This is So Wrong (G/t)

2

"Ugh, for crying out loud, what is it, Evan!?" Ayana groaned loudly, loud enough to scare both of them, but not loud enough for anyone else to hear. 

Evan was dumbfounded, both that she was talking and that she was talking to him, considering this was really the first time he was doing the same to her. 

"Well, what do you want?"  She thought to herself. "Are you going to say something, or what? Did that come off too strong?"

This eight-or-so-inch girl... this woman was barking at him, and she was coming with a bite, too. However, there was something about it - her - that confused him. 

"Th-That's what you sound like?"

The direction for the question was so hard for Ayana to figure out that it would be easy for her to take it in the wrong way. It's a good thing that every way she thought of was negative, right? Haha, no... 

"What's that supposed to mean?" "Am I not allowed to sound like this?"

Evan heard the peevishness and hostility in Ayana's voice, so he realized the mistake he had made in his question. "Wh-What? No, I meant that... you're so quiet..."

Ayana didn't bother answering that aloud; the answer was obvious. "What did you expect? I'm a small girl, so I have a small voice. It's simple logic."

Little did Evan know that he'd make another mistake finishing his previous thought, "You're so quiet... and so... l-literate, too."

A fire ignited within the feisty female's soul, and that is the worst possible thing that could have been done. 

"Excuse you!?" she jeered. "I'll have you know that I'm more 'literate' than you'll ever be! And what the hell made you say that or gave you the idea that I wasn't!? Is my new height? My gender? My skin color even!?" "For goodness sake, you'd think ethical evolution would've occurred sometime during these past generations, but I guess nothing has changed, has it!?"

Evan was taken aback by the woman's sudden explosion. He thought he was giving a compliment to her. 

"Huh? Wh-What did I say? I would never-" But when he contemplated on what he had said, his face flushed like he had an allergic reaction to something. "Oh god. A-Ayana, I didn't mean it like... You've gotta understand; it was just... I was-"

"You were being your parents' son. Just face it. *sigh* This is what I get for breaking my norm." 

Ayana's inner-self was going back and forth from being heartbroken to being utterly offended. She may have been scared of the kid - she still is, actually - but there was a place in her heart that actually expected and wanted more from him, considering he never really made a move on anyone, like his friends and family did. Those thoughts vanished as quickly as they came, and she went back to her detached self, staring him down.

"Ayana, please," Evan tried to reason with her, sitting up on his denim-covered knees, removing his hat to reveal his short yet spastic hair, and shadowing Ayana even more than he already was. "Can't you just-?" He stopped when he heard some grass rustling in the distance. 

Ayana looked to the sound and saw a woman approaching them... or just him since she was pretty hidden from this angle. It looked like Madam Anne or Miss Alyssa, but she couldn't see for sure - they looked too similar. Either way, they both were scary to her... but not as scary as the sound of a belt unbuckling. Ayana looked to the man towering her and paled at the sudden sight of him with a taut grip on the leather in hand and the most blood-curdling scowl on his face that perfectly matched the tone of his voice, 

"Can't ya just get anything right!? What are ya? Deaf? Blind? 'Cuz' I know you ain't blind by the way ya been lookin' at me! What'cha gonna do, huh!?"

Every part of the doll-sized lady was shaking, and every part of the other woman watching, Alyssa (Evan's older sister), was pleased. With a look of approval on her face, the twenty-something-year-old smirked and walked away commenting, 

"I see ya got this. I'll leave ya be, then. But, ya know, if Momma don't hear a scream comin' outta her, she'll be comin' ta get ya." 

Ayana dropped to the ground, braced for impact, and squeezed her eyes shut as she saw Evan lift his belt-wielding hand, and she flinched and yelped when she heard the belt make sharp contact with the bark of the tree they were under. And yet, nothing touched her. No other sounds, besides the common ones found on a farm, were heard, either, except whimpering... that wasn't hers.

Ayana slowly opened her eyes to see this forceful, possibly abusive creature of a man upon her; however, she was only met with a broken man... a man with varied glows of sunshine splattered across his face through the tree's leaves and branches. His head hung in shame until it unhurriedly rose, permitting him to look at the fearful girl, then the belt in his now-quivering grasp, and then the girl again. He had transformed from one extreme to another - increased anger to unbelievable depression - in the blink of an eye. Evan couldn't handle this situation. He couldn't do that to her... or anyone at all. 

Right now, he couldn't even face her, but he still didn't want her to leave. So, he stood to his full, six-ish feet, dropped the belt (thankfully not on Ayana), and walked out from the shade of the tree, into the brightness of noonday. He gazed at the landscape, with a blank face and blank mind, letting the breeze hit him, before dropping to the ground onto his butt, curling up until his knees were to his cheeks, and crying. In a hushed, muffled tone to himself, he whimpered, 

"This is wrong... so, so wrong."

"What... the actual... hell?" Ayana thought to herself. 

Her heart was racing. Her mind was racing. Her breaths were irregular and hollow. Nothing about this made sense: why the Fowler family wanted her and the others hurt, why Evan didn't hurt her, why he was crying now... why she actually cared about his tears. It made no sense. Something told her 'Go away. Leave while you can!', but her mother's voice in her consciousness hit her harder and said, 

'If you know you can help someone for the better, do it, no matter what it takes.' 

"Damn it, Momma. Curse me and my obedient ways. This better not be an unworthy sacrifice. If I die right now, I better be going to heaven, or I swear my ghost will haunt you for eternity."  

With a deep inhale and exhale, Ayana rose from the ground, brushed the dirt off her dress, and started approaching the edifice Evan... until she stopped, knowing that was a bad idea, based on occurrences in the past:

Sometimes, when she and some others did menial chores or tasks for the Fowlers in their home, she had seen Evan go into depressed moods. Since all of the shrunken souls were brainwashed to make sure that every Fowler was a happy Fowler - no matter what had to be done - some had the nerve to go to him and try to cheer him up, whether by making something, fixing something, or doing, uh, 'other things'. However, every time, he would snap and go into this bit of rage, and his tantrums would end up hurting at least a few minis, in one way or another. Yet, from her point-of-view, it always looked like an accident... except one time. She didn't know exactly what had happened then, but his anger was put out on that innocent mini male, intentionally or not.

Ayana understood that Evan was probably just as stubborn as she was, so if she was going to get through to him, she'd have to go in unexpectedly. Because of that, she decided to take a different, almost taboo to the tinies, approach by climbing the tree all the way up to an outstretched branch, walking across it to the end, and leaping onto Evan's shoulder, catching him off-guard enough for him to not make a move... hopefully. And so, she did... and she did it well... gracefully, almost innately even. She would've compared her movements to the ones of a monkey if the thoughts didn't bring up nightmares and spiteful quotes from the past. They made her shudder. Pushing that aside, she went through with her idea and successfully reached her target. 

Whatever happened next was up to him.