A Giant's Hands [ON HOLD]

Chapter 1 [MAKI] - Long legged and hairy

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Maki peered out from under the kitchen counter, grinding her teeth in frustration. She had only barely made it before HE had come stomping in, like the giant oaf that he was. Now she was covered in dust and grime, her stomach still grumbling, and still no closer to getting something proper to eat than she had been back in her hiding place by the stairs.

A pox on that filthy, unreliable slob.

And he, he just stood there, in those ugly, worn out grey slippers and slacks, not even bothering to dress himself properly anymore, staring listlessly into the open fridge for what must be the third time within the past hour. What did the idiot think had changed from the last time he had checked?

He hadn't wanted anything then either, had just stared and stared, before slouching off, back to his living room to do god-knows-what, probably find an interesting bit of wall to stare at, or whatever.

Maki had yearned to be as big as a human for many reasons before - to kick a cat, to never be afraid again, to not have to spend her life in perpetual hiding, to be able to get as much food as she wanted - but for the past week, her dearest wish had been to just be able to give that giant oaf a good kicking, and shout at him until he finally stopped sulking.

She supposed, that might have something to do with not having been able to sleep properly for days, thanks to HIM.

It must have been, what..? Nine days now, since the human had stopped following his usual routine of leaving about mid-morning during most of the week, and just stayed home all the god-damn time. To make matters worse, he started lumbering through the house at all hours, acting utterly unpredictable. He would sit and stare at the TV like an idiot one moment, only to start on a cleaning frenzy of epic proportions the next.

Luckily, those never lasted long enough to seriously inconvenience or endanger Maki by revealing or destroying any of her hiding spots, but sadly he never actually managed to get rid of the dust and filth in the corners or underneath stuff either.

Still, being woken by that enormous hoover suddenly emitting its horrible, ear-splitting noise just a few feet from where she had been sleeping, and then coming seriously close to sucking up part of her bedding, ranked as one of the more terrifying experiences of her life so far.

In the past nine days Maki had had to put up with the Oaf getting drunk several times and falling asleep in the living room, on the kitchen floor, and on the stairs - about three feet from where she had made her home, snoring loud enough to make the house shake, only to get up in the middle of the night, loudly crash into things on his way to the bathroom, and then proceed to stumble through the house alternately sobbing, shouting and babbling incoherently,

-him listening to music turned up loud enough to almost make her eardrums burst,

-him creeping about the house so silently, that he managed to surprise Maki twice, only to absently stare at stuff for a minute or two and then wander off to stare at something else (the first time he had surprised Maki like that, he had almost stepped on her, but hadn't even noticed, lost in his thoughts as he was. Maki hadn't dared come out of hiding for almost a whole day after that incident, only her growling stomach finally compelling her to venture out again. She had had to face all sorts of dangerous situations before, but she didn't remember ever being as terrified as she was, when, turning to look up, she had seen that gigantic foot come crashing down towards her, missing her only by a fraction of an inch.)