Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jack heard a loud crash come from the living area. In an instant he was on his feet and ran toward the noise. Not caring he was in the middle of the floor. It took him a bit since he was in the bedroom to begin with but eventually he made it to the cause of the noise. Mark lay there, slumped on the floor, seemingly not moving. Eyes wide, Jack ran to the side of his face and sighed in relief when he felt a slight breeze. The breathing was in no way normal, but at least he was breathing. That meant he was still alive.

Jack needed to do something and fast. What he needed was a phone. He jogged to Mark’s side and over to wear the side of his jacket hung out onto the floor. Pushing open the pocket flap, he found Mark’s iPhone and pulled it out into the open. In a hurry he dialed 911.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“M-my friend! He suddenly passed out. I don’t know what happened! I don’t know what to do!” Jack said in a fast paced panic. The lady on the other end stopped him.

“Sir, I need you to calm down. Now you’re saying your friend passed out?” Jack nodded but then realized she couldn’t see him.

“Yes,” If Jack listened closely he could faintly hear a clicking sound.

“Alright, I need you to tell me your address,” Jack told her and there were some more faint clicks.

“Paramedics are on their way; they should be there any minute. Can you open the door for them?” Jack gulped.

“Um, no. I can’t.”

“Why not?” There was a certain tone in her voice, but Jack couldn’t exactly make out what it was.

“I can’t exactly reach it…” He trailed off. It was silent for a moment and then he heard the lady hum in realization.

“Oh, you must be a tiny. So you must be calling about your owner,” Jack hated that word. “Don’t worry the paramedics have other ways of getting in. Just let me inform them of that really quick,” The line was put on hold and Jack took this moment to look at Mark. He didn’t look much worse than he did a few minutes ago, but then again Jack was anything but an expert. The line opened again.

“Alright I informed them that they will need to get in themselves and that you are there. I’m assuming you’re the only one there correct?” he nodded once again forgetting she couldn’t see him but it didn’t seem to matter anyway since she just kept on going.

“We need you to go with them, just in case we need you to give us any information on your owner. So please stay in line of sight, but away from the patient,” Jack gulped, on one side he wanted to go and see how Mark was, but he also really didn’t want to be handled by someone else. Though it really didn’t seem like he had a choice.

Suddenly he heard a loud, hard thump and the front door slammed opened, revealing multiple humans coming into the house. Jack moved himself away from Mark and stayed near the corner of the couch. He watched as the paramedics hoisted Mark’s body onto a gurney and took him outside. Two men stayed behind. One of them looking around the floor.

“What are you doing?” The other guy asked. The guy looking around didn’t even turn to the guy.

“They said we had to bring a tiny with us. Ah, there it is.” Jack flinched at both being called an it and at the massive hand reaching down toward him. In an instant he was snatched up in a huge hand, a hand making no notion to even try to be gentle.

“Alright, I got it. Let’s head out,” Jack was now along for the ride as the two men took to the ambulance and jetted off toward the hospital.

***

Once they arrived at the hospital Jack was still in the very uncomfortably tight fist of one of the paramedics. He was starting to feel sore. As they entered the building he saw Mark being carted off down the hall as the person holding him went a different way. Jack soon came into view of a tiny room blocked by a glass window. He could see other tinies inside, sitting and talking to one another. The man holding him opened a tiny sliding door and placed him inside.

“You’ll wait in here until we need you.” The man said. And with that he closed the door and left. Jack blinked and looked around a bit more closely. He rubbed at his sides, realizing he would definitely have bruises the next day. He sighed and walked around. The tiny room was basically an exact copy of the human waiting room. With chairs, a few tables, and even some toys for kids. Jack took a seat near the corner and slumped into it. He really hoped Mark was okay.

“Er, hello.” Jack looked up at the voice and saw a man who couldn’t be much older than himself. He had brown hair fashioned into a fringe and he was wearing all black. Jack also took notice of his British accent.

“Hi there,” He said, knowing his own Irish accent would stick out as well. Possibly more than his green hair. The guy smiled.

“Sorry if I’m bothering you, but I just saw you sitting alone, so I figured I would say hi,” Jack couldn’t help but smile. The guy seemed a bit awkward, but there was also something endearing about it. That and the fact that the guy was legitimately being nice to him. He motioned to the seat next to him and the guy took it, smiling.

“I’m Dan by the way,” Dan held out his hand and Jack took it, shaking it. It had honestly been a while since he interacted with someone his own size.

“I’m Jack,” Dan nodded and the two stopped shaking.

“So Jack, what are you here for?” Jack sighed.

“My human just suddenly passed out, I had to call the paramedics and everything. I have no idea what happened.” Dan gave a surprise and then a sympathetic look.

“I’m sorry,” Jack shook his head.

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault. And I’m sure he’ll be fine, I just wish the guys could have been a bit gentler when handlen me, ya’know?” Dan nodded.

“I understand, I’ve known some humans who didn’t care before, trust me,”

“So, what are you here for?” Dan smiled.

“My human Phil is just getting a checkup and I’m not allowed to be in there with him. It’s stupid but it’s the rules,” He shrugged and then smiled.

“So, I’m guessing you and your human have a pretty good relationship. Considering you went to all this trouble in helping him out?” Jack blinked.

“Well, yeah. I mean. I’ve only known Mark for a few months now. But he actually treats me pretty good. Like a person instead of a pet. Though let me tell you, he can be very grabby and hands on.” Dan laughed and Jack alongside him.

“That’s good. There needs to be more humans who think that way. There really isn’t enough,” He trailed off and Jack looked at him.

“What about you? How long have you known, uh, Phil was it?” Dan nodded.

“Yeah. I’ve known Phil since I was eighteen when he bought me. So about 7 years.” Jack’s eyes widened.

“Wow, that’s a long time!” Dan laughed again.

“Yep, but it’s never a dull moment. Phil is my best friend, he’s amazing. And just like Mark he actually treats me like a person. His whole family does to be honest. They’re very nice people.”

“Sounds like it. If you’re talking so highly of him,” They both laughed and continued to talk about their lives and their humans. They talked until a woman called out the name Dan Howell. Dan smiled and stood up.

“Well that would be me. It was great talking to you.” Jack smiled. Talking to Dan had raised his mood considerably.

“You to, I hope we can see each other again. Maybe I could meet Phil,” Dan laughed.

“Yeah and I could meet Mark. You never know. There’s always a chance of us bumping into each other.” Jack hoped. He really liked Dan, and Phil seemed like a nice guy as well.

“Dan Howell, please come to the front,” The woman’s tone was considerably more annoyed. Dan rolled his eyes.

“Ugh, I’m coming. I’ll see you around Jack,” He waved and made his way to the door. Jack watched as the women was about to reach for him but was suddenly stopped. Even from here he heard the voice of a man.

“Um, excuse me but can I…?” The woman shrugged and moved out of the way and was replaced with a pale face with black hair and blue eyes. He smiled and Dan stepped onto his palm. And just like that they were gone. Jack sighed and slumped back into his chair, once again wondering how Mark was doing. It was a lot harder not to worry without someone distracting you. Not to mention the fact his body was still sore. He rubbed his sides trying to ease the pain and eventually, with nothing better to do, he fell asleep, slumped in the tiny waiting room chair.

***

Jack was jolted awake by his name being called.

“Jack McLoughlin, please come to the front,” Jack stood and stretched. He once again winced at the pain and walked over to the door. It wasn’t the same guy as before, thankfully. This time a lady was here to pick him up. She reached out and grabbed him in a fist, not as tightly as the first guy but still uncomfortable to Jack. Especially with his forming bruises. He was carried into a hospital room and in the bed he saw Mark. Awake and looking a heck of a whole lot better. He smiled when he saw Jack.

“Jack! You’re here!” The lady deposited him on Mark’s open palm and Jack couldn’t be happier to be back in Mark’s hands. The lady then left and the two were alone.

“Are you okay! What the heck happened Mark!” Mark’s expression turned guilty.

“I’m sorry for putting you through all that. I accidentally drank too much and passed out.” Jack frowned at the thought of why Mark was drinking so much, but decided to let it go for now.

“Well I’m happy your better,” Mark smiled.

“Yep, we’ll be able to leave any minute now. Just got to fill out some forms really quick and we’re home free baby!” Mark turned back to Jack.

“So where have you been this whole time?” Jack shrugged and pointed out the door in the waiting rooms general direction.

“I was in a waiting room specially designed for tinies. I even met someone. His name’s Dan and he was pretty cool.” Mark laughed.

“Well that sounds cool. At least you’re okay, I was kind of worried when they said you were here to.” Jack smiled and tried not to rub at his sides. What Mark didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, there was nothing he could do about it anyway. So why bother.

“Yep, now let’s hurry up and get out of here. I need sleep on a real bed, not those uncomfortable tiny chairs. Those things hurt!” Mark laughed.

Eventually Mark was able to fill out the forms and they both got home safely.

Chapter Text

Jack rubbed at his sides gently. It had been two days since the whole hospital fiasco. Both Mark and Jack had gotten home and had moved on almost like nothing happened. But Jack had been right about getting bruises later on. He looked toward the bedroom doorway. Hoping Mark wouldn’t come in suddenly and lifted up his shirt. Dark splotches in the shape of fingers littered his skin. He winced at the sight of them and pulled his shirt back down.

He still hadn’t told Mark and he wasn’t planning to. He could just wait it out, the bruises would go away eventually and the pain would subside. Hopefully.

Jack made his way off of the nightstand he had been standing on, climbing down slowly as to not jostle his injuries to much. Once his feet hit the floor he started off into the living room. As he came upon it he saw Mark on the couch with his laptop.

“Whatcha up to?” Jack asked. Mark looked away from his screen and gave a small smile at Jack.

“Hey, nothing much. Just scrolling through the interwebs,” Mark took his laptop off his lap and set it on the table in front of him. He then lowered a hand to the ground right in front of Jack. Jack stepped on without hesitation. A fact he was proud of. The hand lifted into the hair and settled right in front of Mark’s laid back form.

“So any plans for today?” Mark asked. Jack bit his lip and tried to keep himself from rubbing at his sides yet again.

“Nah, thought I would just relax today,” Mark frowned, though it came off more as a pout than anything.

“But that’s all we’ve been doing since we came home from the hospital! I’m bored,” He huffed. Jack shrugged.

“What can I say, that day really took a lot out of me,” Jack noticed Mark giving him a suspicious look.

“What?”

“You’ve been acting weird since we came back. What’s up?” Crap, Jack thought.

“Nothing, why would anything be wrong. I’m just tired is all,” He shrugged again, but this time a little more forcefully than he meant and he winced. Mark noticed immediately.

“Jack are you okay?” Mark’s tone was now full of concern and authority. Demanding to know what was wrong with Jack. Jack shook his head.

“I told ya I’m fine!” Please drop it, please drop it, Jack thought. Instead of dropping it like he wanted though, Mark’s other hand came up onto Jack. Jack tried to scramble away from it, but being trapped on Mark’s other hand didn’t really give him much room to move away. The giant fingers grazed his body and his body jerked at the pain. Eyes wide, Mark lifted up Jack’s shirt.

“Holy crap,” All Mark could see was black and blue. Barley could he see the pale white skin that was supposed to be there. He let go of Jack’s shirt and stared at Jack, eyes full of flames.

“Who did this to you,” Even though Jack knew the anger wasn’t directed at him, he flinched back. Mark noticed this and his eyes softened as did his tone.

“Jack, what happened?” Jack knew there was no beating around the bush this time.

“The guy who brought me to the hospital grabbed me a little too tightly is all. It’s fine,” Jack tried to look away from Mark, but it was kind of hard when he was so close. Mark furrowed his eyebrows.

“It’s not fine, Jack. This is serious! What if he had broken something! That’s it, I’m calling the hospital.” Jack’s eyes widened and before Mark could even attempt to get up and get his phone, Jack’s voice stopped him.

“No! You can’t do anything about it now. I’ll be fine. Besides they probably wouldn’t care anyway,” Mark raised an eyebrow.

“Why wouldn’t they care?” Jack looked down. Refusing to make eye contact at the moment and rubbed his arm.

