Weekend at Sofia's p.2: Negotiations (Patreon)

“Hmm?” perked the ear of the capricious red headed hound, a stripe of silver spilling down the side of her head like a waterfall of gray metal set in crimson. A dichromatic duet of brilliant blue and green eyes peeking over her shoulder before spying the caramel cabbit. The cream tones of her muzzle pulled taut in a smirk whose doggish angles spoke of a bemused mirth – one that made Dylan no less concerned given the canine in question. 

“I’ll call you back, Sam.” She booped her phone and cooed an overly enthusiastic “Dyyyylie boyyy! Fancy seeing you here young man. It feels like foreverrrrr since I’ve seen you about bun – been up to much?” The dog slapped the table to invite him over, but when he didn’t get up she took the initiative – standing to join him. Their natural height difference was stark to begin with, but sensation of being short was rather exacerbated by his present problematic petiteness. 

“O-oh – funny you should mention that S-Sofie,” the bun blushed a bit, trying to sort out the words without sounding like a panicked maniac when the doggy interjected. 

“Mm… something seems differrrrrent about you. Hair cut maybe? Fur-dye? Love the shirt but it’s a bit big on you..”

The doggy took the liberty of stroking her hand along his hair as she leaned in beside him. The sensation was actually quite nice – or rather would have been if he hadn’t twitched a bit out of reflex and fright eliciting a laugh from her. 

“Jumpy too.. then again that’s kind of your nature hmm?” she teased as he bit his lip. 

“Well um.. I was going to call you but ah… seeing as you’re right here I, I figured I might impose an ah.. proposition… really a request rather, because – ooof..” he trailed off as he felt her scritch the base of his ears and rolled her fingertips soothingly along his long ears with a gently pinch.

Or rather that’s what she would be doing, if his nervousness hadn’t caused him to suffer another bout of shrinking. It wasn’t so much the collie stroking his ears as he was quite literally shrinking from her grip. Her fingertips remained in the same place as he dwindled away from them – causing an errant tickle to add to the tingle tracing down his spine. 

“Oh how curious…” she sniffed the air and hmmed a knowing-disapproving sort of hmm; ruminating on the aroma of coffeehouse, a myriad of mammal clientele – and especially one terrified lapine. 

“Wellyousee,” Dylan bit his lip and tried to will himself to please pretty please stop shrinking just a moment. 

“I um… miiiight have been taking a course of sʜʀɪɴᴋ ᴛʜᴇʀᴀᴘʏ, which um… has been going pretty well its just ah… well um… I’m having a small problem and the clinic is closed… and you see,”  

“Tsk…Dylaaannn You know I warned you about that scammy stuff,” she chided him. 

“B-but it was working and now – “ 

“Working really nicely now I see,” she lifted her palm up; approximately where his noggin ought to have been and wiggled her fingers with a mocking wobble. 

“Well I was h-hoping maybe you could ah… h—h-help fix it?” 

“Fix the back alley shrink therapy you got despite me telling you not to?” 

“… yes that would be nice if you could.” 

Sofia’s gaze fell on him with the most disapproving of stares as she flicked her tail behind her angrily. The silver streaked red head hound was not exactly known for her capacities for mercy. More than one consequence of crossing the collect had been a vindictive and enduring reduction in height. Although that same specialty for size-related sciences made here the prime candidate for assisting him now. He hoped. 

She gruffed a very caninish sort of grumble of distaste before .he softened her expression with a casual shrug, 

“Yeah sure, just come get me when you’re done with ah..” she gestured at him “…this, rebound shrinking you’ve got going on.” 

 “Rebound shrinking? Wot – wosat?”” the doggy offered,

“The whole ‘oh no I’m getting smₐₐₐₗₗₑᵣ - thing you’ve got going on. What you thought you could sip magic potions and get spells or whatever you had put on you without any consequences? Sorry bun, reality bites back. When you finish with that I’ll work on resizing you,” 

“F—finish? How small l am I going to get!”  

“How long were you getting “treatments”” she emphasized with snarky quotes before waving her hands. 

“A f..few months – this is the first time this has happened! They didn’t have this in the brochure at all,” 

“Months? Oh my… sounds like quite the dyl-lemma,” she smirked into her coffee. 

“Oh my god… can you help me? Please?” He pleaded. 

“I’ll take another glance at you after I finish my work out.” She gesticulated towards the gym across the street and kicked at her duffel bag beside her booth with. “Oh don’t give me that look some of us are trying to shrink our waist lines the natural way…”

“Af-after? But.. I don’t know how small I am going to get… c-c-can’t you do something now.” He pleaded. 

“Hmmrrrf l.. I did have plans this weekend,” the dog ruminated, swirling her coffee around her cup nonchalantly.   

“P-plans? I mean – come on Sofia! Please you can’t.. just leave me like this!” 

“Weellll.. I suppoooooose…” her eyes sparkled with Machiavellian intrigue as she licked a few errant drops of coffee off her canine whiskers, showing off a lot more of her fangs than Dylan strictly thought necessary. The hound pondered thoughtfully before she stood her full height, casting a worrisome shadow over the loose-shirted bunny. 

“..but what’s in it for me?”