway?”

“Dawn…that’s what your diaper is for…please. Enough talk about using the potty, okay? We’ll change you once you need it.”

“I need it now! Change me into something that isn’t a diaper!”

“Dawn, honey, it’s fi– very early in the morning. James and I don’t usually get up for another couple hours, and I know you barely got any sleep last night. Why don’t we try sleeping for a bit more?”

“No. Get me out of this crib already. You can go back to bed, but I can’t be stuck in this thing for another two hours!” Stomping her foot was a little instinctual nudge in the back of her head, but stomping a plush mattress didn’t exactly command compliance.

“...Okay, you win. Just this once though,” Katherine relinquished as she came over. “--Wait, Waver? When did you get in here?”

“He actually listened…” Dawn explained with a frown, holding out her arms.

“Did you have a bad dream? Is that why you couldn’t sleep?” Now in her arms, Katherine went as far as to press her forehead against Dawn’s for a moment. “No fever either…”

“Can you sleep if you have a full bladder?” Please, let it be read as rhetorical.

“No, probably not,” Katherine answered quite simply.

“Yeah, well neither can I. See the problem?”

“You’re wearing a diaper, sweetie.”

“And I don’t wear diapers, so don’t talk like they’re a solution!”

“They are. You wear diapers, Dawn. I bet they feel nice and comfy?”

“I’m done talking about this. You obviously don’t get it.”

Katherine sighed with a small frown, but stayed upbeat as they went downstairs. “How about we find you some cartoons before I work on breakfast?”

“No. I don’t want to watch any. Just put me down and let me move.”

“No-no-no,” Katherine mimicked with a silly voice, “I thought today was going to be different, Dawn?”

“Yeah, I hope so too,” Dawn grimaced, finding that her further denial of bathroom privileges was signaling that history was doomed to repeat itself.

And on the cartoons went anyway. The only thing different so far was that Katherine seemed to stop caring about what Dawn did or did not want to do. Typical.

Waver came down to rest in his dog bed, and the moment Dawn was on her feet she was out of the living room and away from the tv, animated images and noises.

And as embarrassing as it was to admit, Dawn only just remembered something she felt an earlier version of herself would have picked up on. “Wait, I need pants,” she tugged on Katherine’s pant leg in the kitchen.

“Hm? Later, honey. Once we get you dressed after breakfast.”

Not now. Great.

“When’s breakfast, then?”

“Once I’m done making it,” Katherine grinned down at her, meeting Dawn’s aggravation with playful love.

Dawn pivoted on her heel and stormed out of the kitchen, just about to bank a right back to the stairs.

“Ah-ah!” Katherine’s doting voice froze her in place. “Where are you going?”

“Upstairs. Waking James up.” Maybe she could somehow convince him. Leverage the fact that he physically hit her to make him take her diaper off?

“Let’s let James sleep in for a bit. We’ll wake him up in a bit.”

“Then I’m going back up to my room.”

“I want you where I can see you,” Katherine smiled affectionately, but Dawn only took it as pure absurdity. More trust issues, she figured.

“Katherine, I can just reach doorknobs; what makes you think I can somehow escape from the second story?”

“I know that you aren’t going on any little adventures, but I know that you can get into mischief, Dawn. Stay put. Go watch some cartoons. And here,” she produced a lidded cup of white substance. “Take your sippy cup, it’s milk.”

“I’m not thirsty, and it’s not my sippy cup.” Maybe she was thirsty, but liquids certainly felt like a no-go if it meant eternally peeing herself.

“You will be later. Come on, now. No more backtalk.”

It was suddenly a trigger word that Dawn never knew she even had. “Wh-what?! It’s not backtalk! I’m just telling you how it is!”

“Dawn, please?” Katherine asked yet again with that signature tone, a sign of dwindling patience, and Dawn knew it was either to accept or go down a path that she wouldn’t think quite highly of.

“Fine!” she swiped the sippy cup into her hands. “But I’m not drinking any of it!”

It was more than enough for Katherine, though, standing back in front of the counter with a “Thank you~” for Dawn who was already halfway into the living room.

A different show from the ones before was on this morning, but it had the same traits and patterns, more or less. Eye catching visuals, slapstick humor and somehow a plot and dialogue with just enough substance to slightly keep a viewer that was actually potty trained at least occupied, if not barely entertained.

But it certainly did nothing for the mind too busy trying to solve the dilemma of being trapped in a diaper, yet holding one’s bladder for a toilet that would never come.

Dropping the sippy cup on the floor beside her, she desperately tried to tug on the tapes, disillusioning herself that maybe yesterday was a sad and sorry fluke. “If only these stupid fucking things…!” And yet, either her luck was far worse than she had thought going two for two, or this truly was how diapers in this dimension worked.

Tiredly she sighed with frustration, kicking her legs out.

“Is everything alright in there?” a watchful voice called from the kitchen, insinuating that they knew misbehavior was afoot, only that they were giving her the chance to stop it.

“NO! IT’S NOT! TAKE OFF MY DIAPER!” Dawn shouted right back.

“Inside voice, please!” said the brick wall, in Dawn’s mind, at least.

“Fucking…fuck!” Dawn continued to curse with a quiet voice, awkwardly pacing in front of the tv.

It wasn’t her fault. She couldn’t betray her pride if she didn’t have a choice. If she was being forced..

And so with a sinking feeling in her stomach, Dawn squatted and pushed, having to pant and muffle her short gasps for air from forgetting to breathe, as she finally let out one last noise the moment she could feel the gross release.

Her face felt hot the moment her diaper started to feel warm. Twice now. Three times? Multiple times she’d gone in a diaper, all against her will. All against everything that she stood for. Her head panned over to the doorway into the kitchen. She could hear Katherine working away on breakfast, and she had zero intentions of paying her a visit.

She hardly wanted to reappear with a wet diaper, asking for a change. The very act of using a diaper felt too validating for Katherine and her ignorant mind, as much as it was swinging the pendulum her way far too greatly.

Dawn parked herself on her bottom, then quickly stood the moment she felt the wet-to-moist-to-warm padding press against her skin more than it needed to be. Just to disillusion herself into thinking it all wasn’t as bad as it really was, Dawn awkwardly resigned herself to sitting on her knees instead.

And with great disdain she glared at the sippy cup laying on the floor; the substance inside of it being the very reason for why she was quite literally in her own mess.

Thankfully, time did move forward, and maybe Dawn could consider herself lucky for somehow losing track of time from the endless slur of colorful images on screen when Katherine slightly surprised her from behind.

“Dawn? Honey?”

“Wh-what?” Dawn looked up and over her shoulder.

“I asked if you were ready for breakfast,” she chuckled. She was already reaching past Dawn for the sippy cup that had remained untouched on the floor. Without so much as asking, Katherine unannounced picked up Dawn with her other arm next, standing back up. “I think somebody was enjoying themselves, huh?”

“What? No,” Dawn lightly scoffed, “it’s not like there was anything else to do.” Too small to cook. Too small to run away. Too small to disobey. Too small for anything.

“Mmm…I’m sorry, sweetie. Maybe there’s a chance we can go to the toy store today and find something you’d like? Everyone’s gotta have toys?” They entered the kitchen with Dawn on Katherine’s hip, and the first thing she could smell was bacon.

“What I need is to get home…” Dawn kept her spirits low, but admittedly a good-smelling breakfast was still a buffer keeping her from absolute zero.

The least desirable thing to be seen were the eggs, but that was easy enough to ignore when the rest of the spread was bacon, fresh fruit, slices of toast, and pancakes.

“You made all this…?” Dawn asked in surprise, trying to choke herself out of sounding even remotely impressed.

“Mhm!” Katherine nodded affirmatively as she deposited Dawn into her special chair, one which she could not leave on her own. “James and I really like cooking, and breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Let’s see what we can put together for you…”

“I’ll just have pancakes and bacon,” Dawn decided for herself. It would have been nice to reach everything herself, but it was getting old having to mention her lack of size for everything that she could not do.

And as requested, pancakes and bacon it was. Little-sized portions which still seemed like a tad bit much for the girl, but manageable. What wasn’t though was what came in tandem with her two picks, which were a few cubes of fruit and a portion of egg. Gross.

The fruit was passable, but the other was not.

“That’s fine, I don’t want any eggs.”

“I know, Dawn, but eggs are really good for you, you know?”

“And so is letting me use the toilet.” Even in the early hours of the morning her wit was apparently still about her.

And with more non consensual touching, Katherine with a light squeeze on her shoulder said, “Good girls aren’t picky. I’m gonna go wake James up, okay?”

After Katherine excused herself, Dawn looked down at the entire plate in dismay now with the one bad yolky apple to spoil the bunch. The egg like the fruit and pancakes had been sectioned and squared for Dawn’s hands. And in looking at the butter, syrup, grease and liquid, the lack of silverware was finally catching up to her.

“G-goohd morning…!” A yawn echoed from the pits of James’ mouth as he entered the kitchen with his wife, sporting a light set of bedhead. “Sleep well, Dawn?” he asked as he shuffled over to the coffee maker on the counter, still looking half asleep and just going through the motions.

“No.” Admittedly, she somewhat did. But also she didn’t, courtesy of a full bladder.

“I’m sorry…” he didn’t pick up where he left off until shaking a bit more sleep out of himself, “Was the crib not soft enough? Did you want a different pillow or blanket?”

