Getting to Princeton had been every bit as nerve-wracking as Jenna had feared. Anxieties compiled upon anxieties – the plane flight was the third one in her lifetime, she was by herself meeting new people, she’d never been to the town of Princeton before, and she had to speak at a gathering of mathematicians. Complicating the situation was her indecision on wearing protection on the trip. Jenna had spent an entire day stressing before accepting the compromise that Monserrat had suggested to begin with – wearing pullups. As she exited the car Dr. Okounkova had sent for her, she was glad for her wife’s wise suggestion.
Pullups weren’t enough to make Jenna feel Little anymore, but they carried the reminder of her wife and babysitter’s love. They also neatly erased one source of anxiety, that Jenna would forget she wasn’t being Little and have an accident. Though they were much less obvious than diapers, it was still possible to be caught wearing them – which would be the end of the world as far as Jenna was concerned. Her stomach was a tight knot of worry that had made it impossible for her to eat on her trip.
The university was gorgeous with its manicured lawns and trees bursting with green. Flower beds crowded the foundations of the faux-gothic and brick buildings, boldly showing off their best spring blooms. Jenna walked quietly behind her guide with her backpack on her shoulder. She’d worn a dressy white blouse tucked into an apricot-colored pleated skirt. Choosing an outfit had nearly triggered another anxiety spiral, until Niusha had taken over and simply dressed Jenna.
Jenna’s host was in one of the oldest buildings who’s interior was all white plastered walls framed with ancient oiled wood. Dr. Avdotya Okounkova was a curly haired woman with a face shape and expression like a slammed door. She was wearing gray slacks, a blue blouse, and a grey blazer with a herringbone pattern. None of her outfit matched and each piece looked like it was entering its second decade of wear. Her desk and office was rigidly tidy, with two walls given over to blackboards and a third covered by a bookshelf that groaned with binders and books. Most of the remaining wall was a latticed window that looked out on a picturesque lawn and trees. Jenna had been exposed to enough University politics that she knew a view like that marked Dr. Okounkova as university royalty.
“Ms. Michalski, welcome!” Though Avdotya’s facial expression didn’t warm when she greeted Jenna, her tone was friendly, as was the handshake she enthusiastically gave.
“Thank you, Dr. Okounkova,” Jenna replied, nervously. “And it’s actually Michalski-Navarrete, as of a few days ago.”
“Congratulations. I think I have champagne here somewhere. Are you old enough to drink champagne?” Avdotya finally cracked a smile, if it was at the prospect of a new marriage or champagne, Jenna wasn’t sure.
“I’m not – and I don’t really like alcohol anyway. Thank you though.” Jenna stepped toward a well worn leather chair and was arrested by the sight of the blackboard behind it. Her work on Barnette’s Conjecture had been painstakingly re-created in chalk, with notes next to each diagram.
Jenna dropped her bag unconsciously in the chair and stepped up to the blackboard, tracing a finger under each note. “This one is wrong. You can’t expand the set in that direction, you’ll get a contradiction.”
“I know,” Avdotya said warmly. “I figured that out about an hour after I wrote that note.”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“Ms. Michalski-Navarrete – actually, may I please shorten that to Jenna? I would like it very much if you called me Avdotya as well.”
Jenna turned around and blushed. “Um, of course. Thank you, Dr. – I mean – Avdotya.”
“Jenna, never apologize when you’re discussing your work, unless you are retracting a published error. I’m a published mathematician with many honors, but on the subject of these diagrams, you are the expert.”
There was a hard lump in Jenna’s throat that took three swallows to go away. “I – I’ll try. I mean, you’re right. It’s just that I’m used to coming to my professors for answers. Talking to you like this is surreal, it feels like when I first showed Bridget – my advisor – this result and I had to explain it to her twice.”
“I’m not surprised. Dr. Sienna is a good mathematician – I read some of her recent papers after you accepted my invitation – but your work takes an intuitive leap.” Avdotya slid the blackboard with Jenna’s work upward, revealing a second one with similar diagrams behind it. “You intrigued me. Take a look at some of the doodles I made.”
