#gianttiny fluff

finally came up with a proper title for this series. anyways, here's the comfort part of "hurt/comfort", as promised in the last chapter. I hope you enjoy it. criticism is appreciated.

previous part

tw: mentioning death and squeezing, though none actually happens.

______________________________________________________________

It felt like a couple of hours later. I was still under the pillow, holding myself. I had stopped crying a while ago, now I was just numb. It was still raining outside, thunder roaring every so often. Occasionally, I would hear Ella walking by. She didn’t speak to me for a while, sometimes I would feel her walking behind the couch behind me, or see her looking at me from the other side of the room while I hid from her under the pillow. Finally, she left the room and came back a couple of minutes later with a massive paper towel with some more stale bread on it.

“Hey,” the giant said, sitting on her knees in front of the couch, and placing the plate next to the pillow. She was rubbing her neck. “It’s about lunchtime. You should eat something.”

I stayed silent. I was actually hungry, even if all there was to eat was the large, stale bread, but I didn’t want to come out of my hiding spot. I didn’t want to expose myself to her. I heard the giant sign in response to my silence.

“Come on, come out of there, I want to talk to you,” Ella said, sounding more annoyed. “You're not in trouble or anything, just come out.” I still didn’t budge from my spot.

“I….I am not h-hungry…” I lied, trying to get Ella to go away. She groaned with more annoyance.

“Look, I’m trying to be nice to you after what happened, and you’re going to accept it, ok?” Ella said. “Don’t make me yank you out from under there, kid.”

I hesitantly crawled out from under the throw pillow and looked down in nervousness, avoiding eye contact with the giant. 

“There you are,” Ella said, glaring down at me. “I got you some food,” she pushed the piece of bread towards me. I stared at it for a moment before stepping onto the paper towel and picking the bread up, taking a small bite. It was hard and nearly crunchy. 

“Do you not like it?” Ella asked. I looked up at her.

“Um…its…..uh, its ... .um…a bit stale….” I said sheepishly.

“Do you want me to get you something else? Water? Fruit from outside?” The giant asked.

“Um, no thanks, I’m fine,” I said, taking another bite. The giant sighed and leaned on her elbow on the couch. She seemed like she didn’t know how to say what she wanted to.

“So…about earlier, your… you're fine now, right?” she asked.

“Wh-what?” I said, confused as to what she meant.

“You're not like, traumatized or anything from what I did to you, right? I mean,your not crying anymore,”

“...yeah, I’m not… crying…” I said,

“So you're fine? We’re good?” Ella asked. I struggled with wwhatto say to her. I was silent for a few moments before I heard her sigh. “You’re still afraid, aren’t you?”

“Um….well….um….” I stumbled over my words while answering her, “your…very big…and you…um…you can be….um”

“I can be what?” Ella asked sternly. “Intimidating? Mean?”

“Well...um…..” I nodded and shrugged at the same time. Ella sighed again.

“We should talk about this somewhere else,” she said, reaching her hand towards me.

“Huh? Wait, don’t-” 

The giant suddenly picked me up, wrapping her hand around my torso and giving me a light squeeze as she casually walked into the kitchen and plopped me onto the table. She sat down in a chair while I tried to stand back up. She sighed before talking. 

“Look, I didn’t mean to go that far when I was…threatening you earlier,” she said, looking down as if she was ashamed. “I wouldn’t actually hurt you, let alone ‘make you go missing’ like I said. I was just trying to get you to listen to me and stop asking questions. I didn’t mean to make you cry or anything, ok?”

“Um…ok…” I said, still scared.

“Good, I just wanted you to understand that.” she said. “As long as you're here, I’m in charge of you, and you have to listen to me, but that doesn’t mean I’ll hurt you, understand?”

“...sure…” I said, looking down. Ella sighed slightly and looked closer at me.

“Don’t lie to me, Quincy.” the giant said.

“I…I’m not…” I gulped to calm myself down, “I’m not lying,”

“You still think that I’d hurt you,” Ella said sternly. “You're shaking and mumbling when you try to talk. If you trusted me not to hurt you, you wouldn’t be doing that.”

“I…you…well ... .your…you're not doing a very good job convincing me.” I said,

“Look, I explained myself, I told you I didn’t mean to make you cry like that, I don’t know what else you would want from me to give me your trust.”

“You…you didn’t even…apologize…you…you’re acting like you didn’t do anything wrong, and this is just some kind of misunderstanding…” I said, looking down.

“Is that not what this is?” Ella asked, even more stern. “You misunderstood me, and thought I would hurt you.”

