Page 50 of My Tiny Giant
That was not a lie, I realized. Agan didn’t necessarily have what one would call “a sunny personality,” but his sudden appearance at my place had brightened it somehow. My earlier melancholy blew away like fog in the wind.
Maybe it was his happy grin? Or because he smelled so mouth-wateringly good, of sugar and vanilla?
Agan had obviously made an effort to clean up before this visit. The old blood and dirt stains were gone from his pants, though the cuts and slashes remained. His thick, wavy hair had been slicked back, and his sideburns seemed freshly trimmed.
He looked immensely pleased with himself and...happy. I hadn’t seen him smile this widely before.
It was impossible to stay mad at him. I couldn’t hold back my own smile. “I’m glad to see you, Agan. Though, you scared the living hell out of me.”
“I have that effect on you, don’t I?” He winked, not looking even a tiny bit remorseful. “It’s not the first time I’ve made you scream.”
The last time before today was when I’d mistaken him for a rat in the lab on Tragul. I snorted a laugh at that memory.
Then I remembered where he’d just come from. The smile froze on my face.
“Agan... What are you doing here?” I asked carefully.
“Wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day.” He shrugged. “In person.”
“Why?”
He sat still for a moment, only the very tip of his tail with the tuft of fur on it rapidly tapped against my leg, tipping me off to how nervous he must be.
“Well, here’s the thing.” He glanced aside, breaking eye contact. “I’ve been waiting for this...” he gestured at himself, “to be sorted out soon, for the nightmare to end, but it doesn’t look like it will be resolved in any foreseeable future. No one knows how to reverse this.”
A gloomy shadow dimmed his smile before erasing it completely. My heart ached to see it gone.
“How about Voltuds’s assistant? Is he refusing to co-operate?”
“Oh no, on the contrary, he’s eagerly spilling all professor’s secrets in exchange for a lighter sentence for himself. The problem is that he hasn’t participated in the actual research that much. He mostly assisted Voltuds with administrative stuff while betraying Ravie and his own country. Apparently, Voltuds had been in contact with some illegal organizations from Earth, negotiating to sell them the results of his research.”
“From Earth?” I gasped. “But what do humans need to shrink?”
“Not what, who . Other humans. To create some especially sneaky spies, I guess.” He shrugged. “Anyway, with that asshole now dead, the chances of my ever turning back to my old self are slimmer than ever.”
He ran his hand over his neatly styled hair.
“I’m so sorry to hear it, Agan.”
“Yeah, so, I’ve been thinking about what I could do, what kind of a future I have ahead of me. And I decided I can’t spend the rest of my life just waiting for some miracle to happen that would possibly bring me back. I can’t let this thing affect me more than it already has.”
Agan came from a culture that historically valued such physical attributes as power and strength. What had happened to him must be truly devastating, but I was glad to hear optimism in his voice.
“That’s a good way of thinking, Agan. Despite what happened, you’re still you—young, capable, and healthy. And you do have your whole life ahead of you.” I smiled. “Size doesn’t matter , like they say on Earth.”
“They do?” He lifted an eyebrow. “I think I like that planet already.”
“Earth has some nice parts—a lot, actually. You should come for a visit when you get a chance.”
“I should...” he said, somewhat distractedly. His tail still twitched nervously. “That’s what I’ve decided, Emma, my size doesn’t matter. I could let myself wallow in self-pity, watching life go on around me, past me, and without me.” He raised his gaze to mine. “I could let the most amazing girl I’ve ever met go back to her home planet one day, knowing I’d never get her out of my mind for as long as I live. Or I could do what I would’ve done had I been my own size all along.”
“What would you have done?” I asked softly, holding my breath. The flutters in my stomach that I tended to get around him grew so big, they almost felt like cramps.
“Actually, had I been my normal size, I would’ve kissed you the very next day after we met, without wasting too much time on talking.” He rolled his shoulders back, tossing me a teasing glance. “Of course, you would’ve most likely slapped me then...”
“I would have.” I laughed, thinking how much I’d wanted to slap him back in the jungle—for his words. Had he added an unsolicited kiss on top of that, things between us would have ended in a real fight.
“That’s why I think my current size is actually to my advantage—it forces me to talk before acting. The added benefit is you wouldn’t slap someone so small, would you?” He tilted his head in the most adorable way.