Sitting at her desk in school, Anne Boonnchuy couldn’t take her eyes off the clock. This wasn’t abnormal, as the daughter of Thai immigrants usually always got antsy in the last few minutes of school. However, for this sixteen-year-old, today was different. Not only was it her birthday, but she was expecting a very special present. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the last bell rang, and young adults stampeded through the halls and out the doors. Anne stepped on something that felt like a face and screamed under her weight, sounding a little like a girl she didn’t like in gym class, so she chose to pretend it was just her imagination and kept going. There was no time to spare.
“Yo, Anne. Where’s the fire?” Sasha greeted as she jogged to keep pace with one of her oldest friends.
Anne just gave the blonde the stink eye.
“Hey, chill. I’m kidding,” laughed Sasha. “You’re excited about your present, huh?”
“Damn straight, I am! Wouldn’t you be?”
“Oh, most definitely. That’s why I’m going with you.”
Now Anne looked confused. “Huh?”
“Don’t tell me you forgot,” Sasha accused.
“Did Anne forget something?” asked a Tai girl as she accompanied the duo. “I hope it wasn’t at school, cuz you’re kinda goin’ the wrong way.”
Sasha rolled her eyes. “That sounds like something you’d do, Marcy, but no. Anne forgot something much more important than a pencil case. She forgot the promise we made.”
Marcy gasped in horror. “No. Anna Banana, tell me it isn’t true!”
“Yikes, and I thought I was the dramatic one,” Anne chuckled. “No, you guys, I didn’t forget. I remember that we all agreed to share if we ever got pets.”
“Ah-hah, so you did forget,” Marcy accused. “When. It was when we got pets.”
“Marcy’s got you dead to rights, Boonchuy. No point denying. Just confess your sin.”
“Ugh, why are you guys being such a pain?” Anne whined.
“Because Marcy’s anal-retentive, I like messing with people, and you make it too easy,” Sasha plainly informed before bumping her friend’s shoulder as a toothy grin split her face. “Though, in all seriousness, this is pretty great, isn’t it?”
“I know,” Anne agreed as all three exploded in girlish cheers.
“Are there pictures? Tell me you’ve got pictures,” Marcy demanded. “Oh, I hope they’re cute.”
“No, my parents wanted it to be a surprise,” Anne admitted. “But they promised these guys were the cutest pets they could find.”
“Yeah, I’m not so confident in what some old fogies consider cute,” Sasha added uncertainly. “What if they’ve got, like, weird-shaped heads or something?”
“I don’t care,” Anne asserted, hands on her backpack straps as she faced ahead, purpose in her eyes. “They’re my pets, and I’m gonna love ‘em, no matter what.”
“Yo, Boonchuy!” called a long-haired redhead with freckles from across the street. “Happy birthday!”
“Thanks, Wendy.” Anne waved back. “Today’s the day!”
“Yeah, I heard,” Wendy confirmed, sharing Anne’s enthusiasm. “As soon as the little guys get settled, we ought to set our pets up on a playdate.”
Only Anne’s walking kept her excited jitters in check. “Sure, but only if you agree to share some pointers on pet care. How long have you had yours, anyway?”
Wendy beamed and patted her stomach. “Four years, and the feisty little guys are going strong. You all geared up?”
“She’d better be,” Sasha cut in. “We all pooled our money together to get the very best the clearance counter had to offer.”
“A decent-sized habitat, exercise and entertainment gear, emergency medical kits, elevators…” Marcy listed.
“That part was pretty nutty,” Sasha added. “It felt like we were baby-proofing our rooms.”
“Well, humans might as well be babies for how much they depend on us,” Wendy replied, only to get distracted by something around her stomach. Then, after nodding and muttering things the trio couldn’t hear, she said, “But don’t go overboard with the babying stuff. Trust me, it’ll be hard to resist, but it’ll be better if you let them be a little independent. That’s what the elevators are for, ya know.”
“Wait, are they talking to you!?” Anne gasped in awe. “Are your pets inside you, but you can still hear them? How?”
Beaming, Wendy turned her head to the side and pointed at something in her ear. “Human hearing aids. They tune out all the body’s other noises so I can hear everything my pets say and do. Got ‘em used at half the price, but they work great.”
“And cue the right turn detour,” Marcy announced as she crossed the road without checking for cars. Luckily, there weren’t any, but that still left the other girls panicking for a second. Afterward, the Asian marched up to the ginger with her hands out. “Can I try? Please-please-pleaaase!”
