Sideline (G/t)

"Madi?"

The girl in question gasped and shook at the reverberation of her name – Jake's already orotund voice ringing even more from proximity and can dynamics. So focused on retrieving her phone, she didn't detect his approach, but the anything but quiet query brought her back to reality. This grossly fucked reality. Just like how Jake reacted to her, Madi knew this made all too much sense to not be real, even though the results were terrifying on her end rather than worrisome. Nevertheless, safety was right there like what she wanted, so she had to be grateful and get it.

Madi took a breath before retracting her hand from the soda spout and rising from her hunched-over position to see her supposedly giant savior. She already knew there was nothing to allege about his size; she had felt him before seeing him earlier. However, standing erect and seeing that her head couldn't rise over one of the smallest soda cans that she had ever seen, let alone it being on its side, was quite disheartening. It was made worse, especially now, as there was undoubtedly another body behind it for reference: an above-average body in all respects but still a normally human body. So, she had a few expectations that kept her from passing out again upon sight of Jake.

She didn't pass out, but maybe that would've been easier to handle.

Madi could practically see the redness of his blood drain from Jake's skin when she fully came into view. Any more translucent, and she probably could've seen the cogs in his head trying to figure this out and how else to react. He knelt down on a knee and focused his eyes on her fairy-like frame, uncaring of any approaching soda anymore, unaware of the tremor he sent through his tiny friend while doing so, recognizing and scanning all her diminutive details.

She was a sight to behold to him, and he was, too, to her. However, before she could really absorb his scale like he was, a hand just as large as his planetary, light-eclipsing head began heading right for her. Already having accepted it as her best way out in her lonesome, she was calmly prepared to just let it take her away. Tumbling for so many years had already made her used to rapid altitude shifts, so that wouldn't have been an issue, even like this... probably.

But, in a sudden wave, the residual reality of their risk hit her, reigniting her panic.

She had already been dealt cards from a bad deck, and those cards were still on the table, all over and around her. Even if it would've brought her an empathizer to her situation, she couldn't bear someone else being given a bad hand... and by their own hand.

So, she didn't.

"Jake, no!"

Madi felt the air blow by from Jake's branching fingers stopping at her yelp. Thankfully, no contact was made with her drink-dampened self. They continued to hover in front of her along her length, letting the risk of touch hang in the air. Following the digits up their tree trunk of an arm to a shoulder and then a head, a colossal, concerned face with dark brunette locks pouring out of a beanie stared at her.

"No?" Jake repeated, keeping his hand up within grabbing distance of her. "What do you mean 'No?' Look at you, Mads. You're so—"

"I know what I look like!" she projected up to him, assertiveness replacing her awe for the moment. "You don't have to tell me. I know it's bad, but I'm serious. Don't touch me!"

Jake winced at her demand, partially from its surprising subject matter and partially from her voice. Despite her diminutive dimensions, he could hear her with clarity – too much clarity if his math was right. He wasn't sure if it was due to his days blasting music in his ears, his training with sound for his media classes, the endless coaches respectfully lashing out at him all throughout his school years, or him just having sensitive ears, but Madi's voice was loud to him. It made absolutely no sense, but then again, neither did her size.