“Oh! I’m Sorry!” Katherine chimed in right beside her husband, “I didn’t even ask that, Dawn.Were they comfy? We can get–”

“It’s fine,” she grumbled, still staring down the disappointment on her plate. “Can I have a fork now, please?” The hum and buzz of a counter appliance was making her thirsty as well. “I’ll have some coffee too.”

“You have your milk, honey,” Katherine remarked and Dawn stared down the untouched sippy cup with pure annoyance.

“Then unscrew the top. I’m in the kitchen, right?” A lack of caffeine definitely made her pissy, and she was pretty sure that knowing she wasn’t going to get any made her doubly so.

“Yes,” Katherine picked up the children’s cup, then set it back down, lid undone this time, “you are. No spills, remember?”

Because she was just itching to do that the first chance she got… “Yeah, I know.” Dawn turned her head in the chair to either spot James or Katherine out. “And what about a fork? I don’t have any silverware.”

James and Katherine both shared silent looks with each other, speaking with some kind of telepathy either exclusive to Amazons or intimate lovers. Either way, Dawn had no clue.

“That’s okay, honey, you can just use your hands and we’ll make sure you’re squeaky clean after, alright?”

“Come again?”

Katherine made a quirky grin, like she was interpreting Dawn’s quip as some sort of joke comprised of Little humor.

“Katherine, I’m not using my hands. I want a fork.”

“Grown-up silverware is really big, Dawn…I think you’d have a hard time using them.”

“That’s fine, I’ll manage. And if you’re making me eat that stupid slimy egg, I’m not touching it with my bare hands!”

“Dawn, reel it back in,” James warned as he came around to his seat, steaming cup of joe in hand. The smell alone was like second-hand smoking for the girl, except without any of the short-term benefits.

As much as she hated him, it didn’t change her new survival instinct that meant listening at least somewhat. Clearing her throat and trying to temper her emotions, she tried a bit more politely, “I…I’m sorry; all I’m saying is that I do not think it is very fair that I can’t use a fork to eat my breakfast…” So polite she annunciated every single word.

Even at its worst and even forced, the smallest amount of effort was worthy of praise, Katherine beaming at her minor correction. “Thank you for being so polite! I’m sorry, Dawn; James and I wouldn’t be very good…guardians if we let you use that kind of stuff? Amazon forks and knives are big and sharp. I promise it’s okay to use your hands?”

She didn’t need the assurance that she could dirty herself. After all, she was already being encouraged to pee and poop in her pants. Rather, a huge part of what she was hearing was more societal checks and balances butting their way into the domestic sphere.

“Really? LPS? Would they take me away for using a fork?”

Katherine had become uncomfortably quiet, looking troubled.

“Dawn,” James cut in again, “that’s enough. Be a good girl and eat your breakfast.”

“Don’t call me a ‘good girl’,” Dawn finally bit back. But finally she huffed, looking back down at her plate. “Fine. I’ll eat with my hands.”

“If you want I can feed you?” Katherine offered, to which Dawn promptly declined by way of drenching her hand in syrup. As delicate and with grace as she tried to act, a bite-sized square of pancake already moist from butter, syrup and chocolate chips made keeping clean an impossible task.

She slipped it into her mouth, and unfortunately she was elated.

She did her best to choke down her reaction, but it was good. Shockingly so. Maybe it was because of how poorly she had abused her tastebuds the other night that this was tasting like caviar, but good was good. The sweetness was just right and it was fluffy with the perfect amount of bounce and elasticity with every chew!

It was so good in fact that Dawn was tranced long enough to go for a second bite, trying to be careful all over again, only to remember that her hand was already covered in syrup.

“Ooou, I think somebody likes it!” Katherine excitedly giggled, watching from her seat like it was daytime entertainment. Then she quipped a look at James, “I wish you’d get those kinds of looks when I cook, you know?”

“What?” he playfully scoffed back, “I do all the time!”

Maybe it was something about the produce of this world, but the fruit was unexpectedly outstanding as well. The strawberries looked redder and fuller, tasted sweeter and juicier and the melon was rich and flavorful. Where was all this food last night? Was that entire pizza situation just a trick? Did they spike her food for some unknown reason?

An Amazon’s hand backing her sippy cup slid it closer to her plate.

“Don’t forget about your milk, hon,” Katherine reminded with a smile before sipping out of her mug. It smelled like coffee as well.

Just as she started to wipe her mouth with her hand it was instant regret once she felt the excess syrup kiss the corner of her mouth. Pulling it back down she tried to lick the corner of her mouth before mumbling back, “I know…” And yet, now that the idea was suggested to her it hardly felt like something of her own accord anymore. Drinking her juice wasn’t her decision anymore. It was Katherine’s.

“I need a napkin,” Dawn looked around her plate with not even that to be seen. Only then did she start to think of it as by design. Another roundabout sense of reasoning just to make her act more dependent than she really was.

“It’s okay if your hands get sticky, Dawn, we’ll wash you up after,” Katherine spoke as she ate, having the audacity to use a fork and knife herself.

More ‘sit down and shut up logic’, Dawn decided it as and begrudgingly picked up the sippy cup, already feeling the tips of her fingers merging against the plastic handles like glue. Setting it down was awkward as she tried to separate her hands from the cup.

She was almost afraid to ask, correction, she was, but she still asked anyway. “What are we doing today?”

“It’s a weekday, so we work!” James said quite simply.

“I know that, but what are we doing about my situation? About getting me home?” They put her off once already and that had stuck here for an indefinite period of time. That didn’t mean she was going to let the wheel get any less squeakier.

“Since I’m in the office today I won’t have any time to look into it tonight,” James explained and the look on Dawn’s face only worsened. “Tomorrow though I’ll be working from home, so maybe then.”

Dawn tried to choke down a bewildered look. “Maybe? You can’t even guarantee me that? You’re telling me another day is gonna go by and nothing gets done? Un-fucking–!”

“Dawn!” Katherine gasped at the same time as James butted in as well.

“That’s enough with the language, do you understand me?” He gave her a quite serious look. “Katherine and I have given you plenty of time to get your attitude fixed. That stops now. The next time I hear you say anything mean or use bad words, it’s a bar of soap in your mouth, understood?”

“Fine.” Dawn barked back, trying to at least have some dignity in squarely being put in her place.

“You need to be on your best behavior today. She shouldn’t, but Katherine is taking you into her work today.”

“What?” Dawn spun her head. “Since when? Why?”

Katherine smiled innocently, sipping from her mug. “It was a little tough to find someplace on such short notice… And I promised no daycare today.”

Again, it was the weirdest kind of whiplash that snuck up on Dawn at the least expected times. It was an anomaly as to what Katherine could seem to remember about Dawn. She could retain all the essentials, and yet disregard and filter out anything that’d clash with her perfect baby-little vision and fantasy. What mattered though was it seemingly had worked in her favor this time.

“You work at a library, don’t you?”

“Mhm!” Katherine nodded cheerily. “I help take care of the library and make sure all the books go where they’re supposed to.”

Dawn could already imagine the back-and-forth she must have every day, walking down aisles and aisles of books upon books just to manage returns and retrievals for stacks upon stacks of them. How she was a fellow lover of literature, but not a willing civil servant of them.

But as she remained quiet it only made more room for unfortunate thoughts to fester in her mind. She’d be going yet again out in public in diapers. That alone made her heart race anxiously. She could dish out an attitude and act pissy all she wanted, but it didn’t change how mortifying it was to be seen like this.

After a bite of toast, James asked, “Think your coworkers are gonna give you trouble?”

“They might give a little…” Katherine puffed her cheeks in thought, then looked over at Dawn. “Dawn? Sweetie?”

More time left to her own devices also meant getting to eat more, unfortunately making her normalize just how messy of a process eating with her hands had become. She hadn’t accepted it, but she knew she needed to eat. “What?”

“We need to have a little talk about today, okay? Just like James said, we need to be on our best behavior, okay?”

She could already think of a littoney of reasons “why”, though Dawn couldn’t vouch for them being reasons she’d personally align with. And her use of “we” was awfully liberal, which had the same implications as when “we” get a timeout, or “we” get a spanking. It’s an awful lot of team-oriented vocabulary for a girl that’s always taking one for the “team.”

“I know that already,” she briskly answered before her temper could lose itself.

“That also means the way you talk to me, honey.”

As if to imply that Dawn wasn’t a saint towards her. “I know that. I won’t be bit–” instinctively, the corner of her eye caught James, like her body was warning her to drop it and move on. “...I won’t be unpleasant.” As long as the same could be expected of everyone around her.

“Thank you very much for being nice,” Katherine smiled, but Dawn had an inkling that there was more to it. “Another thing though is that when everybody sees us, they’re gonna think what most people do, okay? Remember what people thought when we went to the store yesterday?”

It was such an earnest attempt at dumbed-down children-speak that her meaning missed Dawn entirely. She blinked, and before she could respond, Katherine apparently understood.

Her face started with a small smile, “A lot of people yesterday thought I was your mommy.” Like it was a small hit from a drug the words seemed to put a tiny glow on her face.

“You’re not, though. So if anyone asks we’re going to make that clear, right?” Dawn by now could infer the supposedly impossible, which is why she needed to find her moments just to make it that much more inconvenient for them.

“I think it would be a lot easier if we played pretend, don’t you think?”

“No, because it’d be really weird once people started figuring out that it’s not true.”

“I promise if we play really well, no one will find out?”

“You’re not my mom, Katherine.” It was starting to get annoying. Whatever Katherine thought she was, it didn’t change that she had the audacity to even suggest replacing her actual, biological mother.