“Because I’m not a person to them. I don’t matter. Not to them at least. The guy even called me an it.” Mark’s eyes widened and softened at Jack’s defeated tone.

“Jack, you are not an it, you are a person no matter what size you are. And if they can’t see it that’s their problem,” Mark huffed in total confidence. Jack laughed and finally met Mark’s eyes again.

“I know. You yourself have taught me that. It’s just, I guess in the words of Dan. I wish there were more people in the world who cared, like you.” Mark smiled and wiped a tear from his eye. He was not about to start crying,
shut up!

“But, these are the people of the world who found out about us and decided to sell the lot of us like pets. And there are a lot of people who see us as even less than that.” Mark frowned and couldn’t help think to all the different news articles he saw about them and all the stories he heard. As Jack continued, Mark’s attention once again focused on him.

“That’s why, even though we had a bit of a rough start in the beginning, I’m glad you chose me.” Mark smiled.

“Aww, Jack!” Mark brought Jack close to his chest in a hug.

“Ah! Mark not so tight!” Marks hand retreated immediately.

“Right, sorry.” Mark trailed off. “If you really don’t want me to call I won’t, but you have to at least let me patch you up.” Jack smiled.

“Deal.”

Chapter Text

Jack couldn’t quite find where Mark was exactly. You think it would be easy, with the guy being so big and all. But he was nowhere to be seen. Jack was sure he hadn’t left, but if he hadn’t then where in all that was good and Irish was he? Jack continued his search around the house, keeping both eyes and ears open to where his red headed friend was. He passed by a hallway closet, one that was slightly ajar. But Jack ignored it in favor of heading towards Mark’s work room. Maybe he had missed him or something?

Even with his sensitive hearing, Jack still didn’t catch the slight creak of a door coming from behind him. Nor did he hear the slight rustling of someone maneuvering out of a closet. He did notice, however, the shadow that fell over him suddenly. Before Jack could turn around he was suddenly surrounded by hands bigger than he was tall. They scooped him up, and left him in a not very comfortable position. The hand lifted and Jack heard a low chuckle come from above. He immediately recognized the laugh and person whose hands he was in.

“Gotcha!” Mark cried and Jack turned himself until he was seated in a comfortable position in the hand. He gave Mark an exasperated look.

“What the heck are you doing!? And where were you, I was looking everywhere for ye!” Mark laughed and pointed behind him to the now fully open closet door.

“I was in the closet, thought I’d mess around a bit. Can’t say I was disappointed,” Mark laughed again and Jack frowned although he was trying hard not to smile. Looking back at the closet, he let his smile through.

“Guess you finally came out of the closet then? Knew you would eventually.” Mark stopped laughing and gave him a mock glare before they both started laughing.

“Yeah right. Anyway you said you were looking for me?” Jack calmed down and almost forgot why he was trying to find Mark in the first place.

“Oh yeah, right. I’m hungry,” Mark raised an eyebrow and gave a short laugh.

“Really?” Jack crossed his arms.

“Of course, I’m a growing boy! I need to eat!” Mark chuckled and finally got up off the floor, heading toward the kitchen.

“Something tells me you’re not going to get any bigger. But I guess I could go for something right about now. Let’s eat,”

Chapter Text

Dan hated when Phil was gone. Granted he wasn’t gone often, at least not without taking him. But there were a few times that Dan had to stay home while Phil went to some sort of meeting or other. And today was one of those times. Phil had to meet with a few editors and Dan would have just been bored anyway. But he wished he didn’t have to go at all.

Not that Dan couldn’t take care of himself or anything, he just liked having Phil around better. Dan decided to do something in order to distract himself, so he grabbed his little laptop—specially made—and took a seat on his part of the couch. He opened it up and started scrolling through tumblr. After a while he heard a booming noise and looked up. Through the window he could see a steady rain and darkness. The booming must have been thunder.

Dan ignored it, deciding to instead check out steam and see if there were any games worth playing. He saw a game called Outlast pop up and decided to get that. If he knew it was going to be that scary of a game he would’ve at least waited until Phil came home. He jumped as another thing popped out of him and in the exact same moment the lights went out in the house. Dan let out a small scream at the scare and the lights going out and quickly exited the game.

Dan was scared of the dark. And playing that game just amplified his fears at the moment. All he could make out were shadows and shapes, the light from his tiny laptop doing practically nothing in the human sized room. Dan looked everywhere, eyes shifting at every movement he thought he saw. Worst case scenarios and worst fears started rolling through his head and he started panicking.

Suddenly he heard the door creak open, but from his vantage point on the couch, he couldn’t see. A large shadowy figure suddenly made itself known right in front of Dan and Dan screamed back at the unexpected appearance of it. The figure leaned forward and Dan turned away afraid of what was going to happen. A light was suddenly on him, and a voice he knew all too well spoke.

“Dan? Are you okay? What happened?” Phil asked with concern. Dan blinked, the light still on him and Phil put his phone down—the source of the light—on the couch, so the light would reach more of the room. Dan could now see Phil properly.

“The lights went out and I might’ve been playing a scary game before that happened and it freaked me out more that it would have originally,” Dan spoke truthfully. He learned a long time ago that he couldn’t lie to Phil. For more than one reason. Phil shook his head and gently reached out and scooped Dan into his hands.

“Oh Dan.” Dan shifted slightly in his hands, but overall was the most comfortable he had been all night. Phil stood all the way up, looked around the room, then back down at Dan.

“I don’t think the power is going to go on anytime soon, you want to hang out with me in my room?” Dan nodded and Phil grabbed Dan’s laptop and headed toward his room. Dan sighed in content as he leaned back on Phil’s fingers. Happy he was no longer alone in the dark.

“So, how was the meeting?”

Chapter Text

Mark ran a hand through his hair with a smile on his face. He really liked the red in his hair, and he couldn’t wait to show Jack. He opened the front door and the first thing he heard was,

“What the heck did ye do to yere hair?” Jack asked. Mark followed the voice and found him on the kitchen counter. Mark smiled and once again ruffled his hair.

“You like it? I thought it would be really cool to get my hair dyed!” Jack smiled.

“It looks great on ye! Red really suits ye,” Jack said and then noticed the small white bag hanging from Mark’s arm. He pointed to it.

“Whatcha got in there?” Mark smiled and set the bag on the counter next to Jack, opening it up and spilling out its contents. A small can was set beside Jack and he took a good look at it.

“Green hair dye?” Mark grinned, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Well, I figured you wouldn’t want to be left out and green is your color…” he trailed off and Jack’s eyes widened at the implication.

“You want me to dye my hair green?” Jack asked incredulously. Mark laughed.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just thought I’d buy it just in case,” Jack looked at the bottle and the sample green it showed on the cover. His hand subconsciously ran through his own hair and his eyes flicked over to Mark’s.

“It would look pretty cool…” Mark grinned once again.

“Does that mean you want to?” he was practically jumping up and down at the notion and he looked so much like an overgrown puppy in that moment that Jack wasn’t sure he could say no even if he wanted to.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” A sound came out of Mark’s mouth that could only be described as an excited squeal.

“Great, we can do it right now! We just have to move to the bathroom first,” Jack nodded and Mark grabbed the bottle in one hand as his other hand moved toward Jack, settling right in front of him. Jack climbed on willingly and was carried into the bathroom and set down on the counter next to the sink. The bottle was once again set down right next to him. Mark went over to the rack and grabbed a washcloth.

“So how exactly does this work?” Jack asked. He honestly had no idea what was about to happen and how. Mark smiled and laid one washcloth flat on the counter and set the other one folded next to it.

“Well, I take this,” he lifted up the bottle showing it off, “and put some in your hair. Then I rub it in, let it set for a few minutes and rinse it off in the water,” he pointed to the sink.

“The washcloth is for drying and so no dye falls on the counter,” Jack nodded, from what Mark said, it sounded like there was a lot of touching involved. He had only been with Mark for a few weeks at this point and he was still getting used to how much Mark wanted to hold him. But he did really want to do this, so he went ahead and took a seat on the washcloth.

“Ready?” Mark asked.

“As I’ll ever be, er, just be gentle,” Not that Jack had to say anything, in all the times that Mark has held him, he was always cautious and gentle. Which was one of the things Jack really liked about Mark.

“Of course,” Mark said and put a bit of dye on his fingertips. After getting something a bit bigger than a drop, he reached down and started putting it in Jack’s hair. Jack closed his eyes as it happened. Strangely he found the rubbing rather soothing. He relaxed and Mark continued to rub the front of his hair with dye. Once enough was on, Mark stopped and washed his hands, free of the dye before it could stain his fingers.

“There, now we just let it set for a few minutes and then we can wash it off and you should be good to go,” Mark said. They both waited in silence before Mark deemed it ready and held a hand out to Jack. Jack climbed on and Mark put on a steady stream of water before gently placing Jack under it. Jack ran his hands all throughout his hair, trying to get all the excess dye off. Mark kept watch and turned off the water when he no longer saw any of the excess dye. Jack was placed back on the washcloth and Mark used the other one too gently dry off Jack and his hair. Mark pulled back and smiled.

“Tada! Hey, you look great!” Mark exclaimed and Jack took a look in the mirror behind him. His green hair shone brightly and Jack’s eyes lit up.

“This looks freaking cool! Thanks!” He turned back up at Mark and Mark rubbed the back of his neck shyly.

“Hey it was no problem. I’m just glad it turned out okay.” Jack ran a hand through his hair as he looked in the mirror. The longer he looked the more he thought that it just fit him. He loved it. He heard Mark laugh and turned to look at him.

“What?”

“Nothing, I just realized you look even more like a tiny leprechaun!” Mark burst out laughing again and Jack frowned. He took it back (but not really).

Chapter Text

Jack smiled as he read the date once again. He had always wanted to celebrate, but never could. Until now, that is. He looked over at Mark, oblivious as to what was about to happen. With a mischievous glint in his eye, Jack made his way over to the little guy.

Mark paused in his eating of scrambled eggs as a shadow fell over him. He looked up at Jack and immediately noticed the look on his face. He did not like that look at all.

“Hey Jack, whatcha doing?” he asked cautiously, looking around for an escape but knew he was trapped up there on the table. Jack didn’t say anything, instead giving him a wide smile that sent Mark’s nerves on edge. Suddenly, Jack’s hands shot out at an incredible speed and scooped him up. Mark let out a surprised shriek, squirming in the hands that were much larger than his entire body.

“Jack!” Jack ignored his scream and Mark found himself pressed against the Irish man’s chest, practically being smothered by the striped hoodie he was wearing. Mark, confused, recognized this as a hug.

“Happy hug a tiny day!” Jack’s words sunk in and Mark sighed and relaxed against the hold. He had heard about this ‘holiday’, made as an excuse by humans to hug them out of nowhere and it seemed like Jack had jumped on that train as well. And he knew Jack was not going to let up for a while, so he might as well enjoy it. He smiled into the hug.

“Happy hug a tiny day, ya doofus,”

Chapter Text

Mat sighed and face planted onto the mouse pad of the laptop. He loved his theories and he loved researching them, but sometimes it was just too much. It was frustrating sometimes, not being able to find a certain thing or having to pull numbers out of thin air for others. He liked to think he was pretty good at math and science, but he only knew as much as online and his books taught him and coming across something that he didn’t currently know how to do sucked. It didn’t help that it was closing in on 2:00 am either.

He heard the door open and footsteps approach but didn’t bother lifting his face from the pad. He felt something poke the top of his head and Mat just groaned in response.

“Have you really been up this long?” Nate asked and Mat finally looked up at him, seeing the mix of bemusement and concern on his face. Mat sighed.

“Yeah,” Nate took a peek at what was on screen and his eyes widened at the complex level of math shown. His eyes caught the incompleteness of it though and he looked back down at Mat. Who he could see had dark circles under his eyes as well as frustration within them. Nate smiled and reached over Mat, saving his work and turning the computer off.

“Alright, that’s enough of that for tonight. I’m cutting you off, time for bed,” Mat blinked as a hand was placed in front of him. He sighed but tiredly climbed on. Nate carried Mat into his room and laid down in bed, holding Mat close to his chest in a sort of hug. Mat yawned, the warmth from Nate’s body making him even sleepier. Nate smiled down at him and chuckled.