“You….you threatened me…you squeezed me….” I said, closing my eyes to brace myself for Ellas reaction.

“Squeeze you? What are you talking about?” Ella asked. “You mean when I was holding you tight earlier to bring you here? That was so I don’t drop you. You wouldn’t want to fall from that height, kid,”

“No…when you were yelling at me,” I said, “you…you were holding me tight again, and….your grip squeezed me while you were yelling…..and it hurt…like you were going to crush me…” Ella was silent for a moment hearing this. Her expression lightened and her eyes got wider as she looked at me.

“What? You mean I hurt you?” Ella asked, suddenly sounding horrified. “Are you still hurt? Did I break anything?”

“Um, no…I’m fine now…..a little sore, I guess,” I said,

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Ella asked,

“You…you were mad at me…” I said.

“You…you thought I did that on purpose?” Ella said, sounding both horrified and angry at the same time. “I…I wouldn’t…I honestly didn’t mean to…” her expression softened more as she sighed, looking at me with guilt. “are you sure you're not hurt? Are you okay? Do you need anything?” 

“No, I…I’m fine, it's ok,” I said. 

“It's not ok, I hurt you,” Ella said in a serious, yet sympathetic tone, “I could have actually injured you, or crush you, I…” The giant sighed again, closing her eyes and looking down with guilt, before looking back at me. “I’m sorry, Quincy.”

“For….for squeezing me?” I asked.

“For squeezing you, for making you cry, and for yelling at you in the first place.” Ella said. “I really, truly, sorry.”

“Um, it's okay, Ella,” I said looking up at her, “it only hurt for a moment anyway. It's fine.”

“It's not fine, Quincy. Your 13, you’re just a kid.” Ella said, full of guilt and anger at herself. “I yelled at a child. I made a child cry and hide from me. I almost killed a child…” 

It seemed like she was more so talking to herself at this point, trying to come to terms with what she did. What she could have done. There was still sternness in her voice, but none of it was directed towards me anymore. It was all towards herself. She was angry at herself. 

“It's ok, its…its over now. You don’t have to worry anymore,” I said, trying to calm the giant down.

“This is exactly why I’m not supposed to be around normal humans,” she muttered under her breath. I guess if she was normal size, I wouldn’t have heard it. But she's not, and I heard what she said perfectly. 

“...not allowed?” I asked. Ella looked at me for a second embarrassed and still ashamed of herself. She sighed and looked down.

“Quincy…” he sighed again, frustrated. “The reason I didn’t want you asking those questions..” she paused, “is that..the more you know about me, about this, about my job, where we are, what I am, the more you know about those things, the more danger you will be in.”

“Danger from what?” I asked.

“...not me, hopefully.” the giant sighed. “With what you know now, there's a good chance you’ll be fine…for the most part. But if you find anything else out, you won’t be. Bad things will happen to you, and I don’t want those things to happen, but I can’t keep them from happening unless you stay unaware of these things. Do you understand?”

It took me a moment to answer, “ok…I understand…” Ella grew a soft smile as I nodded. 

“Good, I’m glad we could work this out,” The giant said, still looking sympathetic. “If there's anything I could do to…y’know, make things up to you for what I did earlier before those people come to get you tomorrow, just tell me, m’kay kid?”

“Um…ok, Ella,” I said. “Um, could we…do something to pass the time…until then…”

I imagine me being a giant and being discovered by someone who immediately assumes I’m some kind of monster, and seeing them back away with their hands up, nervously saying “st-stay back... don’t... just don’t hurt me...”

So I just give a concerned, worried expression and say, “What makes you think I could hurt you..?”

Their fear slowly turns to confusion, unsure if they should state the obvious answer, but then they just reply “Um... Nothing! Nothing at all!” prompting me to let out a sigh of relief.

The two of us end up talking a little bit more, asking questions about things the other has, what we’re doing here, etc., until the little person finally says “When you asked what made me think you could hurt me... do you really not know?”

I’m so tempted to say I don’t, just to pretend there’s no difference between us, but I gather my courage, take a deep breath, and answer honestly.

“I do,” I reply, “I just don’t know why you think I’d do anything like that... it’s not just that I won’t hurt you, I genuinely can’t.”

“...what do you mean?”

“Could you look at an innocent person, who’s never done any bad things you know of, and then make yourself hurt them? Honestly, you all freak me out with how much you think I could actually do that...”

@flashfictionfridayofficial

Word count: 1018

This story is about my FFF131 characters and happens long after in the entire story chronology. Lately I can only write about these characters...