“But I can be your pretend mommy?” She still looked hopeful.

“No.” Then she looked at James, just in case he needed cluing in. “She’s not.”

But the Amazon she turned to was less inclined to using kid gloves, which is why James plainly said, “It’s not really a choice, Dawn. You will look like a mommy and her Little. With LPS already watching us we need to make it look like you’re being taken care of properly.”

“And you will be!” Katherine added like a dog with a bone.

“Fine. Call yourself whatever. I’m still calling you Katherine.”

James sipped his coffee. “You can’t in public.”

“What?! Why not? Kids call their parents by their first name all the time!” Admittedly, she knew that was wholly untrue, but it’s not like they’d ever been to her dimension to contradict otherwise?

“Not here they don’t.” James put his foot down.

“Dawn, if you say my name in public, people will think I might be mistreating you.”

“Mistreating? How? If anything, that’s like making me more independent!”

“Littles aren’t supposed to be independent,” Katherine started, then stammered back, “A-adopted ones… If grown-ups hear you call me Katherine, they might think something’s wrong. And…it’s a little embarrassing.”

Embarrassing? For her? Being called by her first name was what set her over the edge? Lord, did she have a lot to find out. Apparently her name was off-limits, but certainly not Dawn’s state of underwear, nor her clothes, nor just about anything under the fucking sun that could constitute her as an adult!

“Only good decisions today, Dawn,” James added as he stood from his seat, empty plate and mug in hand.

“Today’s gonna be great, right?” Katherine smiled at Dawn once more, who was already anticipating another shit storm.

“Yeah, sure.”

 

---

17 - Too Tight

“Dawn? Honey? Please?”

“No.” Her arms were crossed and she sat firm.

“It’s not as bad as you think?”

“Yes it is! I told you that!” There wasn’t any remorse for a person who so one-sidedly decided to spring this on her. Dawn didn’t ask for it, so she had no qualms in refusing it.

“Don’t you wanna get out of that chair? There’s still a little time to play with Waver or watch cartoons?”

“Then take me out of the chair!”

With a hand on her hip, Katherine frowned. “Dawn, you need to eat your egg.”

“No.”

James had left a few minutes ago, and Katherine finished not too long after as well.

Dawn, by her standards, was done with breakfast as well.

But apparently not. She may have gone along with it, but by sheer circumstance and bizarre occurrence, the unrequested egg that’d miraculously appeared on her plate had still remained untouched. Where it went was of no concern to Dawn, as long as it wasn’t her stomach.

Katherine was already lifting her not-sippy cup with hands on it, “Do you want some more milk to wash it down?”

With a huff she pushed the plate back. “I don’t like eggs, Katherine!”

And yet it was dragged right back in front of her. “But you can’t be a picky eater,” Katherine scolded. “Don’t you want to get out of that wet diaper and into a dry one? The longer you take, the longer it takes to get changed?”

It was a low blow, especially with Katherine casually remarking about what Dawn thought was only known to herself. When did she notice that her diaper was wet? Wet wasn’t even the right word. She didn’t feel wet. The diaper had done its job and absorbed. It was just…fuller now.

“...It’s gross, though!”

“Come on, just a small bite, how about that?” Katherine left and came back with a fork and knife. She performed surgery from the next seat over, cutting off a small corner to an already bite-sized piece meant for Dawn.

Holding it on the top of her fork, she held it out for Dawn.

“Come on, open up! Say ‘ahhh!’”

The closer Katherine brought the fork, the more and more Dawn leaned her head back, but the give and take could only last for so long once she was hard-pressed against the back of a chair she couldn’t get out of on her own. Being a cornered animal, she finally lashed out.

Slap!

Somewhat. Dawn didn’t slap Katherine, but the shock was still there, which was likely why she was able to get away with what she just did. With a swift hit she knocked the fork from Katherine’s grip, sending it clattering on the floor and the small, meager piece of egg with it.

“Dawn!” Katherine gasped at the floor before flashing a stern frown back at her.

But for once in this horrid timeline, the stars had aligned.

The moment she heard paws scraping the floor Katherine spun her head. “Waver? No, No!”

Dawn did her best to turn her head and see as well, though limited by her Little-proofed seat, she could only catch fragments of the ambush from her now-furry friend, Waver. She didn’t even need to see it. She heard the dog collar jingle, and she heard the fork scrape across the floor from being kicked by an eager paw.

“No! That’s not for you! Drop it!” Katherine tried to command, but by the sound of her voice, the situation had already solved itself and slipped from her grasp.

Rubbing her forehead she knelt down on the floor. “It’s fine…it’s fine…it’s just an egg…” she sighed, sounding quite beside herself.

Katherine’s eyes found Dawn’s first before saying, “That was a very mean thing you did.” And Dawn was currently trying to not look purely amused for once. Maybe it was a great way to start the day.

And now to send it home, with a smirk no less, “I said I didn’t want any eggs?”

“I want an apology right now.”

“For what?”

“For hitting.”

“I didn’t hit you! I slapped the fork!” Had this been a court of law, her argument might have actually worked. If only the judge and jury weren’t as rigged as an arcade machine.

“We do not hit things out of other people’s hands, Dawn.”

“And we don’t force other people to eat what they don’t want.”

“No more back-talking,” Katherine kept her frown, sitting back down in the chair with the same fork. “If you don’t want to apologize then that’s fine. You’re finishing your breakfast though.”

The Amazon looked to double down with her resolve as the fork soon had a larger bit of egg atop it this time, only now Dawn could tell that the fork wouldn’t be going anywhere unintended now. Now that Katherine knew to actually hold it, Dawn was competing against legitimate Amazonian strength.

Katherine didn’t advance, and Dawn didn’t make any moves either, other than her grossed out expression slowly starting to creep on her poker face.

“Dawn, baby, please?” Katherine was the first to crack. “I don’t want to fight with you! Please? Just one bite? I promise; that’s all you have to eat.” With her other hand she grabbed the sippy cup. “You can have your milk right after, okay?”

As much as she hated to admit it, Dawn truly wasn’t seeing any other way out of this. She had her fun, but she didn’t anticipate getting any more tricks or escapes from this. It was Katherine’s final mercy on the matter, and she’d be a fool to not swallow her pride and take it.

Like there was some final trick, Dawn kept glancing up at Katherine, waiting for the caveat or whole other egg hiding behind her back, ready to shove the entire thing in the moment Dawn opened her mouth.

But slowly she did so anyway, somehow making herself even more vulnerable than what a diaper and effective high chair could accomplish on their own. A tight crease was forming between her eyebrows the more she watched the fork ease toward her, all ushered by the coaxing smile from the Amazon behind it.

“Choo-choo! Here comes the airplane!”

“Choo-?” Dawn couldn’t help but hear the obvious mistake in her spiel, “That’s not what a–!”

And before she knew it she had already fallen for it.

“Annnd chew…?” Katherine slipped the fork back out of Dawn’s mouth, leaving its unfortunate gift behind atop her tongue.

It was bland. Rubbery. Foreign. It didn’t even taste like food! She wanted to spit it out so badly more than anything; she hated eggs. So much! But was it all the gaslighting that made her seem to hate it so much more?

She curled her toes, practically ready to explode as she didn’t even try to chew, skipping straight to the swallow. Thankfully it was only a small bite, and small bites didn’t always need chewing.

Having forgotten to breathe through her nose, Dawn gasped for air the moment her mouth was clear, incidentally flashing an empty mouth to Katherine, who made a noise of glee.

“Good job!” Katherine smiled from ear to ear, setting the fork down. “I’m so proud of you!”

Dawn knew what had been done. Katherine knew her modes of transportation from one another, which is why causing the confusion was purely intentional. Just enough to confuse the Little to put food in her mouth. “It doesn’t change that you tricked me…!” Dawn found the words right before accepting an open sippy cup to drink down a heaping helping of milk just to forget the experience.

“But we’re all done now,” Katherine said with a soothing sense of finality, standing from her chair and taking Dawn’s plate with her. “I’m really happy that you did that, you know?”

“Good for you,” Dawn scoffed sickly. “I feel horrible.”

All she heard from behind was a short spurt of running faucet and Katherine’s chuckle. “I think you’re being a little overdramatic, silly.”

“Yeah? What if I made you eat stuff you didn’t like all the time? How would you–!”

Twice she couldn’t finish her sentence, but thankfully not because of eggs this time. A cold washcloth was smeared across her face from cheek to cheek, completely blinding her for a moment as a hand rubbed it across her.

“Clean as a whistle!” Katherine finally pulled back the cloth.

And what was not a moment of weakness, but being an opportunist, Dawn then held her hands out. “My hands too.” Need she chastise the Amazon for being the reason her hands had syrup on them in the first place?

“Oopsies! Thank you for reminding me,” Katherine smiled, working Dawn’s hands over, finger by finger much more gently.

“How does that feel?” she finally pulled back, “nothing sticky?”

After making scissors with each pair of fingers, Dawn shook her head. “No. They’re fine.”

“Good. Now, let’s get you upstairs and dressed,” Katherine lifted her from the seat, then Dawn watched her eyes drift down at her with a grin. “I think we’ll need to start using bibs from now on, too.”

Dawn looked down at herself, displeased to find that indeed multiple splotches of syrup had made their way on her shirt. Her last shirt. The last shirt she had that was actually her own and had been brought to this dimension.

She embarrassingly covered one of the stains with a hand like it somehow made herself any cleaner. “I don’t need a bib! You made me eat pancakes with my hands!”

