Chapter 1: City Style
Ken Doll
Chapter 1: City Style
Word count: 2805
cw: g/t (duh!), swearing, hints of fearplay, but it's all just fluff mostly :)
Note: This story has been brewing in my mind ever since I saw Barbie with my friend :) i've been adjusting to living in my new home and job! Things are going pretty well btw!
Anyway! honestly kinda challenging writing about 12 inch characters since i’m used to writing about smaller (my tiny 5inch steve harrington). lol. BUT IT'S BEEN FUN! This is ryan gosling’s ken btw, bc i said so.
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Anna rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to focus her dry eyes on her computer screen. Her brows furrowed and she let out a deep sigh. She shut the computer and rubbed her eyes. She got up from the dinner table and slammed her window shut. The muffled traffic outside eased her mind. Instead of, not staring at a screen that irritated her mind and body, she scrolled through her phone.
Her text notifications were highlighted in big red blobs as she swiped past them. Eventually, doom scrolling her way to a toy company page on Instagram. Large letters in fun fonts were colored brightly. She raised a brow at the celebrity appearances which increased their likes. After a few minutes of research, she found out their orders had even tripled recently. All for a new line of robot toys, making her frown.
“Shit,” she scratched her brow, “might need to work for these guys.”
The thought of a bigger paycheck did make her smile. It was tempting to leave the company she’d been contracted with for years. Though they’d kept her and accommodated her needs when her accident happened. Except now her paychecks were slimming, she was pulling out of her savings, and she’d only now got insurance to cover for her meds. Then the problems just piled on from there.
“Damn… mood ruined,” she said to herself.
Anna shook her head as if her thoughts would disappear with the motion. They didn’t. She deeply sighed and set her phone down on the kitchen counter. Anna’s glasses fogged when she opened a bag of steamed vegetables. She dumped the veggies into her bowl of rice and meat before diving in. Every full spoon of food in her mouth was met with a harsh critique. She scrolled through the comments on the graphic designs she’d submitted. The latest one was for a doll in Mattel. Trying to do Barbie justice seemed harder every day for some reason.
A light knock on her door caused her to jump in her seat. She slowly walked up to the door and looked through the peephole. The apartment door across from her was the only thing in sight. Anna opened up the door and looked downwards. There was a white parcel waiting with her name on it. She picked it up and placed it on the dinner table. She examined it but realized there was no return address. Confused, she set it aside and scrolled through her emails.
Anna got lost in her work and remembered the package at midnight. Her dark short hair was wrapped around large curlers. She wore matching green satin pajamas and fluffy socks.
“Right…” she eyed the mystery box and grabbed a pair of scissors.
The box revealed a familiar product.
“Okay, Ken,” she said to the doll staring back at her through plastic, “let’s see what you’re here for.”
She set the box to the side and started to scroll through her email. She searched, and searched, and searched. Nothing. She furrowed her brows and realized she’d never gotten a Ken to advertise in her career with Mattel. Anna snorted. Someone would have to do some insanely good marketing to get a single Kens sales up.
She looked at the basic model of Ken. Blonde, blue-eyed, and wearing soft pastels. Her brow raised at the color choices. She liked them. He had a plain pink pastel shirt, and beige pants alongside white shoes. The more she stared she swore she could see more detail. The plastic looked textured and she swore his hair looked coarse. Anna blinked and rubbed her eyes.
“I think I’ve actually lost it,” she said under her breath.
She got up from her chair and shut her computer. Anna decided she would just call work tomorrow and figure it all out. Except when she started to step away some curiosity swirled in her mind. She looked over her shoulder at the box face up on her table. She’d already stepped into her room and could just fall into bed.
“Ah, shit. It doesn’t hurt to look,” Anna said.
She took a seat again and started to cut off the tape around the box. Then she gently pulled the cardboard latches. She slid out the flimsy cardboard printed with a blue cloudy background and the Ken doll attached. She picked it up into her hands and her thumbs were beside his ziplocked hands.
Anna truly believed she was losing it because this Ken was heavily detailed. Too detailed, too human-like and it was bugging her. She rubbed her eyes with one hand and adjusted her glasses. Then she heard a breath that wasn’t her own. She once again looked down at the doll.
Ken blinked.
What.
The.
Fuck.
Ken blinked, again. His brows shot up before letting out a shout alongside Anna who dropped him. Her chair smacked against the floor as they both continued to scream. After a minute they’d both gone quiet. Anna with her hand over her thumping chest and Ken frantically looked around him. A pang of guilt hit her chest as she realized he was still trapped in ziplock cuffs.