Jenna’s eyes were instantly drawn in by Avdotya’s diagrams. They extended her work, but something about them felt off. The world narrowed to the blackboard as Jenna picked up a piece of chalk and began making notes or extensions to Avdotya’s diagrams. Dr. Okounkova joined her at the board with her own stick of chalk in a creative session that was the most exciting and fulfilling of Jenna’s life. She was alternatively praised and challenged at every note she made, slipping into an analytic fugue to the point that she fearlessly challenged Avdotya in return. By the end of the afternoon they had filled half the blackboards in the office with further work on Barnette’s Conjecture. None of it was ready to publish, but Jenna was suddenly months ahead of where she’d expected to be on the project.
“We need to get ready for the presentation.” Avdotya reluctantly put down her chalk. “You should take pictures of all this on your phone so that you can transcribe it later. Make sure you keep yourself as the primary author when you publish our joint work, too.”
Jenna was on her third picture of the boards when the impact of Avdotya’s words sank in. She was going to publish a paper with Dr. Okounkova’s name next to hers – and her own would be first! It took several tries to snap pictures of each of the boards with the way her hands were shaking.
“We started from a basis of your work, are you sure you don’t want to publish an extension to my paper yourself?”
Avdotya nodded. Her expression had returned to cold neutrality. Jenna realized that the professor’s expression had been that way the whole time they were working together. It was no longer an intimidating look – Jenna could feel the warmth and enthusiasm in Avdotya’s voice.
“Yes, I’m sure. I have my own puzzles to work on. I very much enjoyed doodling on your puzzle and you were a delight to work with in person, but my obsessions lie elsewhere.”
“I know how that is.” Jenna smiled. “Bridget tried to get me to work on a sphere-packing paper – I didn’t have the words to express how low my interest level was.”
“Good, then you already know not to force yourself to work on projects that don’t ignite your passion.” Avdotya roughly shoved her laptop in a satchel. “Returning to the topic of today’s presentation – I think it would be interesting to talk about some of the work we did today, but only if you think you’ll have another paper ready by the time the symposium comes around.”
As Jenna glanced through the blackboard images on her phone, a bubble of excitement traveled up her chest and popped joyfully in her mind. “I can’t guarantee I won’t get stuck – but I think it’s likely I’ll have enough to publish by next fall.”
“Of course, there are no guarantees. In that case, because I know you are nervous, how would you like to do a joint presentation?”
“How would that work?”
“We would go on stage together. I would give a summary of your published paper first, and you would speak more informally about this afternoon’s revelations. Afterward, we can field questions together.”
“That – sounds amazing. I have a talk prepared, but it’d be helpful to see you tackle it first.”
“I thought that might be the case.” Avdotya smiled. “The presentation will be given on the first floor of this building, room 102. I’m headed there now, but you probably need a moment to collect yourself. You can use my office for the next half hour. There’s a bathroom down the hall, and there will be food in the downstairs lecture hall.”
“I can’t thank you enough for making this such a good experience, instead of the nightmare I was dreading.” Jenna grabbed Avdotya in an impulsive hug, receiving one of the most awkward hugs of her life in return. As awkward as the hugs I used to give before I met Monserrat!
“It’s been my pleasure. I look forward to many more meetings and collaborations. Make sure to lock the office door before you head downstairs.” Avdotya patted Jenna’s shoulder and fled the room.
When Jenna took stock of herself, she was shocked to find her pullup damp. It wasn’t soaked with a full-blown accident, but she had clearly used it. She grumbled to herself as she changed into a fresh pullup in the thankfully-empty faculty bathroom. Rachel’s idea of diapered study time had been great for uninterrupted maths time, but had also set a pattern of being physically Little when she was in her maths zone.
Twenty minutes after Avdotya had gone downstairs, Jenna locked the professor’s office and followed. Half that time had been eaten up by changing her pullup, but the rest she’d put to good use in organizing her thoughts. Still immersed in maths thoughts, Jenna caught herself skipping down the hall. Luckily, there was no one to see.
Stop that, Jenny! You’re going to embarrass us!