“Happy hug a tiny day, Mat.”

Chapter Text

“Oh come on Dan, its tradition!” Phil said, trying to coax Dan out and accept his fate. He heard Dan snort through the crack in the wall that he was currently hiding in.

“No!” Phil put on a fake pout, but was really laughing inside at the ridiculousness.

“But why?” Dan let out a bark of laughter.

“As if you don’t know! Last year, you didn’t let me go until the day was over!” Phil smiled at the memory, knowing Dan was just over exaggerating and held fond memories of that day as well. He tried hard to peek in and see Dan, but it proved to be impossible at his size.

“I promise, it will just be a quick hug this time,”

“No! Go hug another tiny, ya spork!” Phil couldn’t help but laugh at Dan’s insult.

“But you’re the only one here!” He said through his laughter.

“That’s your problem then!”

“Dan!” Phil yelled, still laughing. His laughter died down and they both stayed as they were for a few more moments before Dan finally spoke up.

“Promise, it will be a quick one?” Phil nodded and crossed his heart.

“Of course!” Dan sighed and walked out into the open again. As soon as he was out, Phil gently scooped him up and gave him their version of a hug.

“Happy hug a tiny day, Phil,” Dan said through a smile.

“Happy hug a tiny day!” They stayed like that for a bit.

“You’re not gonna letting me go, are you?” Phil smiled.

“Nope!”

Chapter Text

Jack ran into the glass, hurting his shoulder in the process but ignoring it in favor of getting out. But despite his best efforts, the glass remained intact. The same could not be said for his shoulder, however.

“Holy hell!” He grabbed his shoulder in pain. The last hit had been so hard it pushed the bone out of its socket, leaving Jack even more vulnerable. He lowered himself to the floor and held onto his shoulder making sure it didn’t move. He knew it had to be reset, unfortunately he didn’t know how to do it.

Suddenly, everything around Jack started to shake. Jack bit his lip in pain, refusing to cry out knowing humans were nearby. He did his best to keep his arm still in the shaking, a sigh of relief left his lips when it stopped despite knowing what was coming next. His glass prison was lifted by two enormous hands on either side of the glass. Jack planted himself in the middle, not wanting to get anywhere close to them, even with a shield of glass separating them.

Two humans looked down at him, both male. The one not holding him looked him up and down, making him shiver at the scrutiny.

“Looks fairly young, and definitely a male. Kind of skinny, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” Jack gulped. Wondering what was going to happen to him. There were three possibilities for people like him. Pets, test subjects, and jobs. And honestly none of them sounded appealing to Jack, but some more than others.

“We’ll have the doctor look him over and get him ready,” The man holding him said. Jack found his prison being carried toward a fairly large building. Once inside Jack took notice of all the white. White walls, white machines, white… lab… coats. Jack’s eyes widened. Out of all the possibilities, test subject is probably the worst one. And by the looks of things that’s where he was heading towards.

The men entered a room and set his prison on a table centered in the middle. They left after a few remarks that had nothing to do with him and Jack suddenly found himself alone. He took this moment to ignore everything and instead focus on his injured shoulder. He winced as he saw a dark purple start to form around his shoulder. It hurt, but was nothing compared to his fears of what was going to happen to him. The only thing that eased him slightly was that his family was safe.

A whooshing sound, the sound of the automatic door opening, caught Jack’s attention and he looked up to see a girl, probably around his age, wearing one of those white lab coats. He noticed that she had long dark brown hair and green eyes and a tag hanging around her neck that said Doctor Avery. Jack figured this was the doctor the other two must have been talking about. Doctor Avery looked over a clipboard in her hand and looked up, catching his eyes in her own. She smiled at him.

“Hello, little one.” Her voice was soft, quiet. Not at all what Jack was expecting.

“My name is Doctor Avery, but I’m guessing you knew that already,” She lifted up the tag around her neck, before letting it fall against her chest.

“What’s your name?” Jack refused to speak. Partly out of refusal to do as they said, partly out of fear, and partly because he was afraid if he opened his mouth all that would come out would be whimpers of pain. The Doctor saw that he wasn’t going to speak and moved on.

“Alright that’s fine, you can tell me later. But I’m here to give you a checkup and get you all set and ready to go. Alright?” Doctor Avery moved toward him and unhooked the lock on his prison, sliding the front part open. Jack shivered at the fact it took nothing for them to open the cage, when he sprained his shoulder over it. Humans were far too big for their own good.

“Alright, mystery boy, care to step out for me,” The name caught him of guard, and despite her friendly demeanor up to this point he still refused to move.

“Come on tiny, I don’t want to but if you don’t come out on your own I’ll have to do it for you,” Jack’s eyes widened. He did not want to be held, no way. So he stood up and hesitantly made his way toward the exit. Once he was on the table, the Doctor moved the cage out of the way. Jack looked around, realizing he was the only thing left on the table.

“Great, now for the checkup. When I came in I noticed you holding your right arm, mind if I check it out?” She asked. Jack bit his lip, scared at the thought of being touched, but nodded anyway. Knowing in the end it would probably happen anyway.

“Awesome,” She got closer and leaned down. He watched as her hand came up slowly toward him and Jack had to force himself to not move. The fingers gently brushed against his shoulder and he let out a small shriek at the sudden pain that shot through it. The Doctor frowned in concern.

“Oh dear, it looks like you managed to pop your shoulder out of its socket,” She bit her lip. “Okay, this is going to hurt, but I have to fix it or else it will only get worse. Alright?” She looked him in the eyes and Jack realized she was asking him. And something else told him she wouldn’t do anything unless he said so either. With this in mind he looked at his shoulder and then back up at the Doctor and nodded. She smiled apologetically.

“I’m really sorry about this,” Her hand came up from behind Jack, supporting him from behind and Jack flinched, but otherwise remained still. Her other hand held the tiny shoulder.

“On three, one—“ Jack screamed in pain as she pushed in, the hands left and Jack crumpled to the floor. After a few moments, he gathered himself back up into a stand realizing his shoulder still hurt, but more like it was just sore instead of on fire. He looked back up at Doctor Avery, who was smiling.

“You should be all set there, just try not to do anything strenuous for a few weeks,” Jack nodded, not wanting to go through any of that again.

“My names Jack,” Jack said, which sort of surprised himself. It seemed to surprise Doctor Avery to, because her eyes widened before she smiled.

“Nice to meet you Jack, now if you’ll allow me. I need to proceed with the checkup,” The rest of the checkup went well. All she did was look him over more closely, checked his heartbeat, and his blood pressure. She also made sure he didn’t have any other injuries.

“Have you ever had any previous injuries?” She asked, clipboard out and ready to write what he had to say. Jack shrugged.

“Um, I cut my eye before and it became all green and stuff. Other than that, not really.” She wrote it down.

“So you had a septic eye huh. Heh, I should call you Jacksepticeye,” Jack tilted his head at the name.

“That doesn’t sound half bad actually,” he mostly mumbled to himself. As he watched her write stuff down, he couldn’t hold back a question that had been burning since he got here. Gathering the courage, he asked.

“W-what’s going to happen to me?” She stopped writing and looked down at him, a small sad smile on her face.

“You’re being sent to a shop,” she said. Jack gulped, he was going to be a pet, at least it was better than being a test subject, right? Or, was it really? He had heard stories, none too nice stories, horror stories of some of the people tinies ended up with. He refused to cry, but some tears started filling his eyes.

“I—I don’t want to,” The Doctor looked at him with pity. She had to deal with this all the time, and yet it always saddened her, seeing the tinies like this.

“I really am sorry, but I did my best to put you in the lesser of the two evils. You’re a young man, fit, skinny sure, but that won’t be for long. You’re basically perfect as a pet,” she stated, trying to cheer him up the best she could. Jack sniffed, still refusing to let the tear fall. At least the rest of his family wouldn’t have to deal with any of this.

“Anything else you need to do before I’m sent off?” Knowing he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, she dropped it for the moment and looked back at her clipboard.

“You’re going to need a few shots, but after that you’ll be good to go,” Jack’s eyes widened and he back up in fear.

“S—shots as in needles and crap?!” Doctor Avery opened a drawer and pulled out a few of the syringes, already full of liquid. Each were drastically smaller than anything used on a human, but still fairly big compared to Jack. Jack continued to back away at the sight.

“It’s okay, it won’t hurt too bad. These were specially designed for tinies like you. Besides, you need this so you don’t get any major sicknesses,” Jack knew that, but he really didn’t want to do it. He sighed. He knew in the end whether by choice or force, it was going to happen anyway. He hated this, so much. At the very least, he was thankful the Doctor wasn’t cold and mean. Though even so, she was still apart of all this. She was still sending him off to become a pet for another human. She was far from innocent.

Eventually, Jack ‘allowed’ her to give him the shots, they hurt, but thankfully not as bad as resetting his arm. After that was done, she wrote some more in the clipboard and then brought back his glass cage to the table. Jack didn’t even bother, and just stepped right in, the exit shut and locked behind him.

“All set to go, don’t worry I’m sure you’ll find a great owner,” Yeah, right Jack thought. The Doctor picked up the cage and started walking. As they walked Jack thought up another important question.

“So, where in Ireland am I being taken to?” Without stopping she looked down at him for a quick second before focusing back to what was in front of her.

“Oh, you’re not staying in Ireland. You’re being shipped to America,” Jack tensed and put his hands in his face. He wasn’t even going be in his home country anymore, the place he grew up in. He was being sent overseas. A few tears dropped to the floor, what was actually happening finally hitting him. Somehow, not staying in Ireland made it ten times worse.

He barely noticed when the Doctor got inside an open jeep with another person driving. His cage sat in her lap and they drove for a few minutes before reaching a plane being filled with cargo. Jack realized that’s where he was going. Doctor Avery opened the cage up for a second and dropped a bag inside before closing it again. She looked at Jack while she walked up to the plane.

“Everything you’ll need for the flight is in the bag. Food, water, a few bathroom jars. It should hold you over until you get there.” Jack nodded, but he felt numb.

“Good luck out their Jack,” She said and gave him to another man who placed him inside the plane with the rest of the cargo. A sticker was placed on the top of the glass with something he could only assume was the address to wherever in America he was going. Before he knew it, the plane closed up and he was left in the dark. As he heard and felt the plane take off, he finally allowed his tears to fall. Silently sobbing into the dark.

***

Roughly seven hours later, Jack was awakened by the sudden light pouring from the outside and he had to turn away lest he blind himself. He silently watched as humans came and went, picking up box after box and taking them outside. Finally, he was picked up and taken back outside. The sun shone brightly in the sky and through his glass prison, he could feel the heat. The man placed him in a truck and he was once again shrouded in darkness. Though this time it wasn’t for seven hours. Before Jack knew it he was being taken out again and into a fairly big shop. A tinies shop.

An exchange was made between the man and the woman at the front. With a laugh the man left and the woman took him and placed his smaller glass prison into a bigger one. The door was opened and he exited out without a fuss. The smaller cage was taken away and the top of the bigger one was closed. He watched as the woman walked away.

He huddled himself in the far back corner, taking in the sights around him. There must have been thousands of tinies in this one shop. He wondered how many were from far away like him. As he watched the shop, the tinies, the workers, and especially all the people that came in, he prayed to God no one would notice him.

Unfortunately, fate just had to be cruel.

Chapter Text

Danny looked out from within his glass prison, at the shop that was all too familiar to him now. He brought his knees to his chest and glanced to his side at the other tinies he shared the cage with. They talked in hushed tones and tried to stay as much in the corner as they could. A small laugh escaped from the group and Danny smiled. Even when they were all trapped and being sold as pets, there was something to laugh about. It gave him hope.

The other tinies ignored him and left him to his little corner. Of which he was glad. He didn’t like talking and making friends with the others, because he found by the next day they would be taken away. Ross immediately entered his mind, but he pushed it away. He couldn’t think of his friend right now. It was still too painful.

Danny watched as humans came and went through the shop. Some left empty handed, others left with a small cage in their hand. When a human would come up to his cage to look, he would turn away. Looking them in the eye was just too risky.

