Chapter Text
Ike’s life was ALMOST perfect. He had cool parents, an okay little sister (she was a baby so still boring), and so many kids and friends in the neighborhood! They would be starting school soon too and he was excited about that because his mama always said he was gonna be smart. There was just. One. Problem.
The next-door neighbor was MEAN.
She wasn’t even old, she was just cranky. She yelled at everyone and at nothing - seriously he could hear her sometimes yelling in the house when she was by herself!! She was ALWAYS yelling at Ike and his friends for dumb stuff like the time he kicked a ball and it landed on her lawn. The more they talked the madder she got, and Ike would always stick up for his friends, so she REALLY REALLY hated him and Mia, but really she hated everyone. His mama said that some people were just not nice, and he had to agree.
But yeah, otherwise his life was almost perfect!
Everything changed right before kindergarten.
Ike was playing outside, like he did all day. He had a lot of energy and he just couldn’t be inside all the time especially since he didn’t want his baby sister to bug him. He felt bad but really she was BORING. Ike was FIVE and she was THREE and she was boring. Boyd said he had a little brother and he was also boring. Boyd was kind of dumb though and anyway Ike’s sister was better than Rolf. But Mia was on vacation with her family and everyone else was playing their video games and Ike liked video games too but he needed to ruuuuuuuun.
He was running around looking for a stick to be a cool sword, but there wasn’t any. Daddy liked gardening when he wasn’t working at the shop and so he’d clean up the yard and that meant no sticks. That was okay. His dad was so cool so he didn’t mind. The sad thing was that Daddy was home today but he was working in the garage making a swingset so he couldn’t play with Ike.
But the stick thing was really okay because Ike had a SUPER SECRET.
They had a fence because Ike liked to go on adventures. Well, that dumb old fence had a loose post that he could get through just fine, ha ha!
So he pushed and squeezed under, not caring his pants got muddy because he was always muddy. He wasn’t expecting to see anyone because this side of the house was where Mean Lady lived and she was gone probably kicking kittens or something, so when he saw someone in the window he jumped. A tiny person looked at him with shock before ducking out of sight.
Woah! There was a kid!! In the window!!! He had NO IDEA there was a kid who lived with Mean Lady!!!! He HAD to meet them and make friends!!!!!
The window was dirty so the kid was hard to see. That was okay, Ike just went closer. He ran through the yard to the back porch and peered in the window. In the corner, in the dark, a body was hidden by a shelf but he could see the top of a head - really pale, big wide red eyes, and a cool birthmark. Ike knocked on the back door while looking at the face, which looked back at him.
The face did not answer the door.
“Hi!” Ike said, hoping the other could hear him. “My name is Isaac Bryce Greil but everyone calls me Ike!”
No answer. The eyes blinked.
He squinted into the darkness. It was a boy (yay, boys were way cooler than girls!) with long hair, and he was REALLY SMALL, so maybe he was younger than Ike. That was okay, they could still be friends.
More worryingly, the boy looked scared. Of him! He wasn’t scary!
“You don’t have to be afraid,” he said, trying to tamp down his natural exuberance (Daddy said he sometimes got to be “too much”), “I just wanna be friends! Oh! Oh I know!” He had a brilliant thought. “Wait here!”
He ran back to his house, super duper excited. He was gonna make a new friend, and he knew just the way to do it. He threw open the back door, greeted his dog (a big fluffy golden dog he’d named Aether which is the coolest name everrrrrrrr except for Sword Beam Prism Laser of Doom which had been his first choice), and went to the fridge. There were three cupcakes still left over from his birthday party. He could give up one for his new best friend, so he grabbed the closest one and spun to go back outside, under the fence, and up to the window.
The eyes were still there. Ike grinned at him. “I’m back! Here, this is for you!”
He blinked, but the boy didn’t move. Undaunted, Ike placed the cupcake on the window sill and took a step back. Then, still keeping eye contact, sloooooooowly the boy opened up the window, and slooooowly reached a hand out to grab the cupcake, at which point he quickly dragged it back in and shut the window.