Jenny was unimpressed with Jenna’s ultimatum, seeing as how they were the same girl. It was fun to skip in the hall, and nobody had seen. Jenny took a moment to check on Elizabat in her backpack before descending the stairs, her Jenna side justified it as making sure the stuffie covered up the stack of pullups in the bag.
~~~*~~~
The presentation was a blur of faces, nervous energy, and the sounds of coughing. There was so much coughing throughout the talk that Avdotya had to direct one of the graduate students to turn up the volume on their microphone. After the question and answer session was done, Dr. Okounkova assured Jenna that the talk had gone quite well. Jenna hoped that she would eventually recall more than a few sparse minutes of it. Jenny didn’t care if she recalled the talk at all – she was starving.
Food came in the form of cut-up party sandwiches and soda, which Jenny found to be perfectly acceptable food. She gave the veggie sandwich a wide berth, focusing on gobbling down bites of the ham and cheese sandwich whenever people would stop asking Jenna questions long enough for her to eat.
The worst was a professor in the Princeton maths department who’s every third word was interrupted by a cough. Though she had the good graces to cover her mouth each time, she insisted on shaking Jenna’s hand when her face went deathly pale and she had to excuse herself. The rest of the people were fine – Jenna even had some fun conversations with the graduate students that were closer to her in age. Still, by the time the event wound down, Jenna solidly rejected Avdotya’s offer to delay her flight and spend the night. Jenny was one hundred percent done with being away from her caregivers.
As if a cruel faerie was punishing Jenna for the transcendent afternoon she’d spent with Avdotya, her seatmate on the flight home had the same persistent cough that had run through the maths event. Jenny remembered that her wonderful wife had packed some vitamin C tablets for her and downed three of them. Feeling better, she snuggled her bat and stared out the window until the town of Ardenthill slid into view. The little town that was tucked into a circle of forest and fields, straddling a river fork, had never looked so good. Jenny supposed that traveling might be worth its while if coming home was going to be such a comfort.
Seeing home from the sky was nothing compared to landing at home, impatiently trailing behind Mr. Coughs on the way out of the plane, and throwing herself into Navi’s arms. Hearing, “Jenny, my Jenny!” from Navi as she spun the Little girl around put happy tears in Jenny’s eyes to rival their wedding. She was back in the arms of her gold-crowned sun, and nothing could be bad or annoying any more.
~~~*~~~
“How did the presentation go, baby girl?” Niusha gave Jenny an exuberant hug and kiss as soon as she and Navi were home.
“Usha, it was so great! Well, maybe not the presentation, but the trip was awesome! Avdotya – I mean, Dr. Okounkova – was really nice and we had a whole afternoon to collaborate together. I’m going to have a second paper to publish for the symposium!”
“Sounds like somebody’s not as nervous about presenting as she used to be.” Rachel was next with a kiss, and a grope under Jenny’s skirt to squish her pullup. “You are a wet little girl, though.”
“It wasn’t an accident, I pottied on purpose!” Jenny giggled. “And I’m still nervous. But not like – pukey nervous the way I was before.”
“That’s my cue to get this Little girl into some thicker padding.” Navi scooped Jenny up and tucked the Little girl against her hip. “You came off the plane Little and have been getting more so the whole way here. Is it going to be a baby night for my girl?”
“And tomorrow!” Jenny nodded emphatically. “I did a super big thing all day today.”
“You bet you did. We’re all incredibly proud of you.” Navi kissed Jenny with a slow, smoldering kiss that sent exciting tingles down Jenny’s spine.
On their way upstairs, Jenny put an arm around Navi’s neck and a hand on her wife’s breast to “steady” herself. Her reward for being cheeky was kisses raining down on her cheeks. It took considerably longer to get up the stairs that way, which Jenny appreciated.
They arrived in Monserrat’s room – which was still just Monserrat’s room. Neither of them was quite sure what to do with their sleeping arrangements. Since the wedding they’d been sleeping together most nights, but that was a conflict with the original rules of their polycule. Monchi’s bed was supposed to be open for any girlfriend to stop by when she wasn’t with one of them. Now that Jenna and Monserrat were married, it was a wrinkle they hadn’t worked out. Monserrat had been talking to their girlfriends about it, Jenna felt a twinge of guilt that she hadn’t been helping with those conversations.
