Niall and Naskia lay beside each other looking into each other’s eyes as they tried to recover their breath.

“Wow….just wow…..how the hell do you do that?” Naskia asked the tiny Niall.

Niall loved the look Naskia was giving him. It was one of admiration and affection, one he’d seen from women many times before. It felt magnified coming from her much larger face.

“I don’t know really, you’re doing most of the leg work. I’m just along for the ride.” He replied trying to be modest.

“Oh no! You’re really important, I’ve done that by myself before and it’s nothing like that. And it’s not just the feeling but it’s the way you act and the things you do….” She said still panting.

Naskia wrapped her hand around Niall and rolled on to her back and placed him between her titanic breasts. Niall could feel her heart pounding quite quickly in her chest still and her skin was slightly damp from sweet smelling sweat that was slowly evaporating.

“Eugh….you’re all moist.” She said.

“That’s your fault.” Niall replied.

He wanted to relax and just sit with Naskia and enjoy each other’s company but he couldn’t shake a niggling thought in the back of his mind.

As much as his day to day interactions with Naskia were equal and mutually enjoyable, the recent bedroom activity had been leaning more towards Naskia’s desires than his own. She told him what he did was the important thing but he knew that in this circumstance he was just a toy to help her get off. He was worried that she could subconsciously start to view him as there for her enjoyment in these circumstances. Niall did have a plan though and he thought it was time to put it into action. Feeling confident his plan should help to restore the balance Niall returned to dozing on Naskia’s chest.

Niall woke up an hour later feeling himself moving through the air. Naskia had placed him on the pillow and pulled the thin end of the covers over him. He stayed still not wanting to alert Naskia, he just wanted to watch her for a bit. She got up, still nude and walked to the drawers beside the wardrobe and removed some pyjama bottoms and a vest top. Niall admired her silently, he loved her body. He would love her body if she was human, the way her curves ran in from her amazing bust to her thin waist and then rolling softly out to her hips. He loved her milky white skin and the playfulness in the way she carried herself.

Naskia pulled on some headphones so she could listen to music while Niall slept. She wanted to get a bit of work done before class the next day. She had spent the last 2 weeks working her way through Niall’s extensive music collection and had found a few bands and artists she adored. She picked one of her new favourite songs and got stuck in to some work.

Naskia was humming as she worked and listened to music. Niall couldn’t quite make out what it was just yet. She hummed for a few minutes, getting a bit louder before she lost herself in the music and sang out.

“She holds the hand, that holds her down. She will rise above.”

She sang along with the lead vocal in perfect key. Her voice was angelic, high in pitch with a natural warble on the end of it. It made Niall feel weak at the knees when she sang. She could sing softly and loudly just as well and at the minute she was pushing her voice louder with the song. She then suddenly dropped and started singing quietly, the lyrics dripped with emotion as they left her lips.

“Don’t call me daughter, not fair to me, the picture kept will remind me.”

She repeated it over and over along with the song. Niall loved the original song but hearing it come from Naskia it sounded different slightly. She sang it as if it had a meaning that was special to her. He wasn’t sure but he thought he now preferred Naskia’s version.

Naskia spun in her chair and got up and approached Niall. She had felt his eyes burning a hole in the back of her head.

“How long have you been awake then?” she quizzed him narrowing her eyes and putting her hands on her hips.

Niall did a faux stretch trying to pretend he’d just woken up.

“Long enough…” he said sitting up.

“Got a nice show then?” Naskia asked.

“Oh yeah, not often I get to see your bum. It really is lovely.” If he had have been her size he would have grabbed her by it and pulled her into bed but that wasn’t an option.

“Well if you want to get closer to it that can be arranged.” Naskia said sticking her tongue out at him. “I suppose you want a bath or a shower? You were pretty soaked earlier.”

“That sounds pretty good actually.” Niall said standing up and showing he was ready to be picked up.

Naskia let him step in to her hand and waited for him to settle. She picked up his clothes and a towel too. She decided he deserved the treat of a shower in the sink rather than a bath in a plastic container on her desk. Naskia walked through to the kitchen and set Niall down in the sink out of sight of Kiri on the sofa. She ran the water to the right temperature and got the colander. Niall stepped under and started to wash.

“If you’re making tea can I have a cup?” Kiri asked.

“Sorry Kiri, Niall’s taking a shower just now. I’ll make you some when he’s done.”

Kiri made a deliberate audible huff to show her disapproval at Niall using the sink when she felt she had more right to. Naskia went through to the bathroom to fetch her sanitising scrub for Niall. Kiri grabbed her eye contact as she walked passed her.

“So how are the love birds today? That was some racket you made earlier” Kiri said trying to make her friend uncomfortable.

Naskia stopped in her tracks and turned red. “Love birds? We’re just friends.”

“Oh please! You sleep together, you spend every minute you’re home together, you have sex and you talk about everything. You’re in a relationship.” Kiri said. Niall listened in to the conversation. He wished for once Kiri wouldn’t be such a bitch.