Ike stayed there as the boy tentatively licked the cupcake before his face exploded in shock like he’d never eaten one before. Then he inhaled the thing almost as fast as Ike did, paper and all, which was very silly.
“Why don’t you come play with me?” he asked. “I have more cupcakes!”
The boy gasped, although Ike couldn’t hear it, and shook his head no.
“Why not? We’re friends now!”
The boy looked deeper into the house, then back to him.
“Oh well your mama doesn’t have to know. I’m good at keeping-”. Ike cut himself off when he saw the boy shake his head super hard. “She’s not your mama?” He nodded. “Huh. Well. Mean Lady doesn’t have to know if we play, because I’m very good at keeping secrets!”
The boy shook his head no again, then gasped as there was the sound of a door opening. Uh oh, she was home from her busy day of being evil and annoying! “I’ll see you tomorrow!” he said quickly, and then he bolted from the house back to his own.
He took deep breaths as he pet his dog. Safe at last! He was good to go!
So he thought about the boy. It was funny how he had hidden and then pounced on the cupcake like a tiny crocodile. They could definitely be best friends. Ike just had to convince him to come out to play!
So Ike went back the next day.
And the next.
And the next.
And the next.
His new quiet friend liked fruits and veggies and sweets the most, but he ate everything like he was starving, so Ike felt good about what he was doing even if it probably wasn’t good that he was stealing. But he tried to just not eat as much and take his leftovers instead. And every day Ike would tell him how he would be friends with all of Ike’s friends but be Ike’s bestest friend and how they would go on adventures once it wasn’t so scary.
And he got to see more of the boy, too. He had a whole body, but it was hard to tell what it looked like. He didn’t talk, but every time he would smile and look so sad but HOPEFUL and Ike KNEW he was doing the right thing.
Until one day he ran back home and his mama was standing in front of the backdoor, arms crossed and looking amused. “I see your daddy needs to fix the fence again. Where were you this time?”
His mama was a super cool doctor so she wasn’t home a lot during the day, but Ike forgot it was her lunch time. He considered lying, but she ALWAYS KNEW when he was lying. As Aether began to lick his hands, he said, “There’s a boy in Mean Lady’s house and we’re best friends now!”
Mama actually gasped. “A child lives with that horrible woman? Are you sure?”
“He ate my cupcake and some of my fruits and stuff,” Ike said proudly. “His favorite was the cupcake though. He thought it was so good, he even ate the paper!”
Mama did not look proud at that even though she had made the cupcakes (although Ike had helped). “That’s… that’s not good. Hang on.” She pulled out her cell phone and made a call. Ike petted his dog while she did, because now he was worried. “Darling, Ike found out the old shrew next door has a child his age, and it sounds like he’s not even being fed, let alone treated nicely.” It was kind of silly because Daddy was home working in the garage, but calling was easier!
He could hear Daddy’s voice through the phone, but he had to interrupt. “He said Mean Lady’s not his mama,” he reported, which was a relief ‘cause it would be hard to be friends with someone who liked her.
“That’s what I was thinking too,” Mama said to something Daddy had said. “Yes yes I’ll record everything, good idea. Okay, meet you out front.” She turned the call off. “Ike, this is very serious. Have you seen any booboos on him? Has he told you anything sad or scary?”
“Nope, he’s too afraid to talk,” Ike said sadly. That was the only sad part the boy next door being his best friend. But some day he would be brave enough to come outside, Ike just had to be patient!!
“All right. I’m going to go take care of this. Normally I’d have you stay home with Daddy but if we have to take him I want him to see someone he knows. Follow me.”
Ike was super nervous as he followed her out the front door. Daddy was there. “Mist is napping in her playpen, it looks like she can sleep through anything like Ike and me,” he said. “Ike, are you positive you saw a child?”
