"Emma, honey...what choice do they have, really?" came Daniel's soothing, yet slightly impatient voice as he did his best to cuddle her. They were both lying sideways on a huge pile of hay in Emma's old family barn, with a piecemeal mass of comforters and blankets doing their best to cover Emma's massive form. Away from the stunned and awkward silence of her family, Daniel had measured Emma a little earlier, and found that she was now a full 12-foot-6.
"I just thought it'd be different," mumbled Emma, who was curled up in a fetal position under the paltry blankets. "Look at me, sleeping out here like an animal."
"Haha, we're both out here sleeping like animals!" laughed Daniel, trying his best, as usual, to cheer her up. He kneaded his knuckles hard into the ample flesh of her left shoulder -- at this point, he knew that Emma would only feel his efforts if he applied maximum pressure.
"Did you see them just...staring at me at dinner?" Emma asked hollowly, staring off into the far dark corner of the barn, where the horses slept in their kennels. "It was like they didn't even know me."
"Haha, but Emma," chuckled Daniel, treading carefully through his gentle mirth, "You have to remember that all of this is...you know, super new to them. This is...like, the definition of uncharted territory."
"I know," muttered Emma. She felt strangely lucid, yet this lucidity wasn't bringing her any kind of relief. Instead, it just made her feel like she was staring off into the endless void.
"And, hahaha, I mean, did you really expect them not to have a reaction when you just...casually popped those apples in your mouth?" Daniel was making sure to balance his humor with a dose of reality; he knew that it was a delicate process, but he felt like he had been getting better at it recently.
"Huh?" asked Emma, still staring forward. "What are you talking about?"
"All those apples you ate," he answered, leaning forward a little on his larger pile of hay so that he could get a good look at the huge side cheek of her face. "You were just popping them in your mouth, one after the other, eating them like they were...just...grapes."
"Hmmm, I guess I don't remember too much of that," murmured Emma. It was true -- she had been too focused on how insanely tiny her family had looked. It was just too surreal, too much of a crazy reality to take in in one sitting. And so, for large parts of the meal, Emma had just been popping apples into her mouth, one after the other, chewing them absently and swallowing them down whole as she stared blankly down at her mom, dad, and sister.
"You must've eaten about 15 or 20 of them," chuckled Daniel. "Without even realizing it."
"Oh...now I'm remembering that they were a little tart, yes," said Emma, sighing and adjusting her body slightly in the hay. As she did so, Daniel had to hang on to her left shoulder, to keep himself from sliding around as a result of her movement. "Guess I kinda just lost track of how much I was eating."
"Well...are you full now, at least?" asked Daniel hopefully.
"Not really, no," replied Emma bluntly, focusing on the wooden beams of the nearest kennel. "I know I ate all they had to offer, but...I could definitely keep eating for a while."
"Oh," responded Daniel, feeling crestfallen and sorry for her, and no small degree of discouragement. She had literally eaten up all the food in her family's house without breaking a sweat: chicken, steak, vegetables, bread, ice cream, fruit...everything. Daniel had assured them that he would be paying for her food from then on out, but to hear that all of that hadn't even filled her up was not welcome news.
"W-well," he continued after a pause, "Well maybe...I can pop out to the store now. I can get you some more -- how about that? Here, I'll go now." He made to get up from his horizontal position as Emma's "big spoon."
"No, Daniel," muttered Emma, blinking at the same dark spot in the corner of the barn, "No, it's ok. I'm fine. You don't need to go."
"No, no, I'll go!" he responded with energy, feeling the pleasant momentum of the task starting to wash over him. "It's no problem Emma, really. I'm happy to do it." He jostled and pivoted his body against her huge, firm bulk, trying to get the proper foothold in the hay to jump down onto the ground. But he didn't get the chance, because Emma's huge right hand had suddenly come up out of nowhere and clamped down on his entire left shoulder, and much of his left torso. Daniel stopped trying to move, freezing in response to Emma's emphatic gesture. He was amazed at how hot her palm felt...was she having another growth spurt?
"I want you to stay," she said quietly, with a dull kind of emphatic energy in her voice. "I want you to stay here with me and spoon me and rub me and keep me company."
"O-ok Emma, ok," said Daniel, nodding vigorously as he felt her hand tighten a little against his shoulder and chest.
"I don't want to stay in this barn by myself," Emma continued in that same strangely monotone voice. "I want my boyfriend to be with me."
"Ok, I won't go, Emma, I won't go," Daniel insisted with genuine emphasis of his own. "You're just...squeezing a little tight...is all."
"Squeezing?" asked Emma, suddenly flipping over on her back as she lifted Daniel up into the air with one hand. "I'm not squeezing! I'm just holding you here, to keep you from leaving me."
"I'm not...gonna leave you," chuckled Daniel, suddenly getting nervous as Emma held him aloft above her. She was suddenly grinning up at him, and mischief played behind her eyes.
