Monserrat came to the rescue, just like Briana knew she would. She was brave, strong, and super kind to Ava. Their utter disaster of an afternoon became a chance to see Ava’s apartment and snuggle with her. Plus, there were cookies! It wasn’t the date Briana and Ava had planned, but it felt good. When Mom and Dad arrived, they had hugs for Ava as well as Briana. It was good to see her girlfriend getting comfortable with her parents. It’d also be nice if she could get comfortable faster. The tiny peck Briana got for a goodbye kiss showed Ava had a long way to go to be really comfortable.
On the ride home from Ava’s house, Briana was struck by how horrible the encounter at the bus stop had been and how wonderful her afternoon with Ava was. There was no reason for those people to be mean about ABDL. It was super wrong for that man to push Ava over. Even if she hadn’t been disabled, it would have been wrong.
The unfair feeling of having to feel afraid of people – because of something harmless about herself – grew until Briana was gripping her car-seat in righteous anger. If she was scared in public, how much worse was it for Arthur, who was black too? Or Ava, who Briana had thoughtlessly pushed to be Little in public at her birthday party. There was Fabi, who had been so excited to go to that birthday party – because she never left her house after becoming a full-time Little.
“Briana, is something wrong?” Dad looked back at Briana from the passenger seat. Jane was as calm as ever, but Briana knew her well enough to see the concern in her dad’s eyes.
“Yes, Daddy! There’s a big injustice, and I have to fix it!”
“The police are working on it, Baby Bee,” Mom said from the driver’s seat. “I’m quite impressed with how well you handled that police officer. It will take them time to find the man who hurt Ava, even if they take the case seriously.”
“No, not that part. I mean, yes, that part, but that’s not enough! I have to do something about all the ABDL hate that’s happening.”
Mom and Dad looked at each other with that look they shared when they wanted to be supportive – but were going to say no. Veronica took a deep breath and began with, “Baby Bee…”
“No. Mom.”
“Excuse me, young lady?” There was danger in Veronica’s tone.
Briana forged stubbornly ahead into the danger. “You said Aunt Kiara could give me lessons. She said I had to pick something to work on. I’m texting her right now to tell her I found my thing.”
“Ah, then that should be fine.” Jane sat back in her seat as if the matter was settled. To Briana’s surprise, Veronica nodded in agreement.
“You’re not going to try and talk me out of it?”
“First off, Briana, you’re incapable of steamrolling my sister. I don’t think anyone could do that to her. If she agrees to help you, it’ll be because she believes it’s a good thing to do and is prepared to support you.” Veronica caught Briana’s eye in the rear-view mirror and smiled at her.
“I think I can speak for your mother when I say we weren’t trying to stop you from helping people.” Jane reached back and patted Briana’s leg. “Though I have some worries about you taking on a cause that so many people are angry about, I’m glad to see you asking for help – this time.”
“Daddy, you said you’d stop bringing up the time I got frostbite!”
“Indeed.” Jane chuckled. “It was you that brought it up.”
“Nuh-uh! Daddy! You’re not being fair.”
“Briana, don’t get yourself into a fussy state. You’ll have much more success asking for Kiara’s help if you ask her like a big girl,” Veronica said.
“I’ll check her diaper when we get home,” Dad said.
“Daddy! That’s not why I’m upset.”
~~~*~~~
Despite her protests, Briana got a diaper change and put in her crib for some “quiet time” before dinner. Quiet time was code for Mom wanting Briana to take a nap but not wanting to argue about it. That meant no phone, books, or toys other than her stuffies. It was the perfect example of why Big thinking was flawed sometimes. Mom didn’t appreciate what Briana could do as a Princess of Cloudland, especially with her most loyal knights in attendance.
While Alanna assembled and inspected the knights – the Lioness was always much bigger on inspections than Briana was – Briana squeezed a shoulder through her crib bars to grab her tiara. It was sitting on top of her toybox within reach – unlike the rest of her princess costume, which was hanging in her closet. Technically, Briana had not left her crib. Also, though the tiara had been in her toybox, it was part of a dress-up costume, not a toy. Satisfied that she was well within the letter of Quiet Time law, Briana put on her Tiara. Now, with a fancy accessory for her basic cream-colored onesie, the Princess addressed her knights.
“Loyal Knights of the Round Table, I speak to you now as your Princess, not as a fellow knight.” Briana was proud of that speech – she’d practiced it on the car ride. Unfortunately, her wet diaper had been a distraction, meaning she was at the end of her prepared statements.
Luckily, Knight Captain Alanna stepped in to assure Princess Briana that she and the other stuffie knights were awaiting her orders. Quietly thanking her bosom stuffie, Briana felt her thoughts fall into place.
“I do not come to give orders but with a higher purpose. You should all know that the visiting princess – and my new girlfriend – Ava, was attacked today in town!”
The stuffies gasped! Sir Mimsey, the bat, squeaked so loudly that she went into ultrasonic. Arnold the Pangolin was scribbling something about Briana having a new girlfriend for his gossip column – but at least Arnold the Pangolin was shocked, if not precisely for the right reason.