“He’s my friend! And it’s not like you’re nice to him. If you were nicer he’d hang out with you too.” Naskia responded. Her body language had changed. She had her arms crossed across her chest and an ever growing scowl.

“So in that case you won’t mind me taking him to my room when he’s done in the sink?” Kiri was feeling rightly confident about that line. Naskia finally broke eye contact and went to the sink.

“That’s up to Niall, not me.” Naskia asked.

Kiri got up and leaned over the sink.

“How’s about it then? Care to try your luck with little me?” Kiri asked sarcastically.

“I think I’ll pass…..” Niall said biting his tongue and turning around to hide himself. He had many things he wanted to say to Kiri but he was acutely aware that they were often in the house on their own together. He didn’t want to provoke a confrontation he couldn’t win. He couldn’t figure her out. Sometimes she was warm and friendly, sometimes she was deliberately mean. Mostly she was just distant with him while being warm with Naskia. He felt like she was trying to keep him in his place.

“You see! He loves you. You love him. What does a half Titan, half Human baby look like anyway?” she said walking back to her chair laughing.

“Leave it out Kiri…..” Naskia said now too fed up to argue. She was leaning against the sink looking away from the sink to give Niall some privacy. Naskia was too annoyed to make small talk so she sat tapping on her pad.

Kiri used to be able to easily roll Naskia over in an argument and still could on most things but not the subject of Niall. This was usually the best way for Kiri to get what she wanted out of Naskia but it wasn’t working anymore. She needed a new plan.

Niall shook off Kiri’s attempts to wind them both up. He was pretty happy with the current arrangement and didn’t care about Kiri’s mocking. He rubbed Naskia’s scrub into his bruised sides. He was unsure if he’d picked them up climbing or from bashing off of one of Naskia’s teeth. The warm water made him feel a lot better.

“Oh! Yay!” Naskia said suddenly “My Dad’s coming to visit!”

Niall’s ears perked up. He’d been waiting for an opportunity like this to crop up since he started on one of his projects. He’d not mentioned to Naskia what he was working on as he didn’t want her trying to help him. He knew he was on to something and he wanted to prove to both her and the University he could do his own work, building on existing Titan research.

“Oh that’s good. Has it been long since you saw him last?” Niall asked trying to hide his own excitement.

“Nearly 2 months. He’s always off giving lectures somewhere or assisting with research.”

She was smiling from ear to ear and bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

“That’s cool Nas. I’ve missed your Dad. It’d be good to see him again.” Kiri said getting up. “What about Niall? Will you introduce him?”

Kiri had saved Niall the trouble of asking the awkward question himself.

“Ehhh I dunno. Do you want to meet him?” Naskia asked turning her attention to Niall. He had stepped out the shower. She passed him a small towel.

“Yeah I’d like that. It’d be good to talk to someone smarter than me for a change.” He said trying to sound mean.

“Oh har har. I do think he’d be very interested to meet a human with your smarts. I don’t he’s met many humans actually…” Naskia said still reading his message.

“Can I be there too!?” Kiri asked excitedly.

“As long as you are nice Kiri, you’ve been a bit….off recently.” Naskia said looking up. Niall was busy drying off in the sink below.

“I know…I’m sorry really. I just feel a bit jealous really. You guys have been hanging out so much, I kind of feel like a spare thruster.” Kiri said looking sorry. “It’s why I keep making the relationship jokes.”

“Awwk Kiri. You don’t need to be worried. You two should really hang out together, it’s funny you’re similar in a lot of ways.”

Naskia hugged her tightly and Kiri hugged back.

“I’m really sorry Niall. I didn’t mean to make you feel unwelcome. I’ve had Naskia all to myself for years and you come in and in 2 weeks you’re best buds. I’ll try to be nice. We can hang out during the day when Naskia’s out if you like.” Kiri said leaning over the sink.

Niall still didn’t fully trust Kiri but she seemed genuine. He secured his towel around his waist. He decided a gesture of good faith might help.

“Sure Kiri, I’d like that. Think you could give me a hand out the sink while Nas replies to her Dad?”

“Yeah, no problem.” Kiri replied lowering her hand into the sink as she’d seen Naskia do many times. Niall noted just how much smaller Kiri’s palm was than Naskia’s, about a foot thinner and shorter. Her fingers were also a good bit daintier. The Titan’s probably didn’t notice but the difference was apparent to him. She let Niall settle into her palm and gently lifted him out and let him step off on to the counter.

“I’ll turn around while you get changed. Do you fancy some tea after?” Kiri asked.

“Oh that’d be nice.” Niall said. He was a bit unnerved by Kiri’s sudden kindness. Helping him in Naskia’s place, asking him if he wanted to join her for some tea, it was only a few minutes ago she’d been joking at his expense.

Niall got changed in privacy as promised and Kiri then made some tea.

“Yay my Daddy is coming!” Naskia beamed happily. She really was a Daddy’s girl.

“When does he get here?” Niall asked now fully clothed.