The day went by and they were an hour away from closing. By this time there were hardly any humans, save for the workers, in the store. He glanced to his side again, only to see the other tinies in his cage asleep in a pile. As he looked around the store again, he noticed most had already turned in. Granted, there wasn’t much else to do. Eat, talk, and sleep were their limited options. But Danny found that he couldn’t relax until the store was closed. So he stayed awake until that happened.

A light bell went off, signaling someone had entered the store. But Danny didn’t bother looking up. Usually if someone this late came in it was for deliveries, or an old drunk guy. So he focused his eyes on the floor beneath him, zoning out a bit.

He blinked as a weird feeling took over and he looked up. He froze when he saw a human staring right at him, curiously. The human was male, with brown hair but a streak of blond. They kept staring and Danny knew he should turn away, but something stopped him from doing so. Finally, the man smiled at him.

“Hey,” Danny blinked and was jolted out of whatever he had been under and turned away. He still felt the human’s eyes on him, but heard someone walk over.

“Excuse me, sir? We’re closing, I have to ask you to leave,” When he no longer felt the human’s eyes on him he snuck a glance at the man and worker. The man looked at her with a sheepish smile.

“Oh, yeah. Right, sorry I’ll be on my way,” The human cast one last glance, Danny turning away when he did so, and he heard his steps fade away, the doorbell chiming as the human left. Danny finally relaxed, and fell right asleep. Too tired to think much of what happened.

***

The human came back the next day. This time much earlier and Danny was having a hard time not looking at him. He glanced at the other tinies, who tried to get as much distance from him and the human as possible. Afraid the human would turn his gaze on one of them. Although Danny highly doubted that would happen. The human seemed solely fixed on him for some reason. Why? He wasn’t sure, there wasn’t really anything special about him. But what did he know about humans anyway.

“Hey again,” The man said, but Danny kept his head down. Another voice soon filled the air.

“Can I help you with something?” One of the workers asked. Danny couldn’t help but look up and saw that the man was still staring at him, grinning.

“Actually yeah, I’d like that one please,” He pointed to Danny and the lady took note of it asking the man to follow him to complete his purchase. As the man did as told, Danny sat their defeated. As soon as he had seen him come in again, he knew this was going to happen. Had been mentally preparing himself. But mental preparation can’t prepare him for the unknown. Danny hated to admit it but he was scared.

A worker came by and placed a smaller cage next to him. He went in without a fuss, knowing what would happen if he didn’t. The cage was locked and he was lifted away from the place he had known for so long. He wouldn’t miss it, but at this point he might rather take the familiarity over the unknown. Not that he had a choice.

He was placed on the front counter, in front of the man who was just finishing up paying and signing all the papers.

“Alright, thank you for shopping at the tinies shop. Hope you have a good day,” The man nodded.

“Thanks, you to,” The human grabbed Danny’s cage, giving him a kind smile and walked out of the store.

Chapter Text

Matpat looked over the edge with a smile on his face. He had chosen the highest place in the house for the most accurate representation for his theory. The highest place happened to be a bookshelf that was even taller than Nate. The bookshelf itself hardly held any books, mostly collectibles and some music stuff of Nate’s. Though recently the bottom shelf was being used for storing Mat’s things, which was still weird for Mat to think about. The fact that he had things and the freedom to do things like this that is.

He was on the very top of the shelf in order to test a theory he had. Him and Nate had recently been playing Assassin’s Creed and the leap of faith was so cool. He started wondering if it could actually work. He stared down at the pile of socks he would be using in substitution for the hay and dragged his dummy the rest of the way toward the edge. It was hard getting it up there, but he had dragged one of his chess pieces—from the chess game that Nate had gotten for him to exercise his brain—to drop. He eyed the pile of socks and the position of the chess piece to make sure they were lined up and started tipping the chess piece over the edge.

“Mat!” A loud sudden voice zapped Mat out of his focus and balance and both him and the chess piece tumbled toward the floor. Mat closed his eyes but instead of the hard bone breaking floor, he fell on something a lot softer and less painful. Opening his eyes back up he saw Nate, breathing heavily and eyes wide with both panic and anger. Mat gave a sheepish smile.

“Hey, um, thanks for the save?” Nate closed his eyes and seemed to be calming himself down before focusing his eyes back down to Mat.

“What were you doing up there?! You could have killed yourself!” Mat shifted in the cupped hands and tried not to be intimated by the angry look on Nate’s face, knowing it was only because he was worried.

“It’s just, playing those Assassins Creed games gave me a new idea for a theory and I wanted to test it,” Mat said honestly, seeing no point in lying. Nate sighed.

“Mat you’re smarter than this, you could have really hurt yourself!” he waved his hand up toward the shelf where Mat had just been and then down at the floor where the black chess piece lay, broken in half. Mat winced at both the imagery and Nate’s tone of voice and avoided looking down toward the floor and up at Nate. Nate noticed this and tried to calm down. Being angry wasn’t going to help anyone and Nate wouldn’t forgive himself if he made Mat afraid. So he took a few moments to just breath.

“Look,” Mat looked up at him. “I understand you were trying to test a theory and I’m sure you just got so caught up in it that you weren’t thinking about the dangers. Am I right?” Mat gave him another sheepish smile. Honestly Nate was right, he had been way to focused on his theory to think about the actual situation he was putting himself in. He was usually smarter than that, as Nate had said.

“So just next time, how about you tell me first so that I can help you with it. I don’t want to take away your freedom but I also don’t want you getting hurt. Deal?” Nate stuck a finger out to Mat and he laughed, grabbing the one finger with both hands in a sort of handshake.

“Deal,” They both smiled at each other before Mat looked down toward the ground.

“Sorry about the chess piece by the way,” Nate waved it off.

“It’s fine, that thing is replaceable, you,” he poked Mat in the stomach. “Are not. I’ll get you another one. I’m sure EBay has separate chess pieces for sale.”

Chapter Text

Hundreds of years ago, the creature we know today as tinies had a different name. The small creatures called themselves Borrowers.

These Borrowers lived in the wild, living off the land away from humanity. But many predators hunted them, killing hundreds a day. It became too dangerous for these tiny creatures to live with the forest, so they ventured out into our world, into our villages and took a place inside our homes. There they lived and survived for a great while.

Until one day about a hundred years ago, a man by the name of Gale P. Richards discovered one of these creatures within his own home. Documents and journals say he captured it in the act of stealing some of his food. After that he observed the tiny thing before showing the world his discovery. The lives of everyone were never the same.

The Borrowers were renamed tinies and were hunted down and captured. We were finding them all over. America, England, Ireland, and every other country in the world. The discovery was so big and global that the UN met up to decide on what to do with these new creatures. The votes soon came in on what to do and it was almost unanimous. The tines were to become pets or test subjects to the human race.

Fast forward to present day and all of this is normal to us. And since the discovery and use of tinies in the field of science humans have discovered an abundance of cures for many different illnesses. Not to mention that tinies make the best pet for anyone. As seen when they were voted first for Time Magazines’ world’s best pets.

That was A Brief History of the tinies species. Tune in next time for A Brief History on space exploration. See ya then.

Chapter Text

Mat found himself awaking to a string of curses that seemed to be coming from the kitchen. He groaned, and blinked the blurriness out of his eyes before looking at the clock. 3:00 in the morning. Mat groaned again before deciding on what he should do. At this point he had only been with Nate for a week and he was still a bit afraid of him. He knew Nate wouldn’t hurt him, but his size just intimidated him too much.

His curiosity got the best of him and he climbed out of bed and headed toward the living room. It took a bit but eventually he made it, only to see Nate sitting at the table, head in his hands. Mat bit his lip, looked the table up and down and started climbing. He wasn’t the best climber, his only real climbing experience in the tinies shop jungle gym. But he managed to get up to the tabletop on his own. He noticed the surface was covered in crumpled pieces of paper. He went over to one and noticed a few music notes written and crossed out on it.

Ignoring that for now, he went over to Nate and with a burst of confidence, started tugging on his thumb. Of course being his size it didn’t do much and Mat ended up falling back on his butt. He let out a small ow and looked up, only to meet the curious eyes of Nate. Mat instinctively froze. Warning signals went off in his head at being looked at by a human but Mat pushed them down. He was fine, he was safe.

Nate blinked at the sight of Mat sitting in front of him. He had not been expecting a visit from him this late at night. Not to mention the fact that Mat still wasn’t completely used to him yet.

“Mat? What are you doing up this late?” Mat swallowed his apprehension.

“I could ask you the same thing,” He didn’t bother standing back up, instead just moving into a more comfortable sitting position that would also allow him to look up at Nate. He then waved across the table behind him and the papers that littered it.

“I see you’re working on some music, and considering I woke up to some naughty words, I would say it’s not going so well,” Nate sighed and rubbed his face.

“Hit the nail on that one buddy. Sorry for waking you by the way. It’s just I’m having terrible writers block right now and I need to get a new song out, but, ugh!” His face slammed back into the table and Mat flinched before doing his best to compose himself. Nate moved his head in order to look at Mat, but still kept his head on the table. Mat looked at Nate, really looked at him. He seemed tired, though that was a given considering what time it was, but he also seemed stressed. Mat knew what that was like, having been stressed out this entire week. Getting used to a human was stressful business, he supposed songwriting was too.

Nate sighed and without much warning Mat saw Nate’s hand move toward him. Mat tensed at the sight of the larger than life hand coming right for him, every instinct telling him to run. But he willed them away and allowed Nate’s hand to wrap around him, knowing the hands he was in were safe, if this week was anything to go by. Nate’s hand didn’t grab him though, but instead just wrapped loosely around him. A second later he felt something stroke the top of his head and go down to his back. It took another second for Mat to realize that Nate was petting him.

He was about to say something, but stopped himself when it happened again and then a third time. It didn’t actually feel bad or anything. He would even go so far as to say that he liked it. He closed his eyes at the lulling effect it seemed to have on him. It was soothing.

Nate hummed and kept petting him. As he did so he finally took his head off the table and got himself another sheet of paper. He continued to hum and pet as he wrote. A smile appeared on his face about twenty minutes later and he stopped the petting. Mat blinked out of his stupor, surprised that he hadn’t fallen asleep. He looked up into the smiling face of Nate as he held up a paper full of notes and words.

“Check it out Mat! I finished it!” Nate was so giddy and excited that Mat couldn’t help but be that way too.

“That’s great!” Nate nodded and set the paper down.

“Yep and it’s all thanks to you,” Mat blinked and tilted his head, confused. All thanks to him, what did he do?

“What did I do?” Nate laughed and once again wrapped his hand around Mat. Mat didn’t even flinch this time and soon enough the petting was resumed.

“I think the reason I couldn’t think of anything was because I was just so stressed to come up with ideas,” Mat hummed in content as he listened to Nate’s explanation.

“I have to say, you make a great stress reliever.” Mat gave him a look as Nate laughed and once again took his hand away. Though Mat soon gave up on the look and joined in on the laughter.

“Glad I could help, though I have to say it had positive effects on both parties,” Nate raised an eyebrow still smiling.

“Really? Wouldn’t have pegged you for someone who liked to be pet,” Mat shrugged. Nate laughed again and looked at the clock, his laughter slowly fading.

“Wow, it is really late. Or early depending on how you want to look at it. I think we should probably head to bed,” Mat yawned, just now realizing how tired he was. He was sure Nate was worse though, seeing as Mat at least was able to get in some sleep before coming out to check on Nate.

“Yeah that’s probably a good idea,” Mat allowed himself to be scooped up, too tired to really give a proper reaction to it. Though he was probably just getting used to it at this point. Nate brought them back to their room and set Mat back on his little bed. He watched as Mat snuggled into the covers and let out a little chuckle before climbing into his own bed not even a few feet away.

“Night Nate,” Nate smiled.

“Goodnight Mat.”

Chapter Text

Mark took a breath before he pushed open the door, entering the building. A loud ding went off, signaling to the workers that a customer had entered. Almost immediately a woman came up to him.

“Hello, I’m Mindy. Can I help you with anything today?” Mark smiled.

“Hi, yeah um, I just moved out here and my friends recommended this place to me. You know, they thought it might be nice for me to have a companion or something,” He said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. It was a little embarrassing telling a complete stranger that you were feeling lonely. But to his relief the woman, Mindy, just smiled.