She bit the inside of her cheek realizing she was referring to a toy. Yet he was so… lifelike… and his confused face was making her heart sting. She silently reached for the scissors as her shadow covered Ken. She hovered over him, still standing, and moved the scissors near his right hand. He turned his face to the sharp tool and then looked away while squeezing his eyes shut.
She frowned but Anna snipped off the first ziplock cuff. After that, he turned his head back to the spot. He looked surprised and then he smiled widely at being able to move his hand. She smiled softly as he curled and uncurled his fingers in front of his face. While he was distracted she snipped off the rest of the ziplock. When he’d realized he was free he looked up at her with a smile.
“Thank you!” he said.
Anna still unsure of what the fuck was happening, hesitated before responding.
“You’re welcome,” she said.
She opened her mouth to say something as Ken got up. He looked at his surroundings with his hands on his hips. Anna just couldn’t find any words as she watched his beaming face falter. He still stood on top of the cheap cardboard and mumbled to himself. His brows were scrunched up in confusion and his lips were pressed into a thin line.
“Okay, it has to be AI,” she told herself, causing Ken to look up at her.
“What’s AI?” he asked just as Anna set her chair back and took a seat, “And uh where am I?” his voice went up a pitch. He kept up a brave face but his body language said otherwise. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet and started to over-fix his hair. Anna felt another pang of guilt in her chest. She tried to push it away and wondered if this was a part of the appeal for a new toy. Its awareness was off the charts, and again seemed so human.
“You’re at my apartment,” she said, not wanting to explain Artificial Intelligence to something that was most likely AI or close to it.
“Oh,” he blinked like it wasn’t something he wanted to hear. “It’s nice,” he complimented, “and really big.”
She smiled at that, “Even I feel like it’s kinda big sometimes,” Anna said. A decent-sized kitchen was behind her. She sat at her dining room table. To her right was her living room with lots of furniture and personality. Three doors spread out in the apartment. Once was for the entrance, the other door next to it belonged to the bathroom. The open door to the right of the couch went into her bedroom. It was a score honestly, she’d gotten lucky before inflation hit and managed to keep the place.
Anna looked at Ken who again was looking around with wide eyes. She snapped the laptop open causing him to jump and let out a squeal. She muttered an apology while he tried to play it off like he hadn’t been scared. Her ringed fingers clacked against the keyboard as she started to type keywords into a search engine. Ken had leaned his pretty self to look at the screen. The flashing of colors made his eyes hurt as it felt like she was scrolling 10 miles per hour.
“Nothing…” she muttered.
All she saw was some shitty Barbie AI filter, a Mattel babysitter bot, more Barbie models that were problematic and cute little robots. Then she moved to her emails, but there was nothing.
“Nothing? What is nothing?” Ken asked, causing her to remember he was still there. Not a dream or a figment of her imagination. He had this display of confusion written all over his face, and couldn’t seem to stress what he was confused about. Anna dragged her hand over her face.
“I’m trying to figure out what you are, or who sent you… or anything,” she explained and then perked up. “Wait! Do you know what you’re doing here? How did you get here? What are you?” she bombarded him with questions. Ken froze up and gave her a blank look.
“You don’t know… do you?” she deadpanned.
He shrugged with a pitiful smile but then he lit up. Anna felt hopeful as he opened his mouth to explain.
“Well, I know I was in Barbie Land,” he started and Anna’s hope shattered. “… and I’d been trying to y’know… find what it means to be Ken. I-I can’t remember when I got in that box, and why I’m so… small,” he let out a defeated sigh.
Anna let out a dramatic groan startling Ken again. That was a lot to unpack but nothing useful to her.
“Sorry,” she said.
Ken just blew out air from his mouth and put his hands on his hips. “Not a big deal,” he said and she raised a brow at that. He attempted a look of *whatever, it’s cool* but he did not seem cool with it, at all.
“Right right,” she said amused.
She eyed him and he looked away when she started to stare for a long time. She reached her hand out to him and wrapped her fingers around his waist. He snapped his eyes to her hand as she lifted him from the table.
“Woah uhh,” he fumbled for words as his fingers wrapped around hers, “can you put me down?” he asked.