I was desperate and anxious to tell Sierra that... I was in love with her. A giant in love with a little monster... How a thing like that could happen? It doesn’t matter. I had just returned to school after a sick time. The break had just begun and so I had a few minutes to find her to say what needed to be said.

Lucky for me it was easy to find her. Sierra was holding something in her locket when she realized I was getting closer.

“Hi Sierra, can I have a word with you?”

“You know very well that you could only talk to me.” She said laughing softly “I'm glad you're better and you're back in school. What do you want to talk about?”

“Is it that before I tell you we could go to the garden? I think it's more comfortable.”

“That's fine with me, but you're making me curious.”

We went to the garden isolated from everyone, not because I needed after all everyone already moved away from me except Sierra. It's because I felt that was my place, since I spent so much time there.

"So what do you have to say to me?”

I got nervous and it took me a while to talk. Sierra arched her eyebrow, obviously suspicious.

"It's just... Remember when I told you at home that you're important to me? You said you knew that, but I wanted to tell you something else, but I didn't have the guts. I had to think a little more about what I was feeling.”

"And what did you want to tell me that day?”

"I'm going to get to that point. Remember also that you asked me what had happened so you could be so close to me in bed and I didn't answer you? It's just that... I brought you close when you were sleeping...”

"I figured that would have been it, but why did you put me so close that day? And what does that have to do with it?”

"Believe me, it's all about that. I brought you close because I wanted to... Feel you. Feeling you close to me.”

Her arched eyebrow dismantled to become a face of amazement.

"I understand where you're going... "She said with her head down

"Really?” I asked shocked

"Yes, but keep going.”

"It just so happens that... That I love you. That I'm in love with you. That's it. "I finally confessed.

"I already knew, or rather, I imagined.”

What do you mean she already knew? Was it that obvious?

"How did you already know?” I asked amazed

"I realized that your look at me had changed some time ago... It's more intense than before.”

"Oh, of course... "I answered half-bland

"That's not possible... It can only be the work of the spell...”

“Can the effect of your songs last that long? Because it's been a few days since I heard you sing and I was bewitched.”

"No, it never happened to last that long... But it's still not possible.”

"How is it not possible?” I asked

"It's just that no one's ever liked me like that before...”

"Well, for everything there is a first time. And you're wrong if you think no one could like you. "I said, and I touch her chin with the tip of one of my fingers “You're very special, Sierra, don't doubt that.”

I noticed the little one was a little embarrassed after that.

"But what do you say to me?”

"What... Do I tell you?”

“Of course. Do you like me that way too? What's your answer?”

She kept quiet and her head down for a long time, which made me anxious. I wonder what she was thinking about taking so long to answer me. If she wanted to reject me, why were she thinking so much?

"I... "She began by straightening one of the locks of hair "I'm sorry, but... I don't feel the same way about you. I'm sorry, but... I don't love you, Dante.”

Of course, hearing that broke my heart, as much as I'd ever expected it.

"That's because I'm a giant, isn't it?” I asked “Do you also think that...”

"It's nothing like that! I mean, it is, but... You're special too, Dante. I don't give a what the other monsters think of you. I can see for myself that you're gentle and really nice, but I wanted us to stay friends.”

"I'm sorry, Sierra, but you can't go on like this...”

"Why not?”

"Because I can't see you just as a friend anymore...”

"Does that mean that... "She began to cry"; "We won't see each other anymore? Not even be together?”

"Exactly!” I answered

"You can't do that!” She exclaimed, "Do you want to be alone here again?”

"Of course not, but... There's no other way.”

"That's not fair... "She cried tearful

"I don't understand. Why are you so nervous?”

"Because I... Because I'm going to miss you.”

"I'm going to miss you, too." I said, touching my finger on her face once more, “I’m going to miss you so much.”

"Please Dante. At least let us keep seeing each other. I don't want it to end like this." She begged in tears

"I'm sorry, but... It's not going to work anyway.”

Sierra ran out without looking back, still crying, which left me devastated. I even tried to grab her, but she ran off too fast. I had the urge to go after her and even left the garden, but realizing that the mermaid was nowhere to give up. I could find her by the smell, but I thought it over and let Sierra be alone. She probably wouldn't want to be in front of me in that state anymore.

On the way back from school I was still feeling bad and the other days were terrible, both for having to be alone again and for the lack of Sierra's company. She really did me good, but really... I couldn't see her as a friend anymore.

He’s just a lil guy 🥺