“Uh, that’s not really how it works,” Wendy gently refuted. “The humans have to actually be in your body for the aids to work. Though”—she lifted her shirt and exposed her pale yet toned midriff—“you could just listen, the old-fashioned way.”
Beaming like a kid in a candy store, Marcy dropped to her knees and pressed her ear to Wendy’s budding six-pack. “Hello. Testing, one two three. Testing. Can anyone hear me?”
“Hey, that sounds like Marcy,” said a familiar yet muffled voice within Wendy’s flesh.
“It is! Heeey, Dipper!” Marcy greeted. “How you doin’? Are you alone in there?”
“No, now go away!” answered a huffy and indignant female voice. “Dipper’s very busy, and he’s in the middle of something very important.”
“Yeah, you, haha!” laughed another female voice, though more cheerful than the first. “Hey, Mar-Mar.”
“Hey, Mabel.” Marcy turned to find her other friends had finally joined their odd get-together. “Guys, she’s got all three in there! Isn’t that cool?”
Sasha folded her arms and feigned disinterest. “It would be if I wasn’t convinced she did the same thing every day. Repetition kinda makes things boring,” she assessed, pretending she wasn’t jealous.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Wendy said with a shit-eating grin. “The stomach’s not the only place that’s good for storage, ya know.”
The other three teens had the internet, and a potentially unhealthy obsession with humans. They knew, alright.
“So, what kind of pets are you getting, anyway?” asked Wendy. “They say it’s best to adopt young, and I can vouch for that.” She lightly patted her stomach for emphasis, keeping her face as serene as possible to not betray how horny she felt from the sensations in her tummy.
“I only know they’re siblings, a boy and a girl, and my moms say they look good enough to bake into a pie,” Anne replied.
Wendy nodded. “Siblings are a good start, but I recommend getting at least one more as soon as you can, preferably another girl, to keep things balanced.” Then her phone beeped. “Shit! Sorry, I forgot I had a thing, but we’ll chat later,” she called as she ran ahead, taking the humans in her stomach with her.
In this world, no one was sure exactly when or how the giants first appeared. All anyone could say for sure was that, as soon as this all-female race came to be, humanity was supplanted as the dominant species. Whatever civilization existed before was paved over with infrastructure befitting the giants’ needs. Giant roads, cars, houses, and even giant smartphones. Luckily for the humans, the idea of wiping them out never even occurred to the giants. Only having females meant the giants were dependent on human males for reproduction. Plus, the giants just had a general fondness for the small creatures that resembled them.
It’s said that the giants of old augmented the defeated species to better meet their needs and stamp out any rebellion. Humans were made more passive and produced more females than males, among other things. Giants also augmented themselves, enabling the ability to control their digestive process, enabling a swallowed human to sit peacefully in the stomach like a sauna for as long as the giant wished. That’s why, today, the little guys lived in symbiotic harmony with the larger superiors. Most humans live contented lives as pampered pets, but are rarely recognized by the law as more than animals. Some are less fortunate, and treated as little more than property, like toys and breeding tools. Luckily, this country was one of the nicer places for humans. Anne had two moms, Sharon and Oum Boonchuy, a sister named Molly, and she technically also had a dad, her moms’ pet human, Bee. It was odd that Anne’s family only had one human, but the same went for Marcy and Sasha. None of them knew the joys of playing with human siblings. However, the day had finally come for that to change.
Now, more eager than ever, the trio of friends hurriedly marched to Anne’s house. They were greeted by Anne’s family, cheering ‘Happy Birthday,’ holding a cake, and armed with confetti and noise makers. Oum was a tall, curvaceous woman with stress lines around her eyes, but her hair and face made her resemble an older clone of her daughter. Sharon was much rounder and somewhat short by giant standards, but she knew how to work her body and strike a pose to make the young’ns go gaga. Then there was Molly, a bundle of energy and optimism who would make your day bright and happy, whether you liked it or not. Bee was also there, sitting on Oum’s shoulder, and seemingly reading his eldest daughter’s mind as he pointed to the big yellow box on the kitchen table.
The trio stormed through the birthday welcome with only token words of acknowledgment as they zeroed in on the box. Finally, the moment of truth was upon them, and, mindful to not disturb her future lifelong companions, Anne carefully removed the box’s lid to peer inside.
1 The tiny boy launches himself at Anne’s face, eager to meet her
2 The tiny girl launches herself at Anne’s face, intent to kill or assert dominance
3 The tiny pair is huddled in the corner, nervous about meeting their new owners
4 The tiny pair is humping and barely notices they have an audience