“Should be in a few days.” Naskia replied pouring herself her own cup of tea.

“Good.” Niall thought to himself. “That gives me enough time to get everything ready.”

“Sorry Kiri, I’ve some work to catch up on now my Dad’s coming. I don’t want to look stupid in front of him! Do you mind? I promise we’ll hang out tomorrow.” Naskia said picking up Niall who nearly spilled his tea in surprise.

“Oi! Careful.” He called up.

“Sorry, I’m just so excited!” Naskia said to Niall.

“It’s ok Nas. I understand. See you guys tomorrow.” Kiri said smiling and returning to her seat on the sofa.

“There’s more than one way to skin a shaar.” Kiri muttered to herself as Naskia left.

Niall and Naskia returned to her room. She set him down on her desk and sat down on the chair, tucking her feet onto the chair too.

“What’s all that about with Kiri? Do you think she’s being honest?” Niall asked still unsure what to make of her.

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’ve known Kiri since I was 5 and she’s always been a bit funny but she is my best friend. I’m sure she just felt a bit put out by you, that’s all.” Naskia replied still thinking about the upcoming visit.

Niall mulled over what Naskia said. Since she was 5 meant nearly 100 years on his scale; that was a lot of time. He also knew he needed to bring Naskia up to speed on some of the things he’d been working on in his free time. He didn’t know how she would take it but it he needed her to be aware of it before he talked to her father.

“Nas…I’ve a small confession to make. I’ve also got a surprise for you but I think the confession should come first.” Niall said his voice not full of his usual confidence.

“Oh, what’s that then?” Naskia asked not really giving him her full attention.

“One of my projects I’ve been working on. I’ve been building on your father’s research and I think I’ve made a breakthrough….” He said.

Naskia still wasn’t listening properly as she was lost in her own thoughts but she did pick up “father’s research” and “breakthrough”. She sat forward quickly and gave Niall her full attention.

“Hang on! What?”

“The problem of diminishing returns on smaller matter/antimatter reactors your father resolved. His equation allows for stable reactions to occur in reactors a bit smaller than you are.” Niall explained.

“Yeah…I know this.” Naskia said not sure where this was going.

“The equation itself is a work of art. It has this beautiful simplicity to it but it just didn’t seem to sit with me for some reason. At first I thought I was just being an idiot and not understanding the full scope of Titan knowledge in the area but as I learned more it started to sit less comfortably with me, not more. It’s so elegant it just doesn’t make sense that it only applies to this on type of reaction.” Niall continued pacing backwards and forwards.

Naskia had seen Niall talk like this before and it usually when he was bragging about one of his achievements.

“Niall…what are you getting at?” She asked curious to see where he was going with this.

“I started to make small changes to the equation and ran simulations as I did. In most cases the reactions collapse on themselves as your father predicted but I found with one variant of the equation that as long as you changed the input variables in certain orders of magnitude you could, in theory, scale the reaction down smaller and smaller and smaller. You could create a reactor small enough to fit in my hand with my equation.”

“You have to show me this! Is it on your pad?” Naskia asked. The thought of being witness to a massive scientific discovery was making her hugely excited.

“It’s stored on the University network. Can I not just show this your father directly? It’s not that I don’t trust you; I just want to keep this my own achievement. I don’t want there to be any way that it could potentially be attributed to you, not for my ego but for what it could do to help me get my freedom.” This was the hard part. He was genuinely worried some Titans might think it was a practical joke pulled by Naskia.

“I suppose I can see your reasoning there. Could you at least write it out for me on your board and then we can wipe it away afterwards?” Naskia asked.

“Yeah, I don’t see a problem with that.” Niall replied.

Naskia got the chalk and board from the terrarium and set it down in front of Niall. He got to work and started to write out her father’s equation and then his own below it. They were 90% the same but there were clear differences that made it completely different. Naskia watched totally agog. Niall was right, it was beautifully simple, she couldn’t believe that this had been under their noses for 30 years and no one had realised.

“Niall…..that’s astonishing! Are you sure it works?” Naskia said sitting completely amazed that the little human in front of her had done all this in 2 weeks while she had been asleep.

“I may or may not have tapped into the Universities computer to run the simulations…..they all worked.” Niall knew that revelation may not go down well.

“What if it’s traced back to me?! I’m responsible for you!” Naskia wanted to be mad but she really couldn’t. She was still so excited by what she was hearing.”

“I promise it can’t be traced to you. I’ve made sure of it.” Niall replied confidently. Naskia felt reassured.

“This is amazing. I really can’t believe you did this. If this is the confession then what’s the surprise?” She asked setting her hand down for him and lifting him to her face.

“You’re off most of tomorrow aren’t you, just the one class in the afternoon?”

“Yeah….why?”

“I’ve arranged a little trip for us. You’ll need to wear something nice.” Niall said with his smug grin still plastered across his face.

“A trip? Where to?”

“Well if I told you that it wouldn’t be a surprise would it?” Niall said.