“You’re not in trouble, Dawn. It’s to keep your clothes clean?”

“My clothes would be clean if you gave me a fork.”

“You know we can’t do that…”

Dawn couldn’t have sounded more aggravated if she tried. “Right.” And likely disillusioned into thinking her feelings could be solved so easily, Katherine gave her a short, soothing pat on the back.

Once they entered Dawn’s room, the first place they went was the changing table.

“Please…! Just let me do it myself!”

“Sweetie, you might like it a lot more if you just relax?” Katherine sighed as she looked over Dawn. Effortlessly she tore off the tapes and got to work.

“And I don’t need this stupid strap!” Dawn growled, trying to flex her muscles as she did her utmost to lift her upper half, yet to no avail.

“We won’t use it once you can behave…” Katherine’s words continued to carry a sense of guilt, yet be it a higher power or instilled prejudice, she did not relent.

Shortly thereafter, Dawn was in a new pair of underwear, albeit the horrendously absorbent kind.

The Amazon was then gushing fawning noises. “Look at you! All clean and smelling so nice!”

Dawn grimaced from the table, forced to smell the powder her own backside was covered in.

One of the worst things in this dimension were the uncanny similarities. So many basic norms apparently existed here as well, which to an intrigued observer might be beyond fascinating and grounds for revolutionary research on the theories of multiverses.

But for Dawn?

For Dawn, all it meant was that she knew that she smelled like a baby because back home this was the exact smell babies had.

This time Dawn wasn’t even asked to participate in undressing herself. Without a word, Katherine snaked her hands up Dawn’s sides, bunching her shirt along the way as she pulled it up, over, and off the girl.

“I can take off my own shirt!”

“I know you can, honey,” Katherine said as she set the shirt aside. Then she stopped for a moment, staring for just a second, then set Dawn on the floor.

The pause didn’t go unnoticed by the Portal Little. “What? What is it?”

“Hm?” Katherine tilted her head, apparently not on the same page. “Do you want to wear pants today?”

“There’s nothing else I’d wear.” Dawn folded her arms, waiting as Katherine went through the dresser. Looking up at it, she was reminded of how nothing in it could ever be passed off as either dignified or mature clothing. Whatever was in there came from yesterday’s shopping trip, the same place that sold cribs and laxative-laced chocolates.

“Well I think you’d look adorable in anything you wear?” Katherine closed the drawer, kneeling down with a bundle of new clothes.

“I don’t want to look adorable. I want my adult life back.” Even putting it into words made her hurt, coming to terms with what the facts were right now.

“I know you’re a big girl, though?” Katherine then held out a pair of baby blue pants by the elasticized waistband, “Step in?”

Begrudgingly Dawn did step in, and as she did so she said, “Say whatever you want, but it doesn’t change that I’m being forced to wear diapers and call you my mother in public? James spanked me!”

“That was because you were being bad, Dawn. But…I don’t like the idea of spankings either, sweetheart. I think we were all a little upset about everything that happened yesterday…” Rich. Because of course, if everyone was down on their luck, that apparently meant Dawn was taking one for the team. “Remember the timeout we had to give you?”

Like it was yesterday…because it was yesterday.

“Yes. I remember.” Dawn grumbled, allowing herself to be turned by the shoulders.

“I bet that wasn’t so fun either, huh? But, even stuff like that can be good, you know? Sometimes we all need a little quiet time to think about our actions.” Just like how solitary confinement is supposed to make prisoners stay in line? Confinement didn’t beget reform; all it taught was to better hide malicious intent.

Then a finger wedged itself between her bare back and bra strap.

“Katherine? What’re you–?”

The clasp was undone and her bra started to droop.

“I was a little surprised to see you wearing one of these…” Katherine murmured. “Sorry? What’s wrong sweetie?”

“Why are you taking off my bra?!” Dawn exclaimed, already fishing for the ends Katherine was holding behind her.

“Dawn, honey, you don’t need one?” Katherine calmly said as Dawn could only whimper from her final article being removed.

“Yes I do!” She stared up at Katherine’s enormous chest, big even for herself. Dawn’s relative chest size wasn’t nearly as big, but breasts were breasts and she was by no means flat.

A snug shirt was slipped over her head with short sleeves and a length that just barely reached over the waistband of her pants. Looking down at herself the first thing she eyed was her chest, expecting to find two small tell-tale nubs, but she didn’t.

No pointy-ness, and in fact, the same exact look as if she were wearing a bra, yet they felt and looked just as supported. Confused, she rubbed her fingers against the thicker material of the shirt.

“The shirts they make for girls are made to cover up your privates,” Katherine explained with a smile. “You surprised me when I saw you wearing a bra! I guess shirts like these aren’t common back where you’re from?”

“No…they’re not,” Dawn answered as she touched her chest, still inspecting the feel. Her shirt somehow worked just like wearing a bra, except without the strain of the straps on her shoulders? And to hammer it home, she bounced on her toes for a moment, surprised by the nonexistent bounce too.

For all women? Dawn skeptically looked up at Katherine who seemed to have a much…heavier burden on her torso. “Your clothes are the same?”

“Me?” Katherine blinked in surprise, then laughed. “No, no! Grown-ups still need to wear bras; that’s only for Littles.” she chuckled, and Dawn nearly tripped from the tremor that widened the gap. “Doesn’t it feel nice not needing to wear one?”

Maybe on some level it did. Practically, maybe, but not in every way.

Sure, it meant she didn’t have to wear one more thing, but it also meant she didn’t have to wear one more thing. An important thing. A mature thing. An adult thing.

“...I want to put it back on.”

The lack of enthusiasm must have surprised the Amazon. “What? Don’t you feel less stuffy, though?”

“That’s not the point…” Dawn looked down at herself, at her specially designed clothes, feeling more corralled and collared by the second. “It…this feels weird.” Desperation hugged her throat and her eyes did not drift. “I want my bra back.”

And while the insecurity was setting in, it was a cloudy forecast from Katherine’s shadow and her gentle shower of bad news. “Dawn, you’ve been wearing that for almost two days now. It needs to be washed.”

“Th-Then…” Of course Katherine couldn’t understand. She didn’t have to wear kid shirts with bras built in them! “Can’t we just wash it now?” Dawn stepped in place, trying to discharge her bubbling emotions.

Katherine folded her two-cupped friend and sandwiched it between her palm and thigh, calmly explaining, “Sweetie, we need to get going soon; it’s not going to be ready by then.”

A small noise of frustration escaped Dawn’s mouth. It wasn’t targeted anger, but genuine discomfort. Discomfort that preyed on her mind and sense of self.

“My…my other shirt? I want to wear that. The one I was just wearing!”

“The one you got syrup on?” Katherine tilted her mouth. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing!” Dawn lashed, tugging at the bottom of the shirt with a sporadic thought that it’d suddenly become shorter. “This…this feels too tight!” This felt wrong. None of it felt right.

“Dawn? I promise that you look pretty?”

“It’s not about being pretty!” Dawn panted with a whine, throwing her hands off the article in frustration. “This…this is wrong! These aren’t my clothes…! These…this isn’t what I wear!”

What was hers anymore? Maybe it was more lingering, remnant and pointless sentiment that was finally being peeled off of her, but it was nothing short of frightening. She didn’t have panties. She had diapers. She didn’t have jeans. She had elasticized toddler pants. She didn’t even have a bra. She had a babified Little’s shirt.

“C-can’t we buy a bra or something on the way?”

“There aren’t a lot of places that make those for Little’s, sweetheart…”

Fuck! Why is there always some kind of reason…?!

She wanted to say something back, but the frantic back-and-forth seemed more and more pointless with each time it failed.

But more importantly, her shirt was feeling awfully tight then. It was shrinking. The room was hot. She could barely breathe…! In a panic she grabbed at her shirt, taking a few aimless steps back while she fought the fringe and started lifting it over herself.

“Dawn? Sweetie, please? We just got you dressed…”

It was a cocoon. A bio-morphing machine that was trying to change her. Everything was. Katherine. James. This dimension. These clothes. These diapers…!

And all she could see was a pale mint green, trapping herself inside a suffocation chamber with a mind of its own. She twisted, contorted and pulled, but it felt stuck and immovable.

And without a rational sense of self left, she whimpered as her feet couldn’t keep in place and the world went sideways. Without her knees able to touch and a constant muffled crinkling filling her ears, the room was only filled with her noisy diaper and madness to go with it. “H-help! Help me! Please! I-I can’t breathe! T-take it off…! TAKE IT OFF!”

“Dawn! Honey!”

And she flailed her feet and legs, crying as a nearby tornado suddenly swooped her in the air and she was too trapped in her prison to fight it. The air was running thin and she was feeling light-headed. Was this really it? Was this how she kicked the bucket? Suffocated by her own clothes and having her lifeless corpse flung about by an indoor natural disaster?

Before she knew it though the tornado had her upright and with yet another swift swipe of wind her vision had returned. That being said, had Dawn owned her wet eyes she may have come to realize that.

It was panting and sobs, overwhelmed by a mountain of change that was effectively trying to kill her. Kill Dawn. The actual Dawn, all so they could carve out her husk and stuff it with whatever this place wanted to.

“Baby? Can you hear me?” Katherine’s words hit with haste but had a cushioned impact. “Shh…shh… It’s okay, see? You’re alright. Everything’s completely fine… Shh…shh…”

Whether that was true or not, it wasn’t as simple as going from one-hundred to zero, and the decline was a long process indeed. Dawn heaved and hiccupped, left with no other choice than to lean into whatever soft mighty mass was being pressed against her.