Ike told him the cupcake and other food stories too, and Daddy scowled. Ike followed his parents next door, and he could hear yelling from inside the house which ended when his mama rang the doorbell. Mean Lady ignored it, so Mama yelled, “Ma’am I am a mandated reporter!” Ike didn’t know what that meant, but it was serious because Mean Lady then opened the door.
“What do you want?” she demanded, glaring at the three of them. Then she looked at Ike and spat at him, so he glared super hard because he wasn’t rude enough to spit.
“You have a child living in this house and I am obligated to see to his safety,” Mama said firmly.
The woman laughed with a broad smile. “You want him? Take him!” She looked into the house. “Boy, grab the folder and get your ass out here!”
“Call the cops,” Mama said to Daddy quietly. Then she gasped, as did Daddy and even Ike, when the boy came out with a folder. Ike had seen the boy was smaller than him, but with this closer look he was also dirty and so, so skinny. He looked terrified, so Ike gave him a hug to protect him. He smelled bad too, but Ike knew it wasn’t his fault.
“Good riddance, one brat deserves another,” the lady said, moving to shut the door.
Daddy stopped it with his foot. “Ike, take him and go home,” he said calmly. Ike knew that voice was the Serious Voice, so he tugged his best friend to walk home.
He was shaking. Actually they both were. “It’ll be okay,” Ike soothed. “How about we take a bath and get you some of my clothes?” He winced as yelling began behind him, but kept being a guide. When Aether bounded up to them, the boy tried to hide in his arms. “Oh this is my dog Aether, I’ve told you about him before, he’s very nice don’t worry!” Without even being commanded, the big floofy thing sat and then laid down in front of them, gentle. “See? Good boy. We’ll be right back!”
The boy did not stop shaking as they got to the bathroom. Ike didn’t know how to make a shower or bath go so they would have to wait, but they could throw out his rags and put a robe on him. “What’s your name?” he asked, finally realizing he didn’t know it.
The boy shuffled through the papers (there were only two though) and picked out one. Ike had to use all his smarts to figure it out. “S is ‘ssss’, O, rrrrrr… Soren?” The boy - Soren nodded. “I like that name!” He blushed, which made Ike happy.
Mama walked in. “You’re safe now, darling. Let’s get you taken care of.”
It took a long time to get Soren clean, including special shampoo for his long hair because it had bugs in it (hearing about it made Mist scream but Ike didn’t mind bugs) and lots of scrubbing, plus some ointment for his booboos (the good kind that didn’t sting - Ike got a lot of booboos so he knew, and Soren didn’t have as many as Ike did, his were mostly from bugs). Ike’s PJs were waaaaaay too big but it was okay because they were clean and had dragons on them which was cool.
So the paper had been his “birth certificate” and his parents were someone Mama said was bad, but not Mean Lady so he’d been honest. His name was Soren Kurth Reale, which was almost as good a name as his was, and he was actually older than him ‘cause he turned five in January. The only other paper in the folder was one saying that Mean Lady got paid a thousand dollars by someone a month to take care of him, which made Ike scoff because CLEARLY she wasn’t using the money right. But the signatures were unreadable which meant they had no idea who was supposed to do anything.
Mean Lady actually got put in jail because she had been so mean, and Ike thought that was awesome.
And Soren got to stay with him! His parents did something called “foster” or something which meant Soren would be living with him until they found him a new home. Ike didn’t want him to leave because having a best friend live in your house was just the COOLEST, and Soren would shake around everyone except Ike so Ike knew he was gonna be his protector forever. And he couldn’t talk at all, so Ike also talked for him and to him, and stood up for him with his friends and played with him and they slept in the same bed so it was like a sleepover every night and he was super smart and could use magic and it was AWESOME.
Plus there were all these people called “therapists” who came to the house to help Soren learn to talk and Ike was kind of miffed they weren’t here to see him but he got it that Soren needed them more. Plus some of them taught Soren how to play, which Ike already knew how to do, so he got stickers for being a good example.
Anyway, now Ike’s life was ACTUALLY perfect.