“Well you’ve certainly come to the right place. Tinies are the best pets any human could have. Did you have a preference in mind?” Mark’s eyes widened.

“Oh uh, well male definitely and maybe around my age?” Mindy nodded and pointed toward a section close to the back of the store.

“Males within the age groups of 18-30 are over there,” Mark nodded and thanked the worker before heading over to said section. As he got closer to the tanks, he couldn’t help but look on in awe and wonder. They were just so tiny. Mark had never really been around tinies all that much. Hardly ever now that he thought about it. They were so cool.

As he made his way through the lines of tanks though, he noticed that most of the tinies cowered and huddled together near the back when he came over. Mark frowned, were they scared of him? Mark guessed it made sense, he was pretty big to them. It saddened Mark to see the tinies like this, it made him want one even more now. To show them that humans weren’t bad and to give them freedom away from these glass cages.

He kept going down the line, until he came to a tank that seemed out of the ordinary. Most of the tanks, Mark had noticed held several tinies within them. But this one only held one. Mark brought his face closer. The poor thing was huddled in the corner of its tank, staring up at him with what seemed like blue eyes, but Mark couldn’t really tell.

Something about this tiny seemed different to him. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was, but it was there. It drew him in and Mark suddenly realized who he would be taking home today. He smiled at the little guy, but got a glare in return. Mark’s smile fell for a second before coming back even brighter. This guy, he liked this guy. There was no question about it.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Mark,” He said, he saw the tiny flinch back with widened eyes at the unexpected sound of his voice. Mark gave a sheepish smile before standing back to his full height and waving over a worker. Mindy came over to him.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Mark nodded and pointed to the tank right in front of him. Mindy took a look inside and nodded, smiling.

“Alright, nice choice. I’ll have someone come and get him for you. Meanwhile I need you to come with me to sign a few papers, if you don’t mind.” Mark nodded.

“Of course,” He gave one last smile to the tiny and followed Mindy over to the front desk. Mindy brought out a few pieces of paper and laid them out in front of him. She handed him a pen.

“This is just to explain that you know the responsibilities of taking care of a tiny and that you will commit to them. You’ll need to sign this one down here,” she pointed toward the bottom of the page and Mark took no hesitation in signing it. Mindy brought Mark’s attention to the other paper.

“This is all the information we have on the tiny, including what shots it has and where we found it. You know it’s interesting you chose that one. He came all the way from Ireland.” Mark’s eyes widened.

“Really? Wow, that’s so cool.” He took the paper with the information on it and folded it enough so he could place it in his pocket. As he did this, another worker brought over a smaller version of the glass tanks. Inside he could see the tiny.

“And here he is. I hope your satisfied with you purchase. Remember we do have a 30-day return policy if you’re not. Have a goody day,” Mark smiled and grabbed the handle of the cage, making sure as to not rock the tiny inside.

“Thanks, same to you,” Keeping his arm steady he exited the store, the faint ding hardly noticeable now that he was outside. He looked down at the tiny and decided to wait until they got home for anymore introductions. He turned right on the sidewalk, away from the store and started his small journey home.

***

Jack wasn’t really sure how long he had been here, at the shop. It had to have been at least a few weeks, but after a while the days started to just blend together. Besides, it wasn’t as if he and his family ever kept track of that anyway. Really the only thing he was sure of in response to days was whether it was day or night.

Jack sighed at the new day he was faced with. He missed Ireland, he missed his family, he missed his freedom. He still couldn’t believe that all of that was taken away from him in a day. Humans were cruel and stupid and just way too big for their own good, Jack decided. He just wanted this nightmare to end, and for him to go home.

But he knew that would never happen.

A familiar ding echoed through the store, signaling a customer and Jack couldn’t help but look towards that way. It was bit hard to see, considering he was in the way back and other tanks blocked his view, but he thought he saw what appeared to be a male. A worker went over to him, but Jack wasn’t sure who it was. Though it was probably the girl who was always at the front desk. He didn’t know her name.

Not having anything better to do, he continued to try and watch the two interact. He couldn’t hear anything, but he didn’t really care. Soon the human started coming over to the section he was in and Jack had a better look at him. He had a strong build, but seemed kind of short compared to other male humans he saw. Jack gave out a chuckle of disbelief, who would have thought he’d ever call a human short?

He watched as the expressions on the human’s face changed. First it was of awe, which he had seen on plenty of human’s faces before. Then the human’s face shifted into a frown. But it didn’t really surprise Jack, he had seen some other humans pity them before. The human kept going down the line and Jack became aware of the fact that he was getting closer to him. He pushed himself more into the corner, hoping the human would pass by his cage, thinking it was empty. It had worked before.

Unfortunately, the human did see him and paused. He saw the human shift until he was bent down, looking right at him through the cage. He was locked in the curious gaze of the human. Eventually the human smiled, but Jack, feeling brave, gave him a hard glare in return. The human’s eyes widened in shock and the smile fell from his face. Jack felt proud of himself, that is until the smile returned. Now he figured he just made a terrible mistake.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Mark,” Jack flinched, eyes wide at the unexpected voice. Not only at the volume of it, but holy crap his voice was deep. He was sure he had never heard anyone with a voice like that before. Apparently the human saw his reaction, because he gave him a sheepish smile before standing back to his full height.

Jack hoped he was leaving, but instead the human waved over a worker.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” the human nodded at her question and pointed to him. Jack couldn’t help but flinch again, stupid fears.

“Alright, nice choice. I’ll have someone come and get him for you. Meanwhile I need you to come with me to sign a few papers, if you don’t mind.” He saw the human nod and Jack couldn’t stop the sinking fear deep in his gut.

“Of course,” the human followed the worker and their conversation drifted away from him. Not a few seconds later another worker came over, holding a smaller cage much like the one he had arrived in. The guy placed the cage inside his bigger one and Jack didn’t bother fighting against something he knew he would lose. He stepped in, was locked inside and was taken to the front of the store.

He was brought over just as the human was placing something inside his pocket. He smiled at him and Jack made it a point to ignore him.

“And here he is. I hope your satisfied with you purchase. Remember we do have a 30-day return policy if you’re not. Have a goody day,” He felt the human grab the cage and lift it into the air. He swayed a bit, but otherwise it was pretty steady. At the least the human was courteous enough to do that.

“Thanks, same to you,” Jack was brought out of the store for the first time in several weeks. He blinked at the natural light, having been used to the artificial light within the store. The human paused for a few moments before continuing along the sidewalk. Once Jack realized the guy didn’t have a car, he settled down and waited for the unavoidable.

***

Mark finally made his way home and flung the door open a bit too hard in his excitement. Both Mark and Jack flinched at the loud noise it created and Mark muttered an apology. He made sure he closed the door extra softly to make up for it.

Mark brought the cage into the kitchen and set it down on the table. He took a seat right in front of it and then opened it up. Jack watched as the wall was lifted and his only protection from the human was gone. They both stared at each other and Jack made no move to get out.

Mark was trying to debate on whether or not it would be a good idea for him to just outright grab the tiny. Mark figured that would be pretty rude though, and so decided to coax the guy out using words.

“Hey, I’m Mark. But you already knew that. What’s your name?” The tiny still didn’t budge and was now glaring at him. Great, they were off to a good start. Mark rubbed the back of his neck.

“I heard you’re from Ireland! That’s pretty cool, what’s it like there?” Jack glared even harder at the mention of his home in order to prevent any tears from falling. If he just kept up with it maybe the feelings of fear and sadness would go away.

Mark sighed, feeling more than a little impatient. But then he remembered the paper he was given with the tinies information on it and he took it out. He was about to unfold it but stopped himself. He would learn is name, true, but it was such an impersonal way to get to know someone. Mark placed the paper on the table, deciding to save it for later. He would rather have the little guy tell him himself, even if it took a while.

They sat in silence. Jack did his best to not look in the human’s, Mark he reminded himself, direction. Instead he busied himself with looking around at his setting. He had never really seen a human kitchen before. It was interesting to say the least. Though as Jack looked around he made sure to keep Mark in his peripheral vision, just in case he tried anything.

Mark opened his mouth in an attempt to say something, but a loud ringing cut him off. The abrupt noise made the tiny jump and turn back toward him. Mark took out his phone and bit his lip.

“I have to take this, I’ll be right back,” Mark stood and left the kitchen, entering his bedroom down the hall and closing it behind him for privacy. He then answered the call.

“Hey Bob,”

“Hey Mark, Wade’s here too. We wanted to know if you went to the tinies shop yet?” Mark sighed and took a seat on his bed.

“Hey Wade, yeah I just got back,”

“And…?” That was Wade.

“I bought a tiny,” A mix of congratulations and awesomes came from the phone.

“Nice, so what’s their name?” Mark ran a hand through his hair.

“Well it’s a boy and uh I don’t know,”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Bob asked. Mark gave a frustrated sigh and began to pace through his room.

“The guy won’t talk to me. He won’t even come out of his cage! I don’t know what to do,”

“Well its normal for the tinies to be scared at first. There in a new place with a new person. I’m sure they just have to get used to it,” Bob said.

“Yeah, you only just took him home. Give him a bit to get used to everything,” Wade cut in.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Mark smiled and stopped his pacing. He always felt better when he talked to his friends.

“Thanks guys,”

“No problem,”

“It’s what we’re here for,” Wade and Bob said respectively. Bob spoke up again.

“Well we got to go now, but tell us when you’ve made progress,” Mark smiled.

“Sure thing, I’ll talk to you guys later,”

“Bye!”

“Buh Bye!” Mark hung up the phone and headed back toward the kitchen feeling a lot better about the situation. That was until he saw the empty cage and not a sign of the little guy anywhere.

“Ah crap,”

***

Jack watched as Mark walked away and heard as a door closed from what seemed to be down the hall. He smiled. He couldn’t believe the human had just left him out alone like this. This was his chance to escape. He might not be able to get back to Ireland and his family, but he could take back his freedom.

He exited his glass prison and stepped out onto the tabletop. He ignored the feeling he got being exposed like this and headed toward the edge of the table near the chair Mark had just been sitting on. He eyed the drop down to the chair. It was kind of far, but he’d seen a lot worse. He got ready and counted to three in his head. On three he leaped from the table top and rolled onto the cushioned dining room chair. After that was done he wasted no time in climbing down the leg of the chair.

His feet touched the bottom and he started looking around. He needed to find a way to escape, to find a way outside. Once outside, he knew it would be close too impossible for the human to find him. He started to sway a bit as he felt vibrations in the ground. Jack’s eyes widened as he realized that the vibration were footsteps and that meant that Mark was coming back.

Mark froze and scanned the tabletop. When he saw that the tiny was nowhere on it he turned his gaze toward the floor. Jack hid behind the chair leg, but knew he had to find a better hiding spot or else he would be caught. He took notice of the fridge across the kitchen and figured if he could make it under that he would be home free. But from his perspective it would be quite the run he would have to make. So he waited until he saw Mark turn away and then sprinted off toward the fridge.

Mark scanned the floor, too afraid to move until he spotted him. He had no idea the tiny would be able to get down from the table. He saw movement from the corner of his eye and turned his head to see the little guy running across the kitchen floor.

“Hey!” Jack faltered a bit at the loud voice, but soon picked up the pace again. He was so close, just a few more feet. Not knowing what to do and panicking somewhat, Mark ran over and placed his foot in front of the tiny. Jack was running too fast and couldn’t stop in time, so he slammed right into the shoe of the human. He fell on his butt in a daze.

Suddenly he was surrounded by giant fingers on all sides. Panicking, Jack did his best to kick and push them away but his efforts were fruitless and he was snatched up in a fist. He did not like the feeling of being confined in hands bigger than he was. Not at all, he continued to struggle even though he knew the human was now in control.

“Let go of me!” As Mark snatched the tiny up, he couldn’t help but stare in awe at how it felt. His eyes then widened at the sound of a voice with a very distinct Irish accent. But his demand did not go unheard.

“Not until you tell me what you were doing on the ground! Were you trying to run away?” Mark asked. The struggling didn’t stop, but the tiny spoke up again.

