Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"What the hell." The kid that was sitting in Jeremy's swivel chair jerked his head up, eyes widening. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I don't- I don't know." The kid stammered, bringing his legs up and wrapping his arms around them. Jeremy studied him, and let out a quiet gasp. He scrambled for his phone.

"You're Squip." The kid nodded his head hesitantly, unsure of what would happen if he either confirmed or denied the fact that he was the mentioned computer. "How old are you anyway?"

"I would assume that I am about 10 years old." He whispered. Squip began to play with the hem of his shirt, his anxiety at the situation obvious. Jeremy unlocked his phone and scrolled through his contacts. He was about to click on Michael when Squip snapped his head up.

"Who are- who- who are you calling?"

"I'm calling Michael." The ten year old screeched.

"Don't call Michael! Please, please, please don't call Michael! Please don't get rid of me, please, I beg. I don't want to die please don't-" The barrage of words was interrupted by a sob. The ten year old hastily tried to get rid of his tears and failed, as they were streaming down his face at a steady pace.

"Hey, hey calm down. He won't get rid of you, I promise. I'm not asking for Mountain Dew Red." Jeremy looked on, helpless in the face of a crying and panicking child who started to hiccup from the force of his sobs. Jeremy stood up and walked over to Squip and began rubbing his back in what he hoped was a calming action. Apparently, it helped because Squip stopped crying. When he noticed what Jeremy was doing, however, he jerked away and fell off the chair, landing on the floor with a bang. Squip whimpered from the contact with the wooden floor and lay there for a few minutes while Jeremy tried to decide what to do.

"How about I call Michael and put him on speaker phone? That way, you can hear everything we say to each other, okay?" When Squip nodded, Jeremy called and explained to Michael that Yes, it's an emergency and no, I can't do this without you. When Jeremy finally hang up, He decided to give Squip a change of clothes because he was obviously not comfortable in them. He dug out an old hoodie and sweatpants that were too small to wear and gave them to Squip when he realized that the kid would need help. Just as Jeremy finished tugging the oversized hoodie over the child's head, Michael burst through the door.

"Jeremy what's wrong and- oh my god, why do you have a child here?" Jeremy sighed.

"Michael, meet Squip. Who somehow turned into a child." Michael froze.

"Holy shit, no way."

Jeremy nodded his head.

"Yes. And I need help taking care of him. We can't just abandon him. He's a little kid." Michael sighed.

"Fine." He looked at the hunched figure of Squip and walked up to him. "Hey, kid. You doing alright?" It was pretty clear that the Squip was panicking, but keeping a brave face in the eyes of his past killer.

"I'm perfectly fine." He replied just a bit sharply. When Michael glared at him though, he whimpered slightly and backed away. He was so small this time around, and Michael seemed to be a giant. Michael's eyes softened.

"Hey, it's fine." Michael tried to pat Squip on the shoulder but he backed further away. Michael stood up.

"How about waffles for breakfast, since I'm the only one that can actually cook in this house?"

Chapter Text

Sometimes, people get uneasy for no reason. But that isn't really true. If you get uneasy, there is a reason. You might not be the one who is going to carry the brunt of whatever is coming, but someone is. A bad feeling about something is a very good reason not to do that thing. You see, Michael woke up that morning because of a call from Jeremy and a feeling deep in his gut that told him that something was wrong. And he was right. Or at least, he felt he was.

In record timing, Michael got dressed and ran to his car. His mothers weren't awake yet, so that meant he would text them later to tell the two worried adults where he was. He grabbed the keys, jumped into his car, and sped towards Jeremy's house.

____

Michael knew it.

A child Squip? Nothing good will come out of this.

But an evil plan seemed very unlikely, especially since no one can fake the amount of pure panic in the kids' eyes. So Michael was stuck making waffles.

"Here you go." Said Michael as he put a plate of waffles in front of the squip. The child nodded and carefully grabbed the fork and just. Poked his waffles with it.

While Squip was very unsure on what to do with his food, Jeremy was the complete opposite. He devoured everything almost right away. And then begged for more with his eyes. Michael sighed.

"Fine. Fine. I'll make you more waffles." Jeremy let out a victorious grin when Michael snatched his plate and went to the waffle iron. Then he looked at squip.

"Squip? Are you going to eat?" questioned Jeremy. Squip sighed.

"I don't really want to." He mumbled barely loud nough for Jeremy to hear. Jeremy looked at him slightly worried.

"Are you sure?" The squip nodded andjust settled back. "Can I have your waffles, then?" Squip shrugged.

"Sure." Jeremy grinned and grabbed the plate, devouring more waffles. And then Michael came in.

"Dude. Did you steal the childs waffles?" Jeremy smiled sheepishly.

"Yep!"

"Do you want the kid to starve?"

"He said he wasn't hungry."

"The hell does that mean?"

"It means what it says. I'm not hungry." Interjected squip, still leaning back in his chair. The kid looked pitiful,and Michael sighed, again, for what seems to be the one hundreth time that day. He wouldn't be surprised if it was.

"You have to eat something."

"No."

