David picked out a book and began reading. The story was very amateurish like it had been written by a little kid. It reminded David a lot of Peter Pan but this one had a boy named Emil and a girl named Linnea journeying through a strange land of fairies and mermaids.
The door opened and Steve was standing there wearing football padding and holding some clothes out to David. "I found some clothes."
Football padding can act like pants as far as modesty goes but since they are meant to be worn under football pants, the padding made Steve look like he was just wearing bulky long-johns. Steve wasn't wearing anything except the long-john like shorts.
David picked through the cowboy accessories and found the loincloth. "You know these skimpy bits of clothing are more of a turn on than staying naked. You have us dressing like strippers."
Steve growled, "Shut up and put em on. They're the best I could find."
David sighed and put on his loincloth and cowboy vest and hat. The two then did a thorough search of the dollhouse. They found a modern washing machine, dryer, and dish washer in the extra room. They found hundreds of boxes and odd items in storage in the attic. They searched the entire doll house inside and out but found nothing to restore them to their normal size. At eleven inches tall, it was hard to climb unto the roof but fortunately the house had some shape to it so that climbing onto balconies and awnings, they were able to search the roof.
"I've got to call Sheryl."
"Are you sure you can trust her?"
"We've been together a while and I was thinking about asking her to marry me. I think we can trust her."
"I'm not sure we can trust anyone. I've read a few shrinking stories and they rarely turn out well for the shrunken. For that matter, how are we even alive? Every scientific explanation of shrinking I've ever heard of says that we should be dead or severely deformed at this small. We obviously lost mass so did our atoms shrink and if so, how are our atoms interacting with normal sized atoms? Did our cells shrink or did we lose cells? If we lost cells, which cells did we lose? I hope we didn't lose any brain cells because 80% of my brain would be a lot of cells to lose. Scientifically this is all impossible."
"Don't ask me. I'm not the scientist."
"I wish Scott was here. He might know the answer."
"Scott gives me the creeps. He loves to put live grasshoppers under the microscope and watch them squirm. Do you want to be under his microscope?"
"No."
"Then let me call Sheryl."
David agreed and the two made their way to the floor where they left their normal sized clothing. David helped hold Steve's pants pocket open while Steve crawled inside to find his cell phone. The pocket was as big as a tent but without poles to hold it open, it felt like crawling around inside a giant sleeping bag.
Steve pushed the cell phone open and called Sheryl but got an answering service. "Hey honey, this is Steve. There is something weird about the dollhouse. Please call me back as soon as possible. Love you."
"No go? How long do you think it will be until she calls back?"
"It might be a few days."
"DAYS?" David screeched.
"Or it might be a few moments. She's going to be very busy this weekend arranging something with her family. She said she'd try to keep checking her phone but that there might be times when she has to turn her phone off so we can't count on her."
"So should we call Scott."
"Only if we're desperate. What about calling Billy."
"Billy is on your football team right? He might be okay but I doubt he'd be much help. No offense but he's probably so rough and tumble that he'd sit on the dollhouse with us inside."
"Well offense taken. Football players are not that stupid but you do have a point about him not being much help either. So I guess our best bet is to just camp out and wait for Sheryl to call back."
After a while, they became hungry. It took both of them shoving to get the fridge door open. Then using a shoelace and several paperclips, they had fashioned a working grappling hook to climb the fridge shelves. Neither David nor Steve were slobs but they weren't neat freaks either so finding things on the floor of the apartment was easy.
"We don't have to worry about food for a while. We have mountains of food." The truth was the fridge was mostly empty but at eleven inches tall, that food was more than enough.
It got later and later until it started getting dark. "I suppose it's a good thing that I can take a break for the next few days. Coach will be mad that I missed practice but nothing I can't make up for. How about you?"
"I might have to call in sick tomorrow but I can also take a break for a few days."
The entire day, David had been struggling with the loincloth coming loose. Finally he ripped it off and threw it on the floor. "I've had it with this modesty issue. You know you can trust me. Are we really going to be so immature as if nudity was going to cause us to be wild and out of control? This is ridiculous."
It got so late the two became sleepy. "Do you want to call Scott now?"
"We're still not that desperate. I'd rather call Billy although he works a night shift and probably won't get the message until morning."
"Go ahead and call him."
Steve called Billy and left a message. "Hey B. When you get a chance, call me. I could use some help."
They went into the dollhouse to look for a bed. There was only one bedroom and only one bed but it was a nice, large, old-fashioned, four-post bed with canopy. There wasn't any place else that would work for sleeping. The couches were the old fashioned weird design that worked great for sitting but didn't work at all for laying down. David took off the rest of his cowboy accessories and crawled into bed. "There's enough room. I think it will be alright to share."
Steve hesitated but then crawled into bed. He tossed and turned. "These football pads are so bulky, it's hard to sleep in them." Finally Steve kicked them off but stayed under the covers. He turned away from David and tried to fall asleep. David respected this and stayed on his side of the bed.
Steve woke up first to discover himself snuggling up with David but it was so comfortable that he decided to just roll with it. When David woke up, he pulled away nervous but then realized. "You're not freaking out? You're okay with this?"
"It's nice. Don't get me wrong. I'm not switching teams but this is okay."
"You do realize we both have morning wood."
"That doesn't mean I want to have sex with you. Guys pop boners all the time, even in the locker room but it doesn't turn them into beast that need to fuck. Just ignore it and it will go away."
David relaxed a little and snuggled with Steve. It was still uncomfortable for David because his mind expected sex but other than what his own mind kept telling him, it was very pleasant to simply snuggle with his best friend. Steve was right. Their morning wood faded away but the two kept snuggling for a while and sleeping in.
When they did wake up, David complained about the smell. "We have to do something about the toilet. We can't just keep filling it without a way to flush it."
They did not figure out any way to plug the house in to water but they did find things they could use as containers to haul water from the apartment sink to the dollhouse bathtub. They cleaned up the toilet then decided they needed to clean up themselves. Neither bothered getting dressed that morning so they decided that it was okay to keep each other company while each one bathed. They even scrubbed each other's backs.
David had conflicting emotions about this because his mind kept telling him this was sexual but Steve was not responding sexually. The sexual tension did fade somewhat and David learned to enjoy a little non-sexual intimacy with Steve.
They didn't have to worry much about pests. They did see a spider that looked to them like it was two feet long but they were still bigger and stronger than the spider. If they had seen a mouse, mice are vegetarians and would probably not attack. But their apartment didn't have a pest problem and they didn't have a pet so they didn't have any animal fears. Altogether, their time in the dollhouse was pleasant. It had some rough spots but it was mostly like a vacation and a nice vacation at that. The dollhouse was more luxuriously furnished than any hotel the guys could normally afford.
David found another book and lounged in a chair reading while Steve tried to figure out a way to do his exercise routine and stay in shape. Then they heard the door to the apartment open and someone was letting themselves in.