“Of course I was, now let me go so I can leave!” Mark furrowed his eyebrows at that. He was glad that the guy was finally talking, but he wished it wasn’t to say this.

“No,” Mark said. Jack stopped his struggles in surprise and stared up at his captor in fear.

“What?” Mark kept his face emotionless.

“I said no. If you’re going to go all crazy and try to escape and put yourself in danger than I’m going to hold onto you until you can show me you’re not going to do it anymore.” Mark walked into his living room and plopped himself onto the couch, still holding onto the tiny in his fist. Figuring that being held like that must be uncomfortable, he opened his palm. Allowing the tiny to sit a bit more comfortably.

Jack was grateful he was no longer confined, but he was still trapped in a hand far bigger than he was. He tried glaring at the human, but his fear overlaid his anger. Mark saw the fear on his face and his expression morphed into one of concern.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to be friends, really.” Mark brought his thumb over to the tiny in what he hoped would be a comforting gesture, but when the tiny flinched away from it, he took it back. Mark was really at a loss on what to do here. He couldn’t very well hold onto the tiny forever.

Jack took a few breaths in order to calm himself down. The human really hadn’t done anything bad so far, other than grab him that is. But he supposed he was mostly to blame for that. He did try to run and all. But still humans in general, he didn’t trust them. They were big and they knew it. They took advantage of their size, over the tinies, and belittled them to nothing more than pets. Sometimes less. But still, Jack would be lying if he didn’t say that there was something different about this human.

“I’m sorry I grabbed you, but it’s dangerous outside. Which is where I’m guessing you were trying to go. I’m just trying to protect you,” Jack got a bit angry at that.

“I can take care of myself! I may be small, but I’m not helpless. I used to live outside, I’m used to it.” Jack crossed his arms and huffed. Mark’s eyes widened.

“Really?”

“Yep, born and raised. Just me and my f—“ Jack cut himself off at the thought of his family. That wound was still very fresh.

“My family,” He made himself finish, holding back tears. Mark noticed this.

“Are you okay?” Jack nodded and rubbed the tears away before they had a chance to fall. He didn’t want to talk about his family, at least not right now. He decided to change the subject.

“Jack,” Mark stared at him with confusion.

“What?” Jack looked up at Mark and shifted in his hand, making sure not to move any closer to the fingers positioned behind him.

“My name is Jack,” Mark smiled, glad to finally have a name to call him instead of just tiny or little guy.

“Jack, it suits you,” Jack smiled. At least Mark wasn’t going to change his name, like he heard that some humans did.

“So are you hungry? Tired? It is getting pretty late,” As if on cue Mark saw Jack yawn. Jack was tired from the day’s events. He could use a goodnight sleep.

“I could sleep,” he said. Mark smiled and got up from the couch, heading into the bedroom. Jack’s eyes widened at a thought. He really hoped Mark wouldn’t make him sleep in the same bed. Being that close to a human would skyrocket his nerves. Thankfully, he noticed a little bed made for tinies on the nightstand. He let out a sigh of relief.

Mark was about to put him down, but stopped and raised his eyebrow at him.

“You’re not going to try and run again, are you?” He asked. Jack shook his head.

“No, I just want to sleep right now. I promise I won’t try and run again,” Jack said and he meant it to. He was smart enough to not try again. Knowing the end result would probably be the same. Mark looked at him and nodded once he deemed that he was telling the truth. He set Jack down on the nightstand.

“Alright, well I have to finish up some work first. So um, goodnight,” And with that awkward goodnight, Mark left the room, leaving Jack alone. Jack was honestly surprised Mark would leave him alone again, especially since he tried to escape not long ago. But Jack wasn’t about to take this opportunity. He was going to keep his promise. Besides, he really didn’t feel up to doing something like that again.

He climbed into bed, happy that he actually had a bed again. In the shop, all he had was the cage floor. The only thing he had to be thankful for in that situation was that they kept the heater on all night. If that hadn’t been the case, he probably would have frozen to death. He snuggled into the bed, pulling the covers all the way up.

Maybe he could get used to this, maybe Mark wasn’t like the other humans he had seen. He wasn’t sure, couldn’t be sure at this moment in time, but he made a silent wish that he was right.

Chapter Text

Contrary to popular belief, Dan did have his own room. Sure he did spend quite a bit of time in Phil’s, but even best friends needed space sometimes. And Dan was incredibly grateful to Phil for his own room.

Dan was currently in said bedroom, on his human sized bed. It was late morning, but Dan didn’t feel like getting out of his bed just yet. So he took this time to check his phone. That was another thing he was grateful to Phil for. Phones were expensive anyway, but a custom made one designed for a tiny? Well, Phil wouldn’t tell him how much he spent on it, but Dan was sure it was a lot. Especially considering he had also gotten his laptop with it.

He scrolled through twitter to start before switching to Instagram. As he did so he caught something out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to look in that direction and froze.

A creature, roughly half his size, came up the side of his bed and stood atop his bedding. It had long skinny legs and a fuzzy looking top. Dan, from where he was, could also see fangs protruding from within its mouth. Not only that but he was pretty sure it was drooling as well.

It was a spider.

Dan was deathly afraid of spiders. Though unlike with humans who had the same fear, even spiders considered ‘harmless’ were a danger to him. He quickly stood up and started backing away. Unfortunately, it was too late to hide. The spider had already spotted him and was making its way over. Probably hoping to make a meal out of him.

Dan chanced a glance behind him. The end of his bed a few feet away. He didn’t have the upper body strength he would like to have, but in desperate situations—much like this one—he was sure he could climb down the side. He didn’t get a chance to execute his plan though. Because as he turned back around he was just in time to see the spider jump at him.

Dan couldn’t hold back his scream as he fell back. The weight of the spider heavy on his chest. Dan struggled with it, refusing to give in and allow it to bite him. He pushed back, but the spider was slowly gaining the upper hand. Dan could feel a sticking substance starting to wrap around him, slowing him down and if he hadn’t been fighting for his life he would have identified it as the spider’s web.

From within his mental state of ‘survive,’ Dan vaguely heard the door to his room open. His name being yelled was something he heard loud and clear, however, and apparently the spider did too. The monstrous creature jumped back suddenly, allowing Dan to escape its clutches. The spider seemed a lot more skittish now that a human was in the room.

Dan tensed as a giant hand slammed down in front of him, right on top of the spider. But he quickly relaxed when his mind finally caught up with him. It was just Phil and the spider was now dead and gone. He was safe. He fell on his butt in relief.

Phil’s hand lifted away and he watched as he wiped the guts off his hand, a look of disgust on his face. When Phil turned to Dan, his disgust was quickly masked by concern. Large hands surrounded Dan on all sides and he welcomed them as they scooped him up. The hands ascended until he was right in front of Phil’s concerned blue eyes. Dan watched as they looked him over.

“Dan! Are you okay?” Phil noticed the bit of spider web covering Dan’s legs and he did his best to use his sleeve to wipe it off.

“Yeah. You got here just in time,” Phil smiled and hugged Dan to his chest. Dan returned the hug the best he could. Phil pulled away.

“This is why you shouldn’t stay in bed this long,” Now that the danger was over and everyone was safe, it was okay to joke about it. Dan gave a small laugh.

“Don’t think this is going to change the fact that I’m not a morning person. It’s not going to happen,” Phil laughed, Dan joining in. Once the laughter died down, Phil took the initiative and headed out toward the kitchen for some well-deserved breakfast on both their parts.

“Hey, um Phil?” Phil looked down at Dan.

“Yeah?” Dan shifted a bit and Phil could now see that Dan was still a bit shaken up about the whole thing.

“It’s alright if I sleep in your room tonight, right? And maybe get something to take care of our little bug problem?” Phil gave a soft smile and once again hugged Dan to his chest.

“Of course. Now let’s get us some cereal and watch some anime!”

Chapter Text

Nate was sat in Mat’s bedroom, all by himself at the moment. Something he was grateful for. He had only been with Mat for a few days. Not even a full week, and though they had been through a lot this past week, were still going through it, Nate was still scared. And Mat knew it, he told Nate himself that it was to be expected given his circumstance. But Nate caught the hint of sadness in his eyes and that alone made Nate feel guilty for being scared. Especially when all Mat had done so far was help him.

Nate gave a shaky sigh, looking out the window that he was seated on. Heavy clouds rolled into view, the already dark evening becoming even darker. Nate was fascinated by the way the clouds moved and though to most people it was a normal thing Nate had hardly ever been able to see outside. The classroom he had been in had no windows and even if it had he probably wouldn’t have ever gotten a chance to look anyway. Nate shivered and pushed the memories of the school away. He was trying to relax and all those bad memories were doing were making him tense.

He leaned against the window, the cool glass calming his nerves and his shoulders relaxed. And then suddenly out of nowhere a giant burst of light came from outside and all the lights in the house shut off. Nate yelped and tensed back up again. The room around him was pitch black, the outside giving no help to light up the room. Nate started breathing heavy. It was too dark.

A loud booming sound, coming from outside, broke the silence. Nate screamed and curled up in a fetal position, hands over his head. No, no, no, no played over in his head. Another loud boom and Nate covered his ears, rocking back and forth. He was back at the school; he was all alone. Any second now a giant hand would grab him from within and--!

The room was lit up for second and Nate saw that he was in a bedroom. He slowly unfurled himself, wiping the tears from his eyes. He wasn’t at the school, he was okay, he was safe. And he wasn’t alone, not like before.

Nate’s eyes slowly, but surely adjusted to the dark. It was still to terribly dark for his liking, but it was a bit better. At least it wasn’t an empty darkness like the drawer had been. Another boom and Nate’s hands went to his ears, his breathing becoming faster once again. He blinked away the tears once again forming on his face and quickly started climbing down the window seal before the booming sound came back. He then hurried over to the open door and ran out into the dark hall.

He noticed light coming from the living room and headed in that direction. As he entered he noticed Mat standing there, lighting a candle to add to the few he had already lit. Nate relaxed somewhat, glad for the light, but immediately tensed up again and gave a loud yelp when the booming sound broke the silence once again. Mat’s gaze fell on him, having heard his yelp and Nate tensed for a whole new reason.

“Nate? What’s wrong?” Mat knew Nate was still scared of him and he accepted that. But that meant that Nate usually didn’t seek him out on his own. Especially when, earlier on, he had said he wanted to be left alone.

“I-I—“ Another loud boom stopped Nate in his tracks and he once again covered his ears. Mat put two and two together and quickly realized what the problem was. He frowned, concern etched in his face and lowered himself slowly to the ground, right in front of Nate. Nate backed away a few steps, still scared of the giant human. Mat bit his lip and started moving his hands forward but made no move to grab at him. Nate flinched back anyway.

“Can I pick you up?” Nate blinked and fidgeted on what to do. Another boom made up his decision for him and he literally ran into Mat’s hands. Mat tried really hard not to flinch away at the unexpected action from the little guy.

Mat scooped him up and picked himself off the ground. He looked around and decided to settle on the couch. The soft orange glow from the five or so candles he had set up filled the room. The rain outside a constant noise filling the silence.

He looked down at Nate, only to see him huddled against his shirt. Mat could feel his trembles of fear and wanted to do nothing more than to make him feel better.

“It’s okay Nate, it’s just thunder and lightning. It can’t hurt you,” Mat’s voice rumbled Nate more than usual with him being so close to his chest. He froze, but the voice was soft and non-threatening. A nice change from the loud booming of what was apparently thunder, according to Mat.

“S-sorry,” He managed to say and pulled away from the human’s chest. Nate started fidgeting and looked up at Mat. There was still a fear there for the large human, but it was overtaken slightly by his fear of the storm. Mat noticed this and gave Nate a small, patient smile.

“No reason to be sorry Nate. Even some humans are afraid of storms. You don’t have to be ashamed of it,” Nate nodded, but deep in his mind he knew that the storm wasn’t really the thing he was scared of. It was what the storm reminded him of. Without thinking, a spew of words left his mouth.

“It’s not really the storm, I-I mean it is but not really. It’s just it was really dark and loud and—“ A boom of thunder cut him off and Nate jumped and huddled back into Mat’s chest. Mat blinked, the gears in his head turning rapidly. His eyes softened when he realized what Nate was talking about. Mat held Nate closer and Nate flinched before relaxing against the warmth and comfort his chest provided.