The disembodied voice in her frazzled mind continued to coo and calmly instruct. “It’s okay…all right? You can breathe… You can…nice and slow…deep breaths…uh-huh, just like that…”

Dawn couldn’t even make words anymore, too busy trying to make her mouth and lungs cooperate with just the basics. Fear had seized her mind yet again and she was just finding the courage to reclaim it once more.

The large thing that slowly and easily massaged her bare back was like the anchor that kept her ashore and afloat in the stormy port. It was her taut iron-linked chain she tried to sync her breathing with. Down it went, in goes the air. Up it came; exhale.

Her arms felt cold, but it froze everything from within, harbored from the warm exterior that she was starting to realize. A warm hug, it was more like. Probably because it was. Finally, she opened her eyes, seeing that the side of her face was pressed against Katherine’s sweater-covered stomach. Her feet were suspended just where they came around her waist and had no lap left to rest on. Taken in by a subtle but calming fragrance, the accompanying warmth made her feel weak all over, had her panic attack not done that already.

The symbolic tool she used to find the rhythm and structure was just Katherine’s hand rubbing her back, slipping itself easily under her shirt. The snug one, but also the same one that apparently wasn’t as impossibly tight as she thought.

“Does your shirt still feel tight?”

In any other context it would’ve come off as mocking. Of course shirts didn’t magically constrict or shrink as you wear them. That was obvious. Obvious to anyone of a sane and stable mind. The shame and embarrassment made her wince, but Dawn mumbled back exhaustedly, “No…”

“Good. Let’s give it a few more seconds, alright? Breathe nice and slow. In, and out…In…and out…”

And for once, Dawn listened without rebuttal.

One step beyond her frightened self, it hurt to feel so vulnerable. To feel so unstable in a way that she’d never been hit by since coming here. Since embarking on this god awful, prolonged vacation. The day hadn’t even started yet and she was already feeling like shit…

Since when could she not control her breathing? Since when was she a danger to herself? There wasn’t a single time in her life that her own emotions could be so volatile and lethal…! It sucked. So much. Just like with diapers, adorned right beside it on her wall of shame now was mental weakness. Panic attacks…

Dawn for once didn’t need to ask for the gestures to stop. Katherine of her own volition eventually removed her hand, smoothing out the same shirt Dawn was certain was trying to kill her. While the massaging ceased, her hand still rested on the girl’s backside and lower back.

“Feeling better?” Katherine asked from above, and Dawn wordlessly nodded. The hypocrisy would’ve been too damning to have taken the brunt of it now. Whether she wanted to openly admit it or not, Katherine was the only reason she wasn’t still up on the ledge right now. Her greatest enemy had for a brief moment somehow become her hero.

How ironic.

“Oh!” A quiet, upbeat chipper came from Katherine, and Dawn could hear her head turn to the spot she was already looking. “Looks like somebody came to see you!”

Someone sure did. All in their four-footed swagger with a ring-ding from the collar around their neck and a wagging tail. Wagging as much as it was, the appendage stayed low like with his head, as if Waver were somehow in the presence of a king. Either that or he could actually get a read of the mood.

It wasn’t the same energetic trot like he was always seen with, but instead a calmer stroll on over, resting right against Katherine’s leg and giving Dawn’s heel something to rest on.

“Such a good boy…” Katherine cooed with a chuckle, losing her upper hold on Dawn’s shoulders just to pet the fur atop Waver’s head. With a voice that could speak to the smile on her face, the lover of Littles and animals asked, “Want me to let go now?”

She did. She absolutely did, even if Katherine was the life support that Dawn needed in such a vulnerable moment. A moment that would have never happened had she not been in this situation. So if anything, this was just Katherine fixing the mess that she caused, was it not? This wasn’t Dawn’s fault. It was exploiting a part of herself that never had to be exposed. Of course. That was it.

“...Dawn?”

“Y…yes,” Dawn replied the second time around, too lost in her own thoughts to catch the first.

“Okay,” Katherine obliged and moved her hand, and Dawn slowly slid down her pants, getting back on her feet. There was a second of imbalance and a moment of weakness, but just as she was about to stumble, Katherine’s hand found her shoulder.

“Oops…is it hard to stand?”

“N-no…” Dawn looked away, “I’m fine.”

There was no gratitude expressed, but it didn’t stop Katherine’s appreciative look.

In fact, it seemed as if Dawn said all that the Amazon needed to hear. “Good,” she exhaled softly. “If…if you ever feel like that again, you can always come to me. You know that, right?”

“Uh-huh.” It was quick and dismissive. Actually choosing to use Katherine as a crutch? Laughable and sickening, just like the knot in her stomach right then.

“Wanna stay with Waver while I go get dressed? I’ll be right back. Promise.”

“Yeah…” Dawn said calmly and blandly. What else could she say, or in what way could she say anything? Hate was a hard emotion to process right then, and cheery felt just as wrong. So she kept it in the middle. Bland and lifeless.

“I’ll be right down the hall…” Katherine assured as she stood, and even spaced the door some more on the way out, opening it wider than it had been before. At night it meant isolation, but apparently after a crying fit it meant total supervision. It was any Little’s guess why she wasn’t offered to sit in the same room as Katherine while she changed, even.

But thankfully she wasn’t asked because it was far from what Dawn wanted. Anything in this dimension was far from what she wanted. What mattered and she desired couldn’t be attained here. It was all stuck with true safety across the dimensional border. Sitting back home. Real home. Home where her real mom and dad were. Her real family and her very real boyfriend.

Staring up at the ceiling with the side of her vision obscured by a tuft of golden fur, Dawn wanted nothing more than for the nightmare to end…

Then she shivered and quivered, feeling a tingle from her foot. Sitting her head up, she gave the culprit a mean mug.

“Waver…stop sniffing my foot…!”

 

---

“And you’re sure you don’t wanna listen to anything?” Katherine’s eyes communicated the concern she had all on their own through the rearview mirror. Of course she couldn’t turn around, and thankfully she never tried to, what with her hands on the steering wheel.

“No. I’m fine,” Dawn tried to quickly dismiss the subject. Maybe Amazons did have good music, but that was only for Amazons. One trip in the car with Katherine already taught Dawn the kind of music she could expect while in attendance. Only the finest hit singles like The Wheels on the Bus or Ba-Ba Black Sheep. While she was a fan of contemporary, Katherine still somehow managed to miss her wide net.

The one pseudo-plus she’d had all day aside from the pancakes was a new pair of shoes. While they wouldn’t have been her first choice, plain white sneakers beat whatever her pessimistic imagination could concoct, which surely would never match the cruel realities of a place like this. Though, sticking out her foot from her car seat once more, she frowned at it.

Double knotted? Triple? Single, even? It went without saying that Dawn didn’t get a hand in tying her own shoe, as silly as that sounded, but expectations had been steadily plummeting as of late. Twice, Dawn had the chance to watch and listen while Katherine laced and tied her shoes right in front of her, but the moment then just like her memories of it now was a messy blur.

The fox chases the ferret, up and down the tree! Up and over…up and over…right, left, right!  Something, something, something… –All the way home! And one convoluted and confusing rhyme later and her shoe was snug and tied. Maybe the rhyme or the reason had some credence, but only in the “fox” part. Sort of. The loops of shoelace around the complex knot were in fact ears, but certainly not a fox. Probably. They were bunny ears, like they always were. Or…? How did fox ears look again?

A simple question, one that she’d actually be able to get an answer to. After all, they were driving to Katherine’s work. The library. A place Dawn had only heard so little of, barely even now, the day of.

Per what little lore she had and the bountiful experience she’d been given herself from her own college one, the obvious expectation was a building full of books and a meager crowd of few willing to learn anything from them. College libraries had the benefit of students struggling to pass and in desperate need of silence. Unlike school though, the public city ones didn’t necessarily have graduates and unders alike with such personal and urgent reasons for going.

Books though… Lots of books. Lots of reading material. Opportunities to learn…

And right before Dawn could reach her head up and over just to win that extra half an inch’s worth of view from her car seat, she squashed the unexpected feeling entirely.

Excited…? Absolutely not. Not a million years. Before she was privy to the nonsense and humanitarian horrors this whole place had, sure, she had seen a few cool attractions. All in all the technology and infrastructure of this world wasn’t anything to scoff at. But not once did she feel so appealed to…

It was her in-progress degree that spoke to the sound of crisp ink-printed paper turning from page to page. The smell of a new book. Soft covers, hard coves. Intricate spines, synopses sometimes on the back or on the inside. O-or! Or even on the inside of the sleeve itself!

H-however…this was no time for a feeling like that. After all, need she forget her situation? How she was dressed?

“Somebody’s looking a little antsy back there, huh?” Katherine chuckled and Dawn jumped (but didn’t go very far, courtesy of her car seat straps), making a noise herself. “Are you excited to see the library?”

“I…I guess I’m a little interested…” Dawn quickly tried to calm herself down. “We never saw anything like that during the….tour…” Great, now she was reminded of a subject that was still freshly sore.

“I can’t wait to show you!” The Amazon in the driver’s seat was far less reserved. “You know how our house has two floors?”

Yes, one plus one did in fact add to two.

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, the library here has three! And they’re a lot bigger than ours.”