"You're a human now, you have to eat." Squip wasn't about to be swayed, however. And Michael wasn't about to shove food down his throat. So Michael just shrugged and put the plate of waffles next to Jeremy who made a pleased noise.

"Thanks." Said Jeremy, who didn't even bother to swallow and chew his food like a normal human being who had manners. Michael nodded, too tired from the sitution to laugh like he normally would, and went back to the kitchen to make another plate of waffles. For himself, this time.

________

After everyone (except for Squip) finished eating an put their plates away, Jeremy somehow got Squip back in his room. Michael went up there and plopped himself onto the unoccupied bean-bag chair, and dozed off while the other two just awkwardly stared at eachother. Hey, he was tired. Awkwardness never stopped Michael from getting a few extra z's. After a bit, Squip cleared his throat.

"So... what do we do?" Jeremy gave Squip the Worried Mom look.

"You're staying here, duh."

"I can't possibly-"

"Do you have a place to go to?" mumbled Michael sleepily. Squip thought for a second.

"I can always head to the East Coast section of the S.Q.U.I.P facility.... but that would take a long time..."

"Exactly" cut in Jeremy. "You have to stay here. You're a ten year-ol child- Less, avtually! And you can hardly walk all the way thre. Especially since you can't even walk"

"You have given me enough hospitlity-"

"You're human now." pointed out Michael. "You need to eat, which you still didn't do, sleep, drink, and a bunch of other stuff being a mere mortal will do. You can't."

It took a while for Squip to give in, but eventually he did.

Chapter Text

Michael very reluctantly went home after Squip agreed to stay. His moms called and they were very worried about the fact that he took off before even they woke up. Surprising, because if Michael goes to sleep at all, he wakes up just a bit before noon on free days. Which is why his moms were slightly concerned about finding an empty bed.

"I'll see you guys later, yeah?" Michael asked while hovering near the door. Jeremy smiled.

"Michael, we'll be fine. I'll take care of him."

"But you can't cook. How will you feed him?" shot back Michael. Jeremy frowned worriedly.

"I don't even know if he wants to eat. Maybe he doesn't need to? Since he isn't really human?" Muttered a worried Jeremy. Michael pat him on the shoulder sympathetically.

"You'll have to ask him. You can't really know otherwise."

"...okay." Agreed the teen who was still a bit worried about the human-turned computer in his room. "I'll ask him later. Now, go before your moms call again." Jeremy lightly shoved Michael out of the door who protested being evicted from his friend home, and closed the door. He stood there for a moment and collected his thoughts, rethinking about the day, and then made his way back up to his room. Squip was on the bed now, hugging one of the pillows. The ten year old was facing the window and curled in a fetal position, which made the fact that he didn't want to talk very clear. Jeremy observed the Squip for a bit and then moved to the swivel chair at his computer, starting a large pile of homework he had to make up. They stayed like this until after the sun had gone down, and when Jeremy heard the front door opening.

"Helloooooo. Jeremy, I'm hooome!" Said teen spun around in a slight panic, and tossed a large blanket messily on top of the child on his bed. The Squip startled out of his trance and turned around.

"What are you doing?" He hissed vehemently, and Jeremy shushed him.

"My dad is home, and I'm not looking forward to questions about why there is a child in my room. Try to stay quiet." He then raced off to greet his father.

"Hey dad! How was work?" he asked his father, who just finished ordering pizza for the two of them. Mr. Heere grinned.

"Exhausting. I'm most likely going to go to sleep right after pizza. You're welcome to just take the rest upstairs and finish. How was homework?" Jeremy shrugged.

"It was okay. I was doing it basically all day, so you didn't miss much." Jeremy went to the bathroom as his father shuffled around the house. When he got out, he quickly checked up on the Squip who didn't move much from his position after Jeremy hid him. Thinking nothing of it, Jeremy went downstairs to see his dad greeting the pizza person at the door, and paying them. Mr. Heere turned around with the box and smiled awkwardly at his son. Ever since the SQUIPcident, (Jeremy made a note-to-self to not call it that around the Squip) Mr. Heere tried to connect a bit more with his son so a similar situation didn't happen again. Not that Jeremy didn't appreciate his dads effort in bonding, but it made for some real awkward moments when his dad came to realize that Jeremy changed from when his mom left, and that caused quite a bit of distance between the two. Jeremy sighed and looked at the time. It was already past 10, since his dad got home late everyday, so Jeremy decided to bring up the pizza box to his room and try to get the Squip to eat. He made his way up the stairs and tentatively opened the door to his room, trying to be as quiet as possible to not disturb Squip. When he opened the door, the child was still hiding underneath the blanket. Jeremy frowned. He thought that Squip would've at least moved to make himself more comfortable, but he was still in a fetal position. The longer this went on, the more worried Jeremy got for the child. He left the box of pizza at his desk and went over to his bed.

"Hey, Squip? Are you alright?" Jeremy asked, and the mass under the blanket made a vague nodding motion. Jeremy frowned, Squip was a lot quieter than Jeremy expected. Sure, he spoke, but that was mainly when he was spoken to. Even then, it was mostly snarky. Jeremy opened up the blanket to find Squip just being... still. Unmoving. Jeremy didn't like it. Sure, he would rather he be quiet than trying to draw attention to his presence, but something about how quiet he was was... off.