“You’re not at the school anymore Nate. You’re here with me and you’re safe. I promise nothing like that will ever happen to you again, not as long as I’m here.” He glanced down at Nate and saw him nod against his chest. He smiled and they both stayed like that for a while. Mat just holding Nate against his chest.

The storm eventually died down to only a heavy rain. Not a sound or flash of thunder and lightning. The power even flickered back on and Mat smiled.

“Nate, hey the storms over, look—“ Mat cut himself off when he saw that Nate had fallen asleep, still curled up next to his chest. Mat smiled, happy about the steps they were making in Nate not being scared of him. He knew they still had a long way to go, but it was a start. Mat settled back into the couch and watched over Nate before he, too, fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Mat was driving home from the grocery store when he suddenly seemed to notice all the spooky decorations. It couldn’t really be that time already, could it? How could he miss something as big as Halloween? Although to be fair, the past while had been stressful. With everything that had gone on, he had hardly left the house.

Usually he would be going out with Stephanie and Jason, but most likely this Halloween would just be a night in. Mat figured Nate and himself could use the extra rest. He continued his drive and stopped at a red light. He turned his head towards the right and noticed a Party City. He blinked and looked away before his eyes glanced over to it once again. An idea had already begun to form in his mind and there was no way to stop it.

He found himself turning and parking into the lot of the giant building. Just because they were staying in didn’t mean they couldn’t participate in some traditions. Kids would still be coming to their door, and so he needed to get some candy. He entered the building, eyes immediately drawn to the Halloween section. Most of everything was already gone, though that was no surprise considering Halloween was the next day. Mat hoped they had at least some good candy left.

A worker ended up pointing him to their leftover candy and Mat was glad to see a mixed bag of all the good stuff. I.E. KitKats and Reeses. Satisfied, he was about to purchase and leave but he stopped and looked at the costume section. It just wasn’t Halloween without some sort of costume. Mind made up he went to go look.

His forming idea solidified finally, and hit him suddenly. He smiled. Not only would he get himself a costume, but he would get Nate one has well. He didn’t want the tiny to feel left out and maybe he could help him pass out candy to the kids. It just might do Nate some good to get a little more human interaction with someone other than himself.

Fortunately, they had a section for tinies. Unfortunately, most of them were more than a little degrading. Mat frowned as he passed by one that had a collar and leash on it with some ears and a tail. He swiftly moved away from that one and the others like it. That was just a little to messed up. Finally, he found some costumes that were actually decent.

He put a hand to his face in thought at what would best suit Nate. His eyes scanned the tiny clothing, waiting for one to jump out at him. His eyes stopped at a certain one and he was reminded of a similar costume he saw for a human. He smiled and grabbed the small package, knowing it was perfect for Nate. He then went to the human section and grabbed the costume that matched with it. He stared at the two before smiling and nodding to himself and then went to pay for them. Before he knew it, he was in the car, on his way home once again.

He brought the bags inside and saw Nate sitting on the coffee table, watching TV. Nate tensed when he saw Mat, but forced himself to relax. Although he found it impossible to relax completely. No matter how many times he’s said to himself that Mat wouldn’t hurt him. He really hated being afraid. Nate finally noticed the non-grocery bags in Mat’s hand. Mat noticed his questioning gaze.

“Hey Nate, I’ve got a little surprise for you. Just let me go put the food away first,” He walked into the kitchen to do exactly as said and Nate stared at the bag that he left behind. It had the name Party City on it in an abundance of colors. He wasn’t quite sure what Party City was exactly, but Nate hoped it didn’t mean Mat was throwing a party.

Mat came back after a few minutes and picked the bag back up. Nate paused his show and Mat sat down on the couch a few feet away from the coffee table.

“Halloweens coming up, tomorrow actually,” he started with and Nate frowned. He was pretty sure Halloween had something to do with candy and maybe costumes? But he wasn’t sure. He decided to stay silent though and just listen to Mat.

“First things first, I bought some candy to hand out to the kids.” He brought out a big bag of candy and set it next to him on the couch. Then Mat smiled.

“And here’s what I got for you,” He took out the tiny package and set it down next to Nate so he could get a good look at it. Nate took a few cautious steps toward it before being able to see it fully. It was a costume, one that had gloves, a hat, a vest, and some boots. The name on it read Pokemon trainer. Nate blinked and stared up at Mat, who was still smiling.

“Costumes are part of Halloween tradition and I know how much you’ve been into Pokemon recently. When I saw it I just had to get it for you,” Mat said and then brought out his own costume. “And I got myself a Pikachu one. So, we could match,” Nate stared at the Pikachu costume and then back at the trainer one. He smiled.

“Y-you didn’t have to do that,” Nate said shyly, and Mat laughed.

“It’s not a problem. And hey, now you can help me pass out candy!” Nate’s shy smile turned into a horrified frown.

“Wh-what,” Mat noticed this and gave Nate a gentle look, knowing touch probably wouldn’t help right at this moment.

“It’ll be okay Nate, besides this will be good for you. I promise,” Nate nodded slowly, he saw where Mat was coming from. But he was now really dreading tomorrow.

***

“Alright, the kids will start coming any minute.” Mat said as he exited the bedroom, his Pikachu costume on and ready. It was basically just a onesie with a hood, but it was pretty cool. He saw Nate on the kitchen table, next to the bowl of candy. He, too, had his costume on. And Mat had to say it really did suit him.

Nate saw Mat coming and stopped fiddling around with his costume. It was actually pretty comfortable. Like actual clothes more than a costume. Nate really did like it.

“You all ready?” Mat asked and Nate frowned, head down. Having to face all those kids, not to mention their parents. That was way too many humans for Nate’s liking. He could barely handle being around Mat. Before he could stop himself, he started trembling. His arms instinctively wrapped around himself. Mat frowned in sympathy and laid his hands down on the table next to him. Nate just barley kept himself from flinching at them.

“Is it okay if I…” He trailed off and motioned to his hands. Nate knew what he was asking and after some hesitation, nodded. Mat smiled and carefully moved his hands around Nate, before scooping him up into them. Nate controlled his breathing and allowed it to happen. He was brought up to Mat’s face, a soft look meeting him. He squirmed slightly, but otherwise didn’t move.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I promise, never again. I’m just trying to help.” Mat’s gaze casted downwards before looking back to Nate. “If it really makes you that uncomfortable then you don’t have to answer the door with me,” Nate sighed and gave Mat a smile, thankful for the choice.

“Thank you, and I know your trying to help. So, I want to at least give it a try,” Mat smiled, happily surprised at Nate’s answer.

“That’s great!” Just then the doorbell rang and Mat looked at Nate, who was staring at the door with wide eyes.

“You sure?” Nate looked up at him and nodded.

“Alright, do you want to sit on my shoulder?” Nate nodded again and Mat brought his hand to his right shoulder. He waited as he felt the small weight of his tiny friend climb onto his shoulder. Once he was sure Nate was secure, he grabbed the bowl of candy and went over to the door. With Nate being so close to his ear, he heard Nate take a deep breath. He opened the door.

“Trick or treat!” Three kids filled his doorstep, dressed as a vampire, a ghost, and a skeleton. Though not the most original costumes, they were still really cute. Their parents watched from the sidewalk.

“Hey everyone! Great costumes, here’s some candy for everyone.” He placed a piece of candy in each of their bags and the skeleton, a little girl, pointed to his shoulder. He felt Nate freeze.

“Woah, is that a tiny!” The other kids noticed and were now all looking at Nate. Mat felt Nate start trembling and got an idea.

“Actually he’s my trainer.” He motioned for the kids to look at their costumes and their eyes widened.

“Hey you’re right!”

“That’s so cool,”

“Your Pokemon trainer costume is the best!” All three kids said. Nate felt heat rise to his face and Mat smiled.

“What do you say trainer. You think these kids deserve another piece of candy?” The kids looked at him hopefully and Nate nodded.

“Yeah,” The kids cheered and Mat gave them an extra piece each. They thanked Nate as they walked away, back to their parents. Mat closed the door and did his best to see Nate out of the corner of his eye.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Nate said and Mat laughed, being mindful to not shake his shoulders too much.

“But it was true, you are the trainer, aren’t you? And I’m your Pikachu.” Mat said proudly. Nate laughed, really laughed. Something he hadn’t done in a while.

“Yeah, I guess you are,” He paused for a moment.

“Thanks,” he said again, feeling as if he couldn’t say it enough. Mat smiled.

“You deserve it,” Nate chuckled lightly. The rest of the night was much the same and Nate had more fun than he had in a long time.

Chapter Text

“You… actually went and bought a cursed mirror?” Dan asked looking at the antique Phil was currently setting up. It was a long mirror, one that showed you your whole body. Around the edges were all kinds of designs engraved within the old wood. A slight gold outline could also be seen along some of the engravings. But whether it was real gold or not was not the thing Dan was worried about at the moment.

“It’s not cursed,” Phil said with a slight roll of his eyes. He finished wiping the thick layer of dust off and set it at the perfect angle against the wall in his room. He took a step back to admire it, being wary of Dan who was standing on the ground next to him. He heard Dan scoff and looked down at him with a smile and raised eyebrow.

“Right. Phil not only does it look creepy as hell, and was covered in a crap load of dust, the guy at the yard sell told you that you should be careful with it.” Phil shook his head, the smile still clear on his face.

“I’m pretty sure he just told me that because he saw how clumsy I was and didn’t want glass everywhere,” he laughed at the memory from earlier. He hadn’t been paying attention and tripped over a toy truck that was for sale. He was just glad Dan had been on a table looking at something in that moment or it could have been a lot worse. As it was, Phil had only gotten a small bruise. Dan shook his head and started to head out of the room.

“Whatever, I’m not taking that chance. I don’t want to be anywhere near that thing thank you.” Phil watched as Dan exited the room, laughing slightly to himself. Dan was overreacting. Sure, the mirror was dusty, but the designs were cool looking. Not creepy.

“…Phil…” Phil blinked at the sound of a soft voice. He turned towards the door, but Dan hadn’t come back. Phil shouted into the hallway.

“Dan! Did you call for me!” He heard a soft ‘no’ coming from the living room and Phil frowned. He looked toward the mirror for a moment before shrugging the noise off. It was probably just his imagination. He left his room to join Dan in the living room.

A stream of golden light swept the mirror before dying back down.

***

“You gonna sleep in your own room tonight?” Phil asked Dan as they headed down the hall towards their rooms. Dan was seated on Phil’s shoulder. Though he could get around fine on his own, he really didn’t feel like keeping up with Phil this late at night. That and Phil had offered, so who was he to say no.

“Yeah,” Dan answered, not even having to think about the question. “Until you come to your senses and get rid of that mirror, I will be staying far away from your room,” Phil couldn’t help the eyeroll and slight laugh at Dan’s continued ridiculousness. He brought a hand up to his shoulder and waited patiently for Dan to climb on. Once he felt the small weight, he brought his hand to the floor with practiced ease. Being together for seven years made Phil a pro at handling Dan, or any other tiny for that matter.

Dan stepped off and entered his own room with a goodnight. Phil did the same. He got in bed and settled down. He could feel sleep starting to edge its way in. With a yawn, he closed his eyes and allowed the beginnings of sleep to take over.

A sudden light in his room made him open his eyes again. He sat up to find the source and was surprised to see that it seemed to be coming from the mirror. And not a reflection, but from inside. He blinked at the blurriness in his eyes and reached over to the nightstand, grabbing his glasses and putting them on so he could actually see.

The light was coming from the mirror. Phil got out of bed with a confused frown. Cautiously, he walked to the mirror and turned away slightly when the light got brighter. When it died down he turned back to it only to see himself. Very confused on what just happened, Phil mentally debated on whether or not he should go into Dan’s room. He turned his head, looking at the door, but from the corner of his eye he saw that his reflection hadn’t moved. Jumping back in surprise, Phil gave a small yelp. His reflection continued to stand there, looking at him.