Lots and threes didn’t put much into perspective, but apparently Dawn was supposed to work with what she had. Big and three floors. Okay. Still, three floors was interesting. She was only used to the one big floor design…

And when they pulled into the parking lot, even from Dawn’s vertically disadvantaged view she could see the upper ends of the massive building.

From the second floor up she could see the ornate windows, tall and wide, carved concrete trims and linings. Multi-colored brick and black-iron roofed lighting fixtures lined the irregular shape of the walls. Extrusions were inconsistent and gave the monument character, all on top of its choice-selected portions of the roof that sloped with heavy, thick looking dark green shingles.

It was all the wonder and craze the design of her hotel had, but by so, so much more.

“Is…” One question started, but another was already interrupting herself, “--wait, is that a tree up there?” Maybe it was some kind of decor or design she didn’t understand, but a pocket of the building came out up to the second floor like a giant outdoor balcony or patio, and sure enough, a big head of green foliage was sitting on the corner of it…

“There’s a lot of cozy places to read books here,” Katherine spoke with pride. “If they’d let me, I think I’d just wanna live here…!”

It was of course obligatory that Dawn considered next that this was undoubtedly the largest building she had ever laid eyes on. Part of that was certainly Amazons taking advantage of their size, but even within this dimension, she hadn’t seen anything as large. It was like a…stadium, or something! But for books! Forget her college; they didn’t have anything on this!

Crap. Now Dawn couldn’t keep her feet still. Maybe she was a tiny bit excited. But only just a little. Maybe just a lot. She didn’t exactly have concrete expectations, but just from the outside alone? Was it fair to expect now something even beyond her wildest imagination?

Regardless, she tried to not let it show, and she tried to stay calm. While she wasn’t going to try and be anything as disrespectful as she was yesterday, she’d certainly be trying to stay on the reserved end of things…

The engine’s murmur finally stopped and Dawn’s many straps kept her from feeling the car come to a full stop.

“Okay, we’re here!” Katherine announced with a cheery intone. With both hands grabbing her seat she spun her head, finally forcing Dawn to make eye contact. “Well? Are you ready?”

“I guess…?” Dawn tried to play it off, using the thought of wearing a diaper as a wondrous tool to help ground herself. Though, it may have made her plummet a bit too fast, now dreading the feeling of being a public spectacle. At least there were pants this time…

“I think you’re gonna have a lot of fun!” Katherine giggled right before slipping out of the driver’s seat. Once her door was shut, it was Dawn in the company of silence while she waited for the warden to set her free.

Though, what slightly irked her more than it should have was the apparent detour Katherine made to the trunk. She was treated to the sound of birds and cicadas all behind her while the Amazon fished through the back. Another gentle slam and finally her sentence had ended.

And while Katherine spent a moment on her car seat, she said, “So Dawn…do you remember what we talked about this morning?”

A not so quiet sigh left the girl’s mouth. “Yeah.” Sure, maybe she was required to call for Katherine using a specific kind of title, but all she needed to do was not call for her at all?

“Do…do you think we could try real quick?” she gave a hopeful look.

Try? What, give the ‘M’ word a test run? It bothered the tiny girl to no end just how expectant the Amazon looked. Her eyes couldn’t hide the anticipation and celebration just waiting to jump out from them. Whether it was forced or not, it was certainly an experience Katherine wanted, and Dawn could tell clear as day.

So with a bitter taste in her mouth, Dawn dismissively copped, “Mom.”

And before she could finish the one and only syllable, Katherine’s teeth already came out to play and a gust of gratitude was just about to leave her mouth. But she stopped short. Her bouncing eyebrows slopped off at the ends as her inner points prayed for a far better result.

“What?” Dawn frowned on the outside, but grinned from within. “I said it?”

“W…well…” Katherine slowly tried to navigate the unexpected loophole while she finished unbuckling her. “I think it’d sound a bit better if…uhm, you called me Mommy, instead?

Now this. This was fun. This was the excitement she needed. Nothing like a word game to get the real morning started.

“Why?” Dawn asked and dared not repeat. Not even on a technicality was she going to make it easy. Why call you [BLANK]? Nope! How come you prefer [BLANK]? Zilch!

“L…Boys and girls don’t really call their mommies that, Dawn? That’s more of a…grownup word?”

“So I’m not a grownup, then?” Sort of playing along, but also sort of annoyed now.

“You’re a big girl,” Katherine corrected and assured, yet missed the mark entirely. “But sometimes with Littles and their parents–”

“Guardians?” Captors? Kidnappers?

“Uh-huh,” Katherine nodded, but admitted to no fault, “with Littles it’s much more common to say Mommy and Daddy. Mom and Dad sound a lot more plain, huh?” Katherine made an off-face, like she was trying to appeal to Dawn’s kid-like emotions that didn’t exist. Dawn did not readily agree, so Katherine seemed to at least partially drop the indirect explanation. “It’s a little embarrassing if a Little you’re taking care of doesn’t call you that…” and to the woman’s credit, she didn’t hold Dawn hostage by keeping her in the seat. Suspended by sitting on her arm, Dawn had no choice in grabbing onto her shoulders.

But before a smart-ass answer could be thought of, or another dumb kind of question just to twist the semantics could be made, a far more bitter, cheap and annoying move was used.

“It sounds silly, but someone might call LPS if they think anything’s wrong?”

And that would mean LPS gets involved, and that’s somehow bad for Dawn. Get removed from Katherine and James…taken somewhere…blah-blah-blah. Quite frankly, it’d probably be the perfect time to let somebody know that she isn’t from this world. And yet, that somehow was the worst case scenario. Trust was an awfully hard thing to stomach nowadays.

“Fine,” Dawn put it briefly, far too annoyed for the game to have ended this quickly and so abruptly. What a sore loser, Katherine was.

“Thank you,” Katherine smiled appreciatively, and the walk to the library began.

“Since we’re here so early, not a lot of people come around right now,” Katherine explained the lack of cars and abundance of empty space. “We get really busy in the afternoon, though!”

“Is this place really that popular?” Dawn asked, still marveling over the look, but fairly skeptical nonetheless. After all, books were just books. She knew the value in them, but that didn’t mean every other living person did.

“Uh-huh! Lots of people like coming here to read books, but we also have movies, computers, and other tools that people may wanna use. We even just got a cafe last year!”

“A cafe?” Dawn finally turned her head for that, and whatever look she gave, Katherine’s glittering eyes must have found it priceless.

“Yep! They have lots of yummy desserts! If you want, maybe later we can stop by?” she tempted with her tone of voice. ‘Be obedient and I’ll pay you off with sweets,’ or something like that.

“Maybe…” Dawn muttered while she admired the grand entrance. A short staircase prolonged over many feet with long, flat slabs. It plateaued out into a space with benches and islands of grass with trees. Everything about this place was breathtaking, and Dawn was afraid to admit to liking any of it. Did liking this mean that she condoned and accepted all the practices a place like this had? Was this what kept Earth from achieving such wonderful things? Just a discriminatory social hierarchy and a whole lot of diapers?

Come to think of it…

So just a whole lot more diapers, then?

As they approached the front doors, Dawn watched for Katherine’s hand to reach, but it didn’t, given she was using both to hold her. So instead two unexpected things were noticed. One, was that the doors were automatic and sliding. Impressive. And two, was the strap over her other shoulder that had somehow gone unnoticed.

“Katherine, what’s that?”

“What’s what? The doors?” Then she followed Dawn’s finger. “Oh! That’s just a bag I packed for you? Though, I put some of my stuff in there, too,” she chuckled sheepishly, and Dawn wasn’t smiling.

Calling it just a bag felt plain deceptive. Normal bags weren’t that wide and were far more nondescript. A purse wouldn’t be as big and with so many pockets and zippers. And any normal bag wouldn’t be covered in prancing cartoon puppies all over pastels.

“I don’t need a diaper bag.” It felt gross just to say even aloud.

“Sweetie, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about…” And for once she guessed right about how Dawn was feeling. Then again, embarrassment was only half the picture. She was partially correct, at least; so the same as always.

“Why couldn’t you have just brought something normal? Like a backpack, or something?!” Or the best case scenario of all: nothing!

“These are normal, Dawn?” Katherine jostled her shoulder either to adjust or bring even more attention to her entire arsenal of diapers, powder and more. “Besides, a backpack wouldn’t be big enough. Well, maybe it would have…but that’s only because we’re still getting you everything you might need?”

What? What could she possibly need more than what a backpack could hold? Toys in case she gets bored? A second change of clothes should she– wait, no gross. Super fucking gross. Dawn dashed that thought right away.

So finally, opting for the high road, Dawn frowned, “I’m upset you didn’t even tell me.”

“...And I’m sorry for not telling you,” Katherine apologized, though it felt more like a performance than anything. Probably in her mind bringing a diaper bag was a no brainer. Poor Dawn was too busy with her cartoons to even realize that much. “But sweetie, you know we can’t go drive home every time we need to change you, right?”

Yet another blow to her image. Did she really think Dawn was that simple-minded? “I won’t need changing,” Dawn seethed quietly, and finally their trip across the marbled floor opened up to an atrium.

While daylight was bleeding in from all sorts of points, the most unobstructed example was a massive skylight from the roof all the way up to the third floor shining down on the first. Thick fancy rock columns started where they stood and repeatedly stacked from floor to floor, supporting each and every platform above it. Forget what was on the same level as them, Dawn spun her head just from the astonishment of the massively tall and mighty bookshelves she could see. Shelves that looked just a few feet from the ceilings right above them!