Jenny was quick to point out that she’d been overwhelmed with preparing for the trip to Princeton so soon after their wedding. She could start negotiating with her girlfriends about room schedules soon – but not on the same day as the trip. What she needed was a sexy change into a diaper and as much uninterrupted snuggle time with Navi as she could get.
Navi didn’t put Jenny on the changing blanket right away, surprisingly. She sat on the bed instead, arranging her Little girl in her lap. Jenny was about to ask what was going on, when Navi unbuttoned her blouse and stole the Little girl’s attention by exposing the generous curve of her breasts.
“Since you were so interested in these on the way upstairs, why don’t you spend some time kissing them?”
Jenny giggled and squirmed in Navi’s lap. “Do you want me to just kiss – or suck on them?”
“I don’t usually get you this Little. We could try having you suck on them – it’d be something new. If it feels weird or uncomfortable, just stop.” Navi stroked Jenny’s cheek with a feather touch of her knuckles.
“It’s so blushy – but it sounds fun.” Jenny giggled. “I love your breasts.”
Navi leaned back against the wall, scooting Jenny across her lap until the Little girl was laying across Navi’s arm, her face pressed against Navi’s bare breast. The size disparity between them was almost enough for Jenny to be in position while sitting on Navi’s lap, a fact that intensified the Little girl’s blush.
Jenny tried staring with some lightly teasing kisses, only to have Navi cup the back of her head and place Jenny’s mouth firmly on her nipple. A soft moan escaped her lips at how Little it made her feel. She wrapped her lips around Navi’s gorgeous brown nipple and sucked the way she did when one of her caregivers fed her from a bottle.
The reaction from Navi was immediate. Not only did Navi’s nipple spring to prominence in Jenny’s mouth, but her wife gave a guttural groan that made butterflies in Jenny’s wet pullup. It wasn’t long before Navi switched Jenny to her other breast. Worried that she’d made her wife sore, Jenny interspersed her sucking with gentle licks. The delighted sounds that Navi made in response were all the feedback Jenny needed.
In a while – Jenny was well beyond tracking time – both Jenny and Navi were flushed and sweating. Jenny asked Navi if she had anything more wet for her to suck on – that resulted in Navi getting out of her clothes so fast that Jenny wondered if the outfit had simply exploded. Nestled between Navi’s legs, with the familiar taste of her wife on her tongue, Jenny curled her tongue around Navi’s button. She’d hardly gotten started when Navi cried out, flexing her athletic body until it slid a foot across the floor.
Before she knew it, Jenny was gathered up in Navi’s arms. She was helpless before her wife’s physical power and ecstatic at the feeling. Navi stripped Jenny bare, wrapped her tightly against Navi’s naked body, and filled her kitty with strong fingers. Jenny was drowning in Navi, with her wife’s tongue exploring her mouth. She squirmed against the tight embrace, her pleasure building with every futile movement. There was no part of her that was untouched or autonomous. Every part of Jenny belonged to Navi, was controlled by Navi.
Pleasure rippled up from between Jenny’s legs in a wave and crowned in her head. The world went dim and breathless. She strained outward in all directions, pressing herself against Navi’s unyielding embrace. When the sparks left Jenny’s vision, there was quiet and warmth as she lay across Navi’s body. Earlier in the day, her whole world had been a blackboard. Now the world’s bounds were defined by the curve of Navi’s body and the deep curls of her hair.
When the changing blanket finally made its appearance, Jenny lay on it like a limp noodle. Navi sponged the Little girl off from forehead to toes. She was glorious, leaning over Jenny, still naked and gleaming with sweat. Though Navi applied lotion and powder as she always did, she added a thick booster pad to Jenny’s already roomy nighttime diaper. All that padding made it impossible for Jenny’s legs to close when her diaper was taped up.
The Little girl had no objection, only a demand for footie pajamas. Navi was happy to comply. Once Jenny was dressed, Navi handed her off to Niusha and Rachel for babysitting before hitting the shower. The rest of Jenny’s evening was spent being passed from babysitter to babysitter to wife. No one had any intention of letting Jenny do a single thing for herself. The Little girl wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.