Chapter Text
Some months later
-
Steven woke, feeling refreshed. Jake must have remembered to shower after his mission the previous night. Good, one less thing to do before they…
He opened his eyes and groaned. “JAKE! Get out here.”
He felt Jake, but couldn't tell if the Alter was sleeping or merely faking it.
“Marc, you there?”
‘Yeah, what--OH FOR GOD’S SAKE!’
“Yeah, I know. Is Jake awake?”
‘He’s gonna be.’ Marc growled.
Steven sat up, working out some remaining kinks; the suit didn’t always fix everything as nicely as before; he suspected Khonshu was being petty with it. But it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.
What was out of the ordinary was their new flat being scaled-up.
It wasn’t as severe as the first time Steven had woken in this state; he estimated they were closer to Ken Doll size than G.I. Joe. Still a bit unnerving. Thank goodness Layla was off on a mission, it would have been a nasty surprise for her to wake with them like this.
‘What the hell’s wrong with you?’ Marc’s voice popped back in.
‘Sorry. Unavoidable consequence of the mission.’ Jake sounded surly at being woken.
‘You had to shrink us. For the mission.’
‘Hey, if you can think of a better way to get in and out without being spotted I’d love to hear it.’
‘You have access to a cheat code spell that can theoretically do anything. Make us invisible.’
‘Yeah, and what if I couldn’t make us visible again? This I know I can undo. It’s being undone right now.’ Jake’s voice was a little too nonchalant.
“Hmm. Pretty convenient that it’s keeping us from going to our doctor’s appointment.” Steven hummed, sensing the tingle of magic.
‘That was today?’
‘Cut the crap Jake, you knew it was today.’ Marc shot. ‘You’ve ducked out of the last two appointments, and you promised to front at this one. Just to introduce yourself.’
‘Well, sorry I had to track down a very serious criminal organization.’ Jake huffed.
‘The remnants of the Track Suit Mafia are being handled already.’ Marc was unimpressed. ‘You promised Steven you’d show up.’
“You did.” Steven put in, scrambling onto the nightstand (it was always touching the bed these days).
Jake was quiet for a moment. ‘I really don’t want to go.’
‘Neither did I.’ Marc sounded calmer now that Jake was willing to talk. ‘But it has helped. It’s not like…when we were a kid. Dr. Namratha doesn’t treat any of us like we’re imaginary friends, or made up for attention.’
‘Did you tell her I work for Khonshu? That we’re magic?’
‘No. I figured she better meet all of us before we bring that up.’ Marc didn’t take the bait.
Steven propped his smartphone up, popping out the wigit on the back so it would stand. It was about the size of a card table, very manageable. "Well, it’s a good thing I made this a video meeting."
‘...what?’ Jake asked.
‘I set this up as a video meeting. She won’t be able to tell anything’s amiss, I’ll put one of those digital backgrounds up.” Steven tried to make himself as neat as possible without fresh clothes or a comb.
‘They can do that?’
“Oh yeah, I’ve done it loads of times when I couldn’t get to the office, or just…had a bad day.” Steven swallowed. “As Marc said, it’s really helping.”
‘I didn’t know you did that.’ Jake had mostly stayed away from their therapy appointments.
“Jake, would you have been more open to this if you had?” Marc asked, straightening the phone.
‘Erm. Creo que sí. I don’t…like doctor’s offices.’
“Oh, of course you wouldn’t.” Steven murmured, understanding. “Why didn’t you say anything? We could have done this ages ago.”
‘I didn’t want to make a fuss.’
“You’d rather shrink us than ask for reasonable accommodations?” Marc challenged.
‘Guess so.’
"That is not a healthy coping mechanism!"
'Oh, and all your self-abuse was?'
“See, this is exactly why we need therapy.” Steven rolled his eyes.
“He’s right, Mi cabrón.” Marc added. “Just say hi, okay? The Doc’s really interested in meeting you.”
‘Dissecting me.’ Jake muttered.
“No. She hears a lot from us. She always asks how you're doing.” Steven corrected. “She knows you’ve had a bad time with doctors, but we’ve left the details alone.”
‘Why?’
“Not our story to tell.” Marc replied.
That was…considerat.
‘Fine. I’ll put in an appearance.’
“Good.” Steven frowned at the phone. “How long before this fully wears off? We’re having dinner with Layla tonight.”
‘We should be within human range by then.’ Jake assured them.
“...That doesn’t sound like ‘normal size’ to me.” Marc said.
‘Ahh, so what? Steven will be staring at her breasts all night anyway, may as well make ‘em eye level.’
Steven groaned and dropped his head. “You really are the worst, you know that?”
‘And yet you two love me.’
“For some reason.” Marc barely held back a smile. It was pretty funny to watch Steven fumble. Now that he was a little less jealous, thanks to both Layla and their doctor.
The sound of their bedroom doorknob turning grabbed all their attention.
Layla bustled in, toting a small bag, eyes on her phone. "Hi, sorry, I know you're about to have your appointment, I'll be out of your hair in a few…"
She looked up and trailed off.
"Um." Steven searched for words. "Hullo Love."
She took a deep breath. "Jake."
"Hola Chula." Jake surfaced, grinning. "Miss me?"
"You tried to get out of your therapy appointment."
"It's not fair how well you know me." He groused. "And yes. It don't matter, Steven's got a workaround so I'm going."
"Are we still going out later, or is this a staying-in night?" She came to the nightstand.
"We'll be good, as long as you don't mind being seen with a guy who's shorter than you." Marc shrugged.
"We'll go somewhere they don’t know us." She agreed. "I'll pop by a bit early with some clothes that'll fit you."
"Oh, goody." Damnit, he'd felt so good when he'd woken up, despite Jake's shenanigans.
"Maybe we should stay in." She traced a fingertip down his body, smiling. "Then we won’t have to worry about clothes."
"That, uh…that sounds great." Marc tried to sound cool and almost pulled it off.
"I'll see you when you're more kissable." She promised. "And Jake?"
"Yeah?"
"Try to keep them at a reasonable size on date nights, okay?"
"Ahh, you're no fun." Jake grinned as she rolled her eyes and headed to the washroom.
'Oh my God, Jake, seriously this cannot become a habit.' Steven complained. 'If I show up to work too small to shelve books, the library will ask questions.'
'And you're just lucky Layla’s…open minded. To a point.' Marc added.
"I got it. I promise, no modifications unless totally necessary."
'We're going to define 'necessary’ later, Jake.' Marc said.
'After the appointment.' Steven added. 'Turn on the camera.'
Fair enough.
-
The end