They’d taken a step through time and reached the Roman civilization in its grandest, golden era. Poor Alexandria’s library was thought to have been lost, but it’d simply gone and disappeared to another dimension. Right here…!

Practically a messy blur with how far away it all was, but Dawn could see the variation in colors, shapes and sizes that lined the endless and larger than life shelves. And…things were moving? Things hanging from the ceiling? Sure, there were many assortments of cool glass bubbles with lights in them, but machines moved quietly and seamlessly across the ceiling, following tracks like trains on rails.

“What’re those?”

“Those,” Katherine held Dawn close just to freely point up, “are special helpers we use to manage the library!”

Special helpers? “So you use robots?”

“Uh-huh!” And despite Dawn making it clear she knew the distinction between what functioned off blood and electricity, Katherine continued to explain, “They help us put books back where they’re supposed to go and get the ones we need! The library is a really big building, even for me.” So probably a mini city for Dawn. “Now we have lots of helpers that can keep the library clean and organized.”

Dawn watched for a little longer, but the trolley started moving again and they were off. “So what do you do then?” The use of robots was impressive, but the greatest advancements always spelled the downfall for those they replaced.

“Well, sometimes books can be in hard to reach spots or in places that you need someone like me to go to. And also, there can be days when one of the robot helpers can be feeling kind of sick, so it’s my job to make them feel better!”

The layers she spoke with were always a mental challenge to dissect… But on a much more serious note, the actual skill involved in her job was bleeding to the surface.

“Wait, so you do maintenance on the robots?” Apparently calling herself a librarian was selling it awfully short. In all honesty, actually, it was kind of…

“Cool, right?” Katherine chuckled through a Cheshire grin. “Our book buddies get regular check-ups though, so they always stay nice and healthy!”

“Huh…” Dawn commented as her head focused on the trail they left behind them. Adverts and signs sat on so many shorter shelves and aisles. Fun-looking graphics or simple, informative plaques and cards that indicated topics or genres. Though, what she wasn’t seeing were any sort of numbers to indicate sorting. Sort of, at least. Much more subtly it was a lengthy series of numbers, letters and symbols? Poor Dewey would be rolling in his grave.

“How…how do you guys sort stuff here?”

“We use a special system that’s kind of like a home address. Kinda like how our house has a specific street and number?” Katherine explained while they ascended a grand staircase. “Every book has a house and we remember where each and every one of them live!”

Maybe they hadn’t gone for madness completely.

“Yeah…we do that too, but…” Dawn frowned, finding that their sorting labels looked more and more like gibberish the deeper they went. “Your system looks weird.”

“It can be a little tough to read,” Katherine agreed, but Dawn couldn’t tell if the Amazon was legitimately conceding or trying not to make the girl feel incapable.

It was for some reason a hard thing to ask, but Dawn said aloud, “Well can you show me later?”

“Of course!” Katherine couldn’t have sounded happier. Her hold on the Little squeezed for just a second, affirming the affection that words could not. “When I’m on my break later we can absolutely do that!”

“...Kay…” Dawn kept it simple, still fighting that urge to stay reserved. It sucked because she was curious. It looked like heaven for books and they were walking right by all of them. A treasure trove of knowledge and literature, yet she couldn’t even understand the basic building blocks of how to navigate any of it…! But it didn’t change her urge to sift through it all and explore. Yes, an actual place she wouldn’t mind adventuring in.

To think of all the wondrous things she might be able to learn. A wonderful reprieve from everything that sucked about this world. Hell, she could even try to learn more about the madness that dictated it!

Another few moments of quiet observation and fascination ensued, though that was interrupted by a third person’s voice.

“Katherine?!” A loud and surprised voice echoed across the marbled floor.

“Sorry,” Katherine whispered in Dawn’s ear, “You’re gonna be a little popular today!” Much more clearly, aimed at the stranger and not Dawn, she chuckled, “Good morning, Grace!”

The footsteps sounded louder and closer, to the point that the other Amazon was within conversing distance of the pair.

“You’re joking, right? You had no plans to tell me?!”

“Grace…” Katherine moaned sheepishly, “It all happened so fast, okay?”

What, kidnapping a little? Walking her around like an accessory? Dawn still had yet to look at the other woman, She was busy pinning her chin on Katherine’s shoulder.

“But….ah! I can’t believe it!” Grace cried a small cheer, “You actually did it! You and James got a Little! Oh my gosh, congratulations! What’s her name? When did you adopt her?!”

Somehow Dawn’s head went heavier, trying her best to focus on the “Book Buddies.” Surely they looked and sounded more interesting than this one-dimensional giant sounded.

Then an unwelcome hand started to comb the back of Dawn’s hair. The only reason she allowed for it was simply so she could use it as an excuse to keep looking the other way. “Her name is Dawn, and it was a couple days ago… It’s been a bit hectic, so we’ve all been adjusting a bit.” Yeah, but some a whole fucking lot more than others…

“I can imagine!” Grace laughed, no less excited. And finally some kind of social awareness must have caught up with her, because then she gasped. “Oh!” Lowering her voice, she asked not so quietly still, “Is she a bit shy?”

“It’s her first time here, Grace,” Katherine spoke like she was scolding, but it was far more fabricated than the tone she’d use with Dawn. Fake scolding, and that made it all the more frustrating to know that she personally had to put up with the real deal. But just when Dawn thought that Katherine was sort of on her side, a hushed voice coaxed right beside her ear, “Dawn? Do you wanna say hi to my friend?”

A question, sure, but was there really a choice? Maybe there was, but also maybe there wasn’t. In any case, only one answer could be appropriate for both. Dusting off the rust on her swivel, Dawn turned her head, mouthing an awfully bland, “Hi.”

Her end of the bargain as far as she was concerned was “behaving” and using the stupid M-word. Nothing else. Nothing at all.

Grace, Katherine’s friend, was in some kind of uniform. She was almost like a stewardess in some combination of white and dark green. Skirt, blouse, nametag, and so on. Did people really need uniforms to work at the library? Whatever, Dawn didn’t feel like asking.

And either her response was intentionally misread or deliberately skewed, Grace laughed as she said, “Oops, yep! She does sound a little shy. Sorries!”

Sorries indeed. If Dawn had it her way, she’d like to go unnoticed the entire day just to get to the more interesting parts faster. The parts that didn’t include other people.

“Today’s sort of like a trial run; just as we try to figure things out.”

“James works from home though, doesn’t he?” A whole day with James? After the spanking, it felt just as undesirable as a day with Katherine seemed, but at least it meant the plus of getting to stay home.

“Not every day. Not today,” Katherine clarified. “We’re still…figuring it all out, I guess?”

“Uh-huh, I get ya! My sister went through the same thing with hers.” Her what? Actual baby? Or forever baby? “Trouble finding a daycare, I’m guessing?”

And now the spotlight was on Katherine.

“Well…” Katherine’s voice lulled, and Dawn quietly and expectantly waited for what better have been a damn good answer. “We’re not thinking about that quite yet… We just got her and all, so…” Fine, Katherine. Somewhat passing.

“Actually, that reminds me; why didn’t you just take maternity leave?”

Was that how bad it was? Kidnapping Littles really was tantamount to birthing a new baby?

“It’s…a little complicated?” Katherine deflected, and Dawn wasn’t looking to throw any life raft to help, partly because she had no clue whatsoever on what to add. “We talked about it and are still trying to decide what might be best…” Now was that a lie or a genuine truth? If the latter, why the hell were Katherine and James having more conversations without her?

“Is that why you called out yesterday?” Grace tutted and her frown was heard. “I hope you’re not reading books all the time when you’re supposed to be looking after this munchkin, you know?”

“Grace, come on!” Katherine groaned defensively. “I’m not gonna do that!”

“I know,” she sighed, “All I mean is that the first few weeks with a Little are some of the most important? I can’t believe the boss even let you come in today, with her, no less!”

“It…took a little convincing,” Katherine laughed, though her tone carried the memories of a stern talking-to. “Oh! But, Dawn really likes books! Right, honey?” she roped Dawn back in, bouncing her arm just to double down on getting her attention.

“...Yeah.”

“Oh…! So today’s kind of like a little treat then, huh?”

“Yes it is,” Katherine agreed unanimously, and Dawn the abstained said nothing else. Said nothing else until a new bombshell was dropped.

“Oh, and actually, would you mind watching her for a little bit?” Katherine asked and Dawn’s eyes went wide. “I still need to go change into my uniform…”

“Of course!” Grace obliged, and things were moving faster than Dawn could even get a say.

“W-wait!” Dawn cried, finally speaking up before the handoff could happen. “I-I’ll just stay with you!” she said to Katherine, clearly looking not to separate.

“Oh, sweetie,” Grace cut in on their one-on-one, “You don’t wanna go back there. It’s super boring. Mommy’s just going to get dressed!”

Dawn didn’t care what this woman had to say, and still looked hopefully at her captor. But instead, Katherine offered a small smile and said, “I’ll be back soon, alright? Be good for Grace?”

And it was a hard fought battle not to cuss right then. Betrayed and broken, Dawn went cold when a new stranger’s pair of hands took hold of her.

“Grace is one of my best friends,” Katherine calmly and slowly explained, just to ward off whatever separation anxiety she thought Dawn was maybe about to have, and honestly was about to feel… “You can trust her, okay?” Then finally, she told her friend, “Please be gentle? This is still a lot of new stuff for her…”

“Roger!” Grace assured. “And actually, Dawn! Your Mommy says you like books, huh? I know just where to take you!”

