Aaron’s exer-size

Olly gently set the terrarium on the carpet, making sure that nothing inside was disturbed. He kneeled to take a closer look; everything seemed fine. He sat on the carpet and carefully pressed his soles on either side of Aaron’s world.

On the other side of the glass, pressed deep in the flesh of his owner’s sole, Aaron could see a flustered Eric not trying to struggle. The nano pet looked up to see Olly’s face filling his sky, eyes lit with excitement looking down at him.

Olly’s voice boomed, and Aaron could feel each word vibrate through him. “We gotta start training you, Aaron, or you’ll never be able to climb! I can’t train you myself, obviously, but at this stage it’s really quite simple; you just need someone to watch over you, barely any braincells required, so Eric will do the job.” Eric’s retort was too muffled to ever be heard.

Olly peeled his sole off the glass to fish out Eric, and brought him before his face. “Did you find what I asked for?”
“You think it’s hard to find sock lint on your foot? It’s like looking for hay in a haystack, you id—” His insult was cut short and replaced by a scream as Olly let go of his shirt, dropping him into the terrarium. Eric landed ungracefully into some vegetation, got back on his feet with a grunt, and brushed off the seed-sized leaves he was covered in.

Aaron was waiting on the other side of the terrarium, just a few Eric-paces away. The nano pet looked slightly nervous, which Eric knew was the equivalent of “quite happy” on his emotional spectrum. Eric wasted no time, sat down cross-legged, and pulled something out of his pocket: a barbell made from a splinter of wood and two balls of sock lint. Aaron tried to reach for it, but Eric placed it on the ground instead. “No offense, but I gotta make sure it’s not too heavy for you, so I can’t just hand it to you. I won’t be hard on you, but you’ll have to try your best, alright?”
Aaron nodded and tried to pick up the nano-barbell. He managed to barely lift it off the ground before he was forced to drop it.

“Well, fuck,” Eric whispered. He cleared his throat and spoke out loud again. “Okay, lie on your back and give me a moment.” He picked up the glorified toothpick and shaved some weight off the ends, leaving barely any lint remaining. “Now keep your elbows on the ground and lift only your forearms, I’ll give you the barbell. Elbows closer to your body, we’re just gonna test the weight. Ready?”

This time, Aaron managed to hold the barbell in the air for a moment before needing to lower it over his legs. He looked up at Eric, worrying about what his trainer thought of his weak constitution.

Eric’s half-smile couldn’t fully hide his own worrying. Olly demanded his pets to be in shape, but Eric had no intention of putting Aaron through the sadistic intensity of training he was himself subjected to. And Aaron was starting out even weaker than Eric had ever been. Sure, Olly doted much more on Aaron than on Eric, but he still expected results, and it was now up to Eric to find the right balance.
“Hey, it’s okay. The most important thing is that you don’t injure yourself, so we’ll focus on the movements first. Try to drag the barbell onto your chest and we’ll go from there. Keep your back flat on the ground, use only your arms. Alright, ready? Elbows out, and straighten your arms up.”

Aaron’s trembling arms managed a full press, and Eric managed a full smile.