Jeremy decided to finish up some of his work for the night and than go to sleep. A good thing that stayed with him from the time he still had the Squip as his 'mentor' of sorts was that he now had a semi good work ethic. This helped him take care of himself somewhat, because before you care about work you need to tend to your physical and mental health.

Jeremy dotted the last 'i' and crossed the last 't' and cleared away his desk of homework. He looked back at his closed door and decided to keep it closed, but unlocked. Just in case his dad would check in the middle of the night, which he did more often after the SQUIPcident. But that presented a bit of a problem in the form of a small child on his bed. Squip couldn't be seen in his room, and the only place that Jeremy could hide him was....

"Squip, you need to sleep in the closet." Jeremy reluctantly told him. For a second, it looked like Squip was going to argue. But instead he sighed and quietly walked into the closet. Jeremy brought in a blanket and a pillow, hoping that it would be enough. The teen hesitated in front of the door before closing it. Open enough to let in some air but closed enough that Mr. Heere wouldn't be able to see inside. He loitered in front of the door before going to bed. Hopefully he'll sleep well tonight.

Chapter Text

Squip was out of his depth.

For good reason. He's never been human before. It wasn't as if there should've been a possibility in the first place. There wasn't a fail-safe in his coding in case of termination, especially not a way to turn human. It was all just some big cosmic fluke.

Of course he didn't want to be... well... not dead. He didn't die. He couldn't. Only a human can die, and he wasn't even close to being one. Until, of course, he woke up in Jeremy's room (of all places) and all too mortal. With human needs such as eating and sleeping. How distasteful.

Squip could make it to the east coast facility. But he was in the body of a ten year old, and if would be very suspicious if he was seen without any supervision. The last thing he wants is to attract attention from law enforcement. Even getting attention from random adults would be unhelpful, as they will either want to know where his guardians are or call the police.

So he isn't going to the east coast S.Q.U.I.P facility. 

Which meant he was stuck here. With the people who had every reason to do him harm, and he was defenseless. 

Squip was pulled out of his planning when Jeremy told him that he had to go into the closet. It made sense to stay there. It wasn't unlikely that Mr. Heere would check in on his son, and finding a child in that room was sure to be a shock, and will bring upon all sorts of problems. Most of which resulted in Squip losing his only source of shelter and other things to tend to his body.

It made sense logically. That didn't mean Squip had to like it. 

The door clicked shut, and Squip did not think about how dark it was. He did not think about how he could barely see the tips of his fingers. 'There is light leaking in from the crack between the door and the floor', he reminded himself. 'There's no reason to panic.'

There was a soft click, and Squips' only source of light vanished. 

Squip leaned into the hanging cardigans and coats (he didn't snuggle. He didn't) and didn't think about the dark.

...

Okay maybe he was thinking about it. But that's fine! It wasn't like he was scared of it or anything. That would be preposterous! There wasn't anything to be afraid of. It didn't remind him of the period of time between his human appearance and when Jeremy had Christine drink the Mountain Dew Red. Squip was sitting in a closet, not dead.

Squip's breath hitched and he brought up his knees to his chest His thoughts were supposed to be safe, but instead they were running around in frantic circles. He wanted to run, get out. Anything but this again.

Squip stayed put. He wasn't afraid, despite evidence on the contrary. Jeremy told him to stay in the closet. He'll stay in the closet.

It was so quiet.

Squip tapped on the carpeted floor in an uneven rhythm to try to disrupt the way the silence curled around him. Suffocated him. 

He tapped harder.

Squip wanted so desperately to run out of the tiny space into the light again. Thinking about the light just made him think about how dark it was, and the way he couldn't see at all. He pressed into the wall behind him, but he could barely feel it. It wasn't helping and he was just feeling so so empty. There was no air left and his chest felt too tight and it was dark and quiet and dark it was so dark please I can't-

Squip lunged for the door handle, and with violently shaking hands opened the door. The moon shone through the window and it wasn't dark anymore. He took large breaths and tried not to feel like he was dying. 

A small lamp light clicked on.

"Squip? Are you okay?" Jeremy hovered a bit around the kid on the floor, unsure of how to proceed in this situation.

"I'm fine, Jeremy." Squip snapped and froze at the tone of his own voice. "I'm sorry I didn't mean it please don't get rid of me again I promise I won't-"

Jeremy frowned slightly. "Squip, I'm not getting rid of you." 

"You" Squip gulped and looked up hopefully at Jeremy "You promise?" Jeremy smiled.

"I promise." Jeremy stood up and held his hand out for Squip. He took the hand and they went over to Jeremy's bed, where Jeremy draped a very warm and fluffy blanket around Squip. He snuggled into the blanket, finally feeling his breathing and heart rate slow down. Jeremy held out his arms as an invitation for a hug, and Squip collapsed into the teen. Jeremy squeezed slightly.

"I promise I won't get rid of you."