“Wait, no!” Katherine, of all people, cried out. “You’re taking her there? I wanted to show her!” What? Show her what?

“You snooze, you lose, Mommy!” Grace laughed, and Dawn didn’t know how to feel.

It felt oddly uncomfortable to be looking at Katherine empty-handed because it meant Dawn was being held by someone else. Someone she didn’t know. Someone she didn’t trust, and the only way it seemed she could protect herself was by gambling on the right people.

And a small bit of emotion escaped the Little, muttering Katherine’s way, “…Don’t take long…” A hand reached out and smothered her hair and forehead.

“Promise!” Katherine smiled, lingering for a little longer, but Dawn and Grace heading the other way finally convinced the other Amazon to depart.

Well great. They’d barely just got here and Dawn was being transferred like she was property. Immediately it felt weird. Grace didn’t hold her like Katherine did. Totally different arm feel.

“So Dawn,” Grace immediately sprung into chatting the girl up, “your Mommy must be real excited to have you, huh?”

“Yeah…” The honest to God truth. Likely for worse, though.

“Is it fun having a Mommy and Daddy around?”

“It’s something…” Something she probably couldn’t say bad things about without making a scene.

“Something, huh?” Grace chuckled. “Well, your Mommy has wanted to adopt for the longest time! She’s been talking about it a lot lately, so I know you’re gonna get lots of love!” Enough to drown in, assuredly.

“Where are we going?” Dawn opted for a shift in topic, expecting to get herself into “trouble” should they linger on anything undesirable for too long.

“We are going to the best part of the library. Your Mommy loves getting to work in this part!”

And in line with her explanation, the bookshelves in the area had dropped to about a quarter in height, offering a predominantly more colorful selection of reading materials. The basic adverts and plaques now didn’t go without caricatures and eye-catching designs. Friendly cartoon faces, rainbows, bees and butterflies. Letter blocks and stylized book graphics.

The marble was sectioned by a sweeping rubber trim that defined the difference between professional flooring and colorful carpeting. Circles, squares, triangles and pentagons of varying size and shade were on the floor. The walls on the way back had painted clouds and flowers with smiling faces and more. If the demographic for the library was somewhere in the middle, this corner of the world they had reached was far beneath that.

In fact, along that rubber trim was a simple but effective faux white picket fence sectioning off the large area. Hanging above the ceiling in a large sign, right above the opening to the pen was labeled “LITTLE LEARNERS CORNER.”

The kids section. This was the corner dedicated for kids.

“Ta-da!” Grace excitedly cheered, stepping inside. The centerpiece of the area was a small clearing, covered with a few big and lush bean bag chairs and plush cushions. At the end and designated as the throne though was a large Amazon-sized rocking chair. Dawn didn’t need any actors to figure out what she was looking at. The story time area.

“This is where all the kids can come and read some really cool stuff! Wanna explore a little?”

And before Dawn could refuse, she was being set on her feet.

The bookshelves were shorter, yes, but that still put them well above the girl’s head. It was vexing to think that even the most childish parts of her favorite hobby still exceeded her physical abilities.

“Wanna grab a book? It’s okay, you can!” Grace assured, and suddenly permission was given to investigate.

Curiosity kept her slightly invested though. After all, books were books. She came up to a bookshelf tracing her finger along the wooden edge of the shelf, trying to spot anything at least worth looking at. Finally, she landed on a thick spine and pulled the book out, pleasantly surprised that it could mostly fit in her hands.

Though, that was where the pleasantries ended.

Yes, the book was thick, but not with content. Thick with a cardboard like material. The pages were far from thin, and the count couldn’t have been more than ten pages total, front to back. Before even reading the title she tried to skim with her fingers, but the pages obviously didn’t bend like paper did, leading to a methodical finger for each thick cardboard page.

It was more illustration than words. Sentences stopped within eight words. A “paragraph” at best was three sentences at most. Then she read the title on the front.

“KEEPING COZY”

All capital letters. Not very hard to read. By design.

Dawn sighed, slipping it back in. Okay, fine. Unlucky. She moved over to a different shelf, a bit more hopeful.

Thankfully this one wasn’t cardboard, but it was thin…

A low page count. With illustrations, lots of them. Thirty pages, at most, but the words could only account for forty percent of the page… The pages were wide, just so the cartoon drawings could fit. Only then did the imagery of discarded toilets, empty bathrooms and smiling children in nurseries make her concerned enough to read the title.

“Potty Playtime!”

“Ooou!” Grace commented from above, making the girl realize that she was in fact being watched. “That’s a fun one! Was some of it hard to read? If you want, we can set it aside to read for later?”

Clearly her disdain had been mistaken for reading incomprehension. “N…no thanks…” Dawn tried to stay calm, slipping it back where she found it. She quickly made for a different shelf. Please, don’t let door number 3 disappoint.

She moved and walked, trying to ignore her crinkle, and suddenly felt drawn to the higher shelves behind the rocking chair. Just by the distribution of size and width Dawn was feeling far more hopeful there. Content she had no idea, but maybe for being much closer to actual stories?

Her hands latched onto a book far bigger than what she had just been touching. Amazon-sized, maybe? But just as she was starting to slide it out…

“Ah-ah!” Grace tutted and Dawn watched her hand invade her vision and firmly press it back in. “Sorry, Dawn! Those are the ones the grownups read to everyone. Why don’t we go check out some other books?”

Grownups only? Dawn scrunched her eyebrows and frowned.

Turning in place, she looked up at Grace. “So why can’t I touch them?”

Without skipping a beat, the Amazon explained, “Because those are for grownups, sweetheart.”

“So I can’t read them?”

“It’s a rule, honey. Books need to be taken care of, so that’s why you can’t touch the ones on that shelf, okay? Those ones are a little too big for you, but I promise you can see them once we start story time?”

And like that her curiosity was dying fast. Not allowed? Against the rules? She turned and made a beeline for the exit.

“Whoa, where are you off to?” Grace chuckled, having no trouble at all to keep ahead, and the audacity to lift Dawn and turn, positioning the Amazon between her and the exit.

“I want to read books. Actual books,” Dawn frowned.

“And there’s plenty to read here?” Grace smiled, but the look wasn’t reciprocated.

“Why can’t I go out there?” Suddenly the white picket fence surrounding the space felt less like decor and more of a functioning container.

“Because it’s easy to get lost, honey. We have plenty of fun stories to read here?”

Sure, she had to behave, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t list her grievances, right? “I don’t care about the books here. I wanna go see what else is around here.” Go explore the big shelves. The genres and topics. Anatomy of foxes. Nothing about cozy playtime and feel-good fantasies that lasted for ten pages! The only reading material in here was assuredly for first graders and below, and that felt like a stretch. Kindergarteners, maybe?

But firmly, she was denied. “No, Dawn. That’s a rule we have here.”

“Wh-what? What rule?”

“No Littles are allowed to play with the books.”

E…

Ex-fucking-cuse me?

[Kahlez]

Glad to read more of it. Hopefully Dawn learns to at least in public be more careful or she maybe will find out that she was really lucky so far. Not that there are still other problems like that LPS surely will asked question about her not being officially adopted yet.

[Panther Cub]

Ooooh. methinks Katherine did not think that that would be an issue with little Dawn. Maybe she figured Dawn prefers the big, thick, more cardboard-y ones back in her home dimension?

 

(Makes me wonder what would happen if someone showed her a freakin' Lovecraft compendium?)

(Ooooh! Or maybe something by Stephen King? Actually, I wouldn't mind cracking open one of those again...)

[TerranV]

4 hours ago, Panther Cub said:

Ooooh. methinks Katherine did not think that that would be an issue with little Dawn. Maybe she figured Dawn prefers the big, thick, more cardboard-y ones back in her home dimension?

 

(Makes me wonder what would happen if someone showed her a freakin' Lovecraft compendium?)

(Ooooh! Or maybe something by Stephen King? Actually, I wouldn't mind cracking open one of those again...)

Lovecraft is a good start but why not A Song of Ice and Fire?

Seriously though a double chapter?! Awesome! 

I usually find myself siding with Dawn but her vendetta against delicious eggs is a mark against her in my book!

Of course it seems Katherine is still incredibly difficult when it comes to talking to her. Dawn still seems to stick to being obstinate in the face of what she doesn't like. 

I do hope a mutual love of books leads to some bonding between them though. 

Of course Grace is unknowingly stepping on a landmine.

Clearly a racist rule to prevent Littles from furthering their educations and finding greater ways to oppose the system.

[TheJ]

I just hope Katherine eventually realises that Dawn needs something more mentally stimulating than actual children's toys, shows and books. If she doesn't meet Dawn halfway, she and James are going to be stuck with an unhappy little, and I'm going to get more and more angry on Dawn's behalf! 

[kerry]

On 12/8/2022 at 8:56 PM, TheJ said:

I just hope Katherine eventually realises that Dawn needs something more mentally stimulating than actual children's toys, shows and books. If she doesn't meet Dawn halfway, she and James are going to be stuck with an unhappy little, and I'm going to get more and more angry on Dawn's behalf! 

I agree completely. I love this story, but I think that at some point (soon) Katherine needs to start to realize that this Little can think like an Amazon. It may be too much to ask that she start treating Dawn a bit more like an adult, but I do think she needs to recognize that there is a stark difference between this Little and the young child she was hoping for. If she truly "loves" Dawn, she should be aware that there is more to her than can be accounted for by her prejudices.