She held onto him with one hand and used the other to take his shirt off. Numerous protests came out of Ken’s mouth yet he had no choice but to comply. Anna held the piece of fabric between her fingers which was soft and didn’t have the typical plastic shine. Meaning the stuff wasn’t cheap, that was for sure. He wasn’t cheap, it made her feel like she shouldn't even be holding him. The pale pink colored shirt even had a tiny tag, it said, Mattel. She set it aside on the table and then turned to Ken.
His back was facing her as she traced her thumb over it. She reeled her head back in surprise at the warmth under her thumb. She could feel the grooves in his spine and he felt fleshy. Fleshy yet smooth, like plastic. She squinted to see if she could find anything to explain all of this. The outline to a compartment box or serial numbers.
There was nothing and tiny hands around her finger grew tight. She let out a huff and the puff of air gave Ken goosebumps. He looked at his arms in surprise at the chilling sensation he’d felt. When he looked up he was met with her face. His face was inches away from hers as she examined him. He could feel the heat rising to his face at the proximity.
Damn, his abs are crazy defined she thought to herself. She used one hand to prop up his upper back with one thumb over his chest. Her other hand was on his lower back with her thumb to his left side. A pulse under the pad of her thumb caused her to blink again. The pulse under her thumb on his chest wasn't coming from her.
“What the fuck…” she whispered. This was getting far too weird. She got an incredibly advanced doll with no return address, opened it (like an idiot), and had zero information on it.
“What are you?” she asked.
“I’m Ken,” he said.
He’d slid his hand over her green-painted nail and held it there. He wasn’t sure what to do, it was a completely new situation for him. Sure, he’d had memories of being taken out of the box. Then he was in Barbie Land, that's how it was. It was never this literal.
Maybe this was a punishment or a new beginning. Yet that didn’t explain anything. His head was going to explode from racking through his brain.
Anna let out a noise of frustration after finding nothing other than well-defined abs on Ken. She set him down and he sat on the edge of her table. He was quick to pull his shirt over himself as she went through her computer. Click after clack, nothing. Meanwhile, Ken was swinging his feet back and forth trying not to think too hard.
“Nada, zero, zulch,” she said. It had already been a bit over 2 hours and 3 am was nearing. “I give up. I’ll call work tomorrow and maybe they’ll know what the hell you are,” Anna tilted her head down.
“But I’m Ken,” he said, again. He didn’t even seem confident saying those words.
“Yeah I know you’re Ken, but what does that mean?” In this specific situation, Anna thought to herself.
That earned his silence and his shoulders slumped. She hesitantly gave him a finger tap on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. It’s my fault for opening up your box in the first place actually… Shouldn’t have been nosey.”
He looked up at her which made her chest squeeze. Those puppy dog eyes were convincing her that he was so real, it was weird. Anna yawned a second after and pushed her chair back. She shut the laptop and turned off the kitchen light. She tidied up a bit and then plugged in her computer at the table.
Immediately Ken stood up and she turned to him.
“Do you sleep or charge?” she asked.
“I sleep,” he said snappily. Probably insinuating that he isn’t a toy, but a real Ken doll with sentience.
Okay. Sensitive much?
Anna hummed and racked up her 3 a.m. brain to think of something. She didn’t recall having much Barbie furniture so… she decided her bed would do.
“Wanna join me in my bed? I don’t think I have anything for your size,” Anna said.
“Like sleeping together in the same bed?” Ken asked with brows raised.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
She squinted at him and tilted her head.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Are you sure?” she asked.
He thought about it for a moment before looking up at her with a smile and nod. She actually could feel the wave of cuteness overload and tug at her heartstrings. He gazed up at her as she hesitantly put her hands around him. This time aware of what she was doing. She used one hand to pick him up by his waist and pulled him close to her chest. She used her free hand to shut the lights off and strolled into her room. Her unmade queen-sized bed awaited them and she set him down on the side she never slept on.
Anna went to her bedside and turned on the desk lamp. She fixed a couple of hair rollers and then slipped her glasses off. She turned off the light and caught Ken staring at her. He was sitting on top of the bed sheets and leaning his back against the pillow. He was quick to look away and she’d noticed his hair was out of place. She smiled to herself before switching off the light.
Her head sunk into the pillow and with half-lidded eyes watched Ken. He was fidgeting with his fingers and was looking at everything but her. She decided to pull the sheets over him and he’d jerked back for a second. Realizing it was her hand in the darkness he relaxed and turned to her.
“Thanks,” he said quietly.
Anna hummed and then dozed off into sleep. Ken was left awake but he found himself fighting off sleep. Finally, he slept as well, hoping he’d wake up in Barbie Land.
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