“Yes, it’s true. And no, Sir Arnold the Pangolin, I will not do a tell-all interview. Sir Arnold the Pangolin is supposed to be a knight right now, not a reporter.” Briana took a deep breath. “Anyway, this wasn’t an isolated incident, and it wasn’t a creature from the Cloudland world like a rakshasi. The attack was part of a movement of people being mean to Littles.”
Briana got up on her knees, wishing she had her sword for the dramatic moment – but the sword was clearly a toy and therefore not allowed during Quiet Time. Besides, she had told her stuffies she wasn’t acting as a knight. “I call the Round Table to a quest! This quest is the most important one since rescuing Melody at Thanksgiving. We cannot fail.”
Alanna looked uncomfortable, though she was too disciplined to say anything in front of the other knights. Briana figured she would get an earful from her lioness about that Thanksgiving quest – but things were different this time. No one was going to get frostbite in the spring, for one thing. Briana’s bedroom door opened, revealing the crucial reason the Quest to Save All Littles differed from the Quest to Save Melody.
“This is an interesting nap technique.” Kiara stepped up to the crib and kissed Briana’s forehead. “Am I interrupting a meeting?”
“Not at all! You came at a perfect time, Auntie.” Briana hopped up, leaning over her crib bars to give Kiara a big hug. Her aunt was wearing a dress of rumpled blue silk, subtly printed with pale purple flowers. It was a great look for an opera or something high-society-ish, though, to Briana’s knowledge, that kind of thing was usually in the evenings.
“I’m glad to see you too, sweetie.” Kiara hugged Briana tightly. “Are you going to introduce me to your meeting, or is it adjourned?”
“As Princess of Cloudland, I’d be happy to introduce you. This is most of my Round Table. You already know Knight Captain Alanna, but this is Sir Arnold the Pangolin, Sir Chuck, Sir Mimsey, and Sir Alanna’s squire, Beartholomew.” Briana touched each stuffie in turn, taking advantage of the introduction to end with another hug for Kiara. “And this is Kiara, my aunt, and the Rasmussen Matriarch.”
“Very regal.” Kiara scooped Briana out of her crib by her padded rear, setting her down with only a small grunt of effort. “What’s on the meeting agenda?”
“The Quest to Save All the Littles in Ardenthill.” Briana looked proudly up at her aunt, undaunted by the foot of difference in their heights.
“I thought that’s what you were talking about in your text message.” Kiara took a seat in the story-reading chair next to Briana’s crib. “I think you might be too Little to have that discussion now, though.”
“No, that’s Big thinking. I can be Little and save all my friends.”
“I wish you could, sweetie, but clothes and attitudes are important when changing people’s minds.” Kiara pulled Briana into her lap. “Vonnie told me about another quest you went on. You had the wrong clothes on, and you got frostbite.”
“Everyone’s bringing that one up today. I apologized and learned from it already; it’s not fair.”
“Then you still need to apply the lesson to your new goal.” Kiara stroked Briana’s hair. “Confronting people who aren’t ready to see a grown woman in diapers is going to make them angrier than they already are. They’ll say awful things to you. Things that will get frostbite on your heart.”
“I wear diapers all the time. If I can’t do this in diapers, I can’t do it at all.” Briana hit Kiara with her biggest pouty-lip.
“Your diapers aren’t always obvious, and your behavior isn’t always Little. I’m happy to help you with this, sweetie, but it will be hard enough with you tackling it as a Big girl. I don’t see a chance for success if you’re trying to convince people when you’re Little.”
“Aunt Kiara, that doesn’t feel right. I’m not ashamed of who I am.”
“I’m not either – but there was a time when I didn’t get to wear my hair naturally like I do now. Even with our family connections, this country was a different place ten years ago. I had to straighten my hair to be taken seriously.” Kiara sighed grimly. “I didn’t like it and still don’t like that I had to do it. But I did what I had to do to get in a position where I could make a change.”
“Grandma couldn’t fix it for you?”
“She might have been able to if she’d come to every one of my events. Even then, I’m not sure. It doesn’t matter because I had things I wanted to accomplish as my own woman, as Kiara Rasmussen, not as Michelle Rasmussen’s daughter.”
Briana sighed. “I still don’t like it. I’m not saying that this is like the way you were treated, or the way black people were treated in general – but it still feels wrong.”
“You don’t have to like it, baby girl.” Kiara bounced one leg gently under Briana. “But what’s more important to you – showing the world you’re not ashamed of being Little or making Ardenthill safe for all the Littles that live here?”
“The second one.” Briana rolled her eyes. “Okay, so how do I do it?”
“Do you think you can be Big right now to discuss it?”
“Um – I’ll try.” Briana flopped against Kiara, tucking her head under her aunt’s chin. “I was Big all day at school and had to be super big to help Ava.”
“This isn’t something we can fix in a day, or even a month, probably. Let’s work on it tomorrow afternoon when you have more energy.”
“What are we going to do until dinner if we can’t plan?”
Kiara grinned. “Well, Rosa’s at her derby practice, but before she left, she asked Vonnie and me to make sure Melody takes a break. Can you get Little enough to help your sibling relax?”
“Ohmygoshyesfinally!” Briana bounced excitedly on Kiara’s lap.
“That’s my darling niece.” Kiara smiled. “Go find your sibling, but be careful on the stairs. You won’t get to play if you fall down the stairs.”
Briana was out of her bedroom like a shot! She slid to the top of the stairs on the hardwood balcony, took the stairs excruciatingly carefully, and barreled into Melody’s bedroom.
“Sib! Sib! It’s time to play!”
Melody looked up from their computer with tired annoyance. There were bags under their eyes, like an exhausted Big! No wonder Tia Rosa had mandated a break. As far as Briana was concerned, it should have come much earlier.
“Bri, come on, Mom and Mamá both said you can’t bust in here when I’m working and interrupt me.”
“Well, your Mamá said you have to take a break today.” Briana folded her arms smugly.
“Nuh-uh.” Melody’s protest lacked confidence. The guilty look they gave when Kiara came into the room meant they knew their doom was sealed. “She said I should probably take one.”
“Well, she told me to make sure you take a break.” Kiara stepped over to Melody and pulled open the back of their sweatpants waistband. “And to check your pullup.”
“Hey!” Melody blushed, cringing away from Kiara.
Melody’s scarlet face could mean only one thing – not only would they play, but Briana’s sib was a potty-pants! It was such a welcome return to the blissful days before Christmas that Briana almost cried. Her diaper got damp instead of her cheeks, which was fine. It was more than acceptable because it gave Briana something in common with her sib.
“That’s a soaked pullup. You know the rules, Little One. If you’re that wet, you get a diaper until bedtime.” Kiara took Melody’s hand. Wisely, Melody didn’t resist being led to the drawing room changing table. Briana crawled along, speedrunning – as Melody would say – a trip into Littlespace.
“I was hyper-focusing. I’m almost done with the reporting system for my app.” Melody sighed, confining their protests to the verbal sphere as they climbed onto the changing table. “I didn’t have time for the potty.”
“Well, now you have to make time for a diaper change and play with your sister.” Kiara wasted no time stripping off Melody’s sweats and sopping pullup. It was good that Tia Rosa hadn’t seen the way Melody was leaking onto their sweats – her sib might have gotten spanked!
“Okay, but then I have to…”
“After that is dinner; when that’s done, your mamá will be home from practice. She’s going to be in charge of your evening from there.”
“Well – okay.” Melody’s sagging into defeated obedience made total sense to Briana. It was tough to argue with someone with authority while they were wiping pee off your butt. The diaper that came on after didn’t instill authoritative feelings either.
What the diaper did do was rekindle a gleam in Melody’s eye that Briana had sorely missed. The sibling that came down from the changing table was much sillier than the one that’d gone up. Briana got tackled – and tickled – and didn’t breathe a word of protest through her helpless giggles.
They didn’t play anything elaborate like Cloudland. Despite that, it was the most fun Briana had had since her birthday. As Kiara sat on the drawing room couch with an amused look on her face, Briana and Melody chased each other around, playing silly games like Doggie (Melody was the doggie, as always), Super Space Dolls (Briana’s new Barbies had been transported to an alien planet the first time Melody played with them), and Chase the Bouncy Ball. Their last game left them both sweat-soaked and laughing, lying across each other on the floor.
“What’s this project you’re always working on, Sib?” Briana nuzzled Melody’s sweaty cheek.
“Ugh, it’s some dumb thing that I stupidly made open source, and now it has a whole community and whatever I can’t let down.”
“Why don’t you let them take it over if you don’t like it?”
“Because they’d make it wrong.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. If you don’t like working on it, then…”
“Hey, Auntie, Briana’s diaper is more than just sweaty.”
“That sounded like tattling, Melody,” Kiara smirked.
“I’m just taking care of my little sister.” Melody’s faux-innocent expression made Briana roll her eyes.
“Don’t think I didn’t see what you did there!” Briana’s fine, strident statement ended in a squeak as Kiara heaved her onto the changing table.
“What, you mean make it so you don’t have to sit in a wet diaper for all of dinner? You know Grandma’s coming over; it’s going to be a long one.”
“Fine, don’t tell me about your dumb project.” Briana crossed her arms as Kiara tore the tapes on her diaper. “I don’t care.”
“Good.”
“Good!”
“Good!”
“GOOD!”
“Okay, kids, that’s enough.” Kiara popped a pacifier in Briana’s mouth. She didn’t have one handy for Melody, but the look she gave Mel was enough to shut them down just as effectively.
Tuckered out from chasing a bouncy ball and with bigger issues to worry about than Melody’s coding project, Briana closed her eyes and relaxed into Kiara’s gentle diaper change. She’d have to ration her big-ness tomorrow to keep enough to have a proper strategy session with her aunt. Then Ava, Arthur, Fabi, and the rest of the Littles would never have to be scared again!