“Hello?” Phil tried, he was starting to think this was all a dream. He watched as his reflection seemed to be startled out of its unmoving stance. His reflection gave him a shy look and started fidgeting. Phil found it a bit unsettling, to see himself do something that he wasn’t doing. But his stance and expression made him kind of sad.

“Oh! Um hi…” His reflection gave a little wave and Phil gave a small, if not confused, smile. He sneakily pinched himself to see if he was dreaming and was surprised when it hurt. So, this was real?

“Who are you? What are you?” Phil asked. His reflection just shrugged. A few tears filled his eyes.

“I-I don’t know. I can’t remember,” Phil frowned in sympathy at the creature. Though this was a very weird and unexpected situation, Phil couldn’t ignore the pain in the creature’s eyes.

“I’m sorry. You don’t even remember your name?” His reflection shook his head.

“I just know that your name is Phil and that I now look like you. And that I’m trapped in here.” Phil nodded.

“Well is there something you want me to call you?’ His reflection wiped the tears from his eyes and seemed to be in thought for a moment.

“Phil.” It answered simply. Phil was about to say something along the lines of how that would be confusing, but stopped.

“Okay, Phil it is.” This creature didn’t remember anything. Phil felt bad and figured the least he could do was share his name. He briefly wondered how he was going to explain this to Dan.

He ended up talking to his reflection until well into the night. Phil mostly talked, about his life and about Dan. The other Phil listened with rapt attention, only interrupting him to ask questions.

Phil yawned, pausing in his story. He saw his reflection tilt his head.

“Are you tired.” Phil rubbed his eyes and nodded.

“A bit, it is pretty late,” his reflection nodded in understanding.

“It’s alright for you to go to bed. I’ll still be here,” Phil frowned in concern.

“You sure,” his reflection nodded. Phil got up from where he was seated on the floor and waved goodnight. Other Phil did the same and disappeared. Phil settled into bed and finally fell asleep.

***

Phil got up late that morning, but was a bit surprised to see a normal reflection of his. Maybe it had been a dream after all?

Phil made his way to the living room, only to see Dan already on the couch. Dan looked up from his laptop and gave Phil a raised eyebrow.

“There you are. You’re usually up earlier than this. What happened?” Phil shrugged and took a seat next to Dan.

“I think all your talk about the mirror being cursed got into my dreams,” Phil chucked. He explained his dream to Dan, taking last night’s events as nothing more than that. A dream. Because what else could it have been. Dan took his dream as a sign to get rid of the darned thing but Phil just laughed. Dan couldn’t help but laugh as well. Phil offered his hand and Dan climbed on. He walked them to the kitchen and set Dan down, getting them some cereal.

The rest of the day passed by with no event. Dan still refused to enter Phil’s room and Phil just let it be. As early evening came around, Phil entered his room again to get something and was startled by his own voice.

“Phil!” He turned toward the mirror and saw his reflection, the other Phil, waving at him. Phil smiled.

“So it wasn’t a dream!” The other Phil shook his head and it was then that Phil noticed the desperate look in his reflection’s eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“I-I need to get out of here! Something is happening!” The panic in the other Phil’s eyes made Phil start panicking as well.

“What can I do?” His reflection looked to the side, biting his lip.

“I’m trying to remember, um, I think we both need to touch the mirror at the same time and you might have a chance to pull me out,” Phil nodded and lifted his hand up, his reflection did the same, mirroring his movement. Phil hesitated. Something about this just seemed off, wrong. But, almost like he was compelled to do so he laid his hand on the cool glass. His reflection did the same. Immediately Phil started to feel dizzy. A burning sensation entered his hand and his knees buckled. He tried to pull away, but his hand was stuck. Like someone had taken adhesive to his hand and the mirror.

With his vision darkening around the edges, he looked at his reflection. A giant smirk was on his doubles face. His surroundings faded into blackness.

***

Phil awoke in darkness. He blinked and picked himself up off the floor, stopping at the unexpected pain throughout his body. He looked around trying to find something other than the pitch blackness. He then saw a small rectangle of light coming from a distance. He walked over to it and peered through. His eyes widened when he saw himself, leaning against the side of his bed with a smirk on his face. The image was unsettling.

“You’re so gullible, you know that?’ His reflection stood and positioned himself in front of the mirror, hands on his hips. Phil had never seen himself like this before.

“What happened, where am I?!” Phil looked around him in a panic. Though he wasn’t scared of the dark like Dan was, looking at a never-ending blackness was disturbing to say the least. His double laughed.

“Where do you think you are? You’re now trapped in my old prison.” He laughed again and Phil felt very uncomfortable hearing an evil laugh of someone with his voice.

“You should have listened to your little pet when you had the chance.” Phil blinked at his words. Was he talking about Dan? A familiar protective feeling overtook Phil and he glared at his double.

“Dan is not a pet!” He said defiantly. But his double waved his statement away, ignoring him. His double then hummed in deep thought. His smile grew wide and Phil instinctively took a step back, the sinking feeling in his gut getting worse.

“Speaking of the little thing, I think I’ll go and find him. Maybe have some fun,” Phil froze at the implication. He banged against the barrier with all his might.

“Leave him alone!” He cried desperately. His double just laughed again and Phil was getting real sick and tired of it. He banged against the glass again, but he didn’t even see a hint of intimidation on his double. Phil couldn’t really blame him though, not only was he trapped but he wasn’t at all intimidating to begin with. Even so he had to try. Dan’s safety was on the line.

“How about no,” Phil visibly wilted.

“Why?” Phil asked softly. His double stopped and smirked.

“Because it’s fun. And it will be even more fun knowing the little thing will think I’m you.” Phil’s eyes widened and he watched helplessly as his double left the room. The door closing with a loud bang. He sunk to his knees and his head hit the glass in defeat.

***

Phil was left there for several long hours. Throughout this time the only thing going through his mind were horrors. Tears fell from his eyes at the thought of what his double was doing to his best friend.

Phil heard the door creak open, slightly and almost silently. But from his position he couldn’t see the door. His eyes shut, not wanting to see his double again. But they opened when he heard the whisper of a familiar voice.

“Phil?” Phil felt his hopes rise.

“Dan? I’m in here,” He tapped the glass and waited with baited breath. Slowly Dan came into view. Phil’s breath caught in his throat. Dan looked awful. As he stood there, Phil took everything in. He was favoring his right leg, the left seemed swollen with bits of dried blood. He was also holding his side and there was so much blood on his torso and hand, Phil thought he would be sick. But even through all the pain, Dan managed a smile toward him.

“Dan, what…how…?” Phil was speechless and Dan’s smile faded just a bit.

“Please, as if I would think for one second that maniac was you.” He laughed, but was interrupted by a deep cough. Phil noticed some blood splattering onto Dan’s hand.

“Dan--“

“I’m fine,” he paused at the look Phil gave him. “Okay, I’m not fine. Obviously, but I will be once we get you out of there,” Phil bit his lip.

“How are we going to do that?” Dan paused and gave a questioning glance towards him.

“How did you get in there in the first place?” Phil put his hand flat on the glass.

“We both put our hands together, like this.” He explained.

“So all we need to do is get your double to touch the mirror. Simple.” Dan sighed and ran a hand through his hair, the one not covered in blood. He looked the mirror up and down and his eyes widened with a stupidly crazy idea. But one that might just work.

“Dan? What is it?” Dan smiled.

“A plan, one you’re not going to like,” Dan ran under the bed. Phil watched him, wondering what he was up to and being a lookout in case his double came back. At least the best lookout he could be without being able to see the door. It was only a few moments before Dan exited, a long string and paperclip in his hands. Phil was beginning to realize what Dan’s plan was.

“No.” Dan didn’t stop hooking the line and clip together.

“You’re already hurt, this is going to kill you!” Phil was trying his very best to stay quiet. But it was getting to be very difficult with his increasing worry.

“I’m going to die if I don’t. If not from the guy directly then from the pain. I can do this Phil, just trust me.” Phil swallowed the lump in his throat, and nodded.

“Of course I trust you. Just be careful, please.” Dan nodded and finished tying the two parts together. Once he was sure it was secure he bent the clip into a hook. He stepped back slightly and wound the hook up with his free hand before throwing it to the top of the mirror. As luck would have it, it hit its mark and Dan tugged. When he was sure it wouldn’t come loose, he took a deep breath. His left hand left his side with a wince and he placed the bloodied hand on the rope. Being mindful of his leg, he started climbing.

Dan hadn’t climbed in a while and was definitely out of practice. His injuries just made it worse, of course, but Dan had to pull through. To save Phil.
He got to where he was eyelevel with Phil and stopped, thinking this would be as good place as any. He didn’t need to go all the way up after all. His injuries burned, but he was ready. He turned to Phil who was looking at him with worry.

“You ready?” Phil steeled himself the best he could and nodded. Dan let out a breath.

“Then let’s do this.” He collected a deep breath and then shouted.

“Hey D-bag!” Rushed footsteps filled their ears and the door swung open with a huge bang. As his double came into view, Phil noticed the furious look on his face. But not only that. Though it wasn’t a lot, Phil noticed blood splattered over his double’s shirt. Phil himself felt both disgusted and furious.

“There you are you little pest! Come here!” His hand shot out, just like Dan had hoped for and before it could reach him he slid down the rope with a speed he didn’t know he possessed. The hand missed and instead made contact with the mirror.

“Now Phil!” Phil placed his hand over his doubles and watched at the creature tried pulling away, but to no avail.

“No! No!” Phil felt the dizzy sensation again. He closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them again he was back, outside of the mirror where he belonged. He pulled his hand away.

“No!” The creature was angry and before their eyes they saw as it shifted into a black shadowy blob. It filled the mirror with darkness and the whole thing started to shake.

“Phil!” Dan’s yell made him move and grab him from the ground. He then went and grabbed the nearest object, which so happened to be a mug. He then chucked the mug at the mirror. It hit dead on and it shattered. Pieces of glass sprang forth from the frame and Phil turned in order to protect Dan and himself. The pieces clattered to the floor and all was still.

Dan and Phil stared at the broken mirror, both breathing heavily. Dan collapsed in Phil’s hand and Phil focused his attention on him in concern.

“Dan!” Dan was smiling and waved him off.

“Next time I say something is cursed, don’t buy it.” Phil chuckled.

“Right yeah, never again.” His face morphed back into concern when Dan started to cough up blood again. He felt Dan shiver in pain and his one leg throbbing. Phil held him closer.

“Let’s get you to a doctor,” Dan’s adrenaline had finally worn off and the pain was almost unbearable, but he managed a smile.

“That would be great,” As Phil grabbed his jacket and phone, he gave Dan a gentle hug.

“Thanks Dan,” The tiny laughed.

“Don’t mention it, seriously.” Phil laughed, knowing Dan was going to be just fine.

***

The pieces of glass shook before dying down once again. The reflective pieces filled with an inky blackness and a cruel laugh echoed through the empty house.

Chapter Text

Mark hadn’t seen nor heard Jack in a while. Which was strange, considering the person Jack was. He was a loud human; Mark had picked that much up the minute he stepped foot in the house way back when. So not seeing or even hearing from Jack most of the day was weird to say the least.

He walked down the hallway, keeping a hand against the right wall. It was too dangerous for him to walk straight down the middle. Even if Jack said he was careful it only took one mistake, Mark would rather not risk it. He made his way until he stopped in front of the door that led to the bathroom. It was slightly ajar and a faint glow was coming from it. What Mark found strange about it was that the glow was too soft to be the bathroom light.

And it was green.

Mark couldn’t remember if Jack kept any green lights around.

Still being cautious, Mark decided to peek in before announcing his presence. He looked up at Jack who was facing the mirror, head in his hands. Mark’s eyebrows furrowed at the sight. It looked like he was in pain.

A low chuckle sent shivers down Mark’s spine. Jack’s hands left his face and Mark had to stop himself from gasping at what he saw. Jack’s eye was glowing a sickening green color. At least Mark knew where the glow had been coming from now.

“Ya fought hard. But I think we both know who would win in the end,” Mark was startled at the difference in Jack’s voice. It was the same but different if that made any sense. It just sounded…darker Mark would have to call it. Mark noticed that there was silence for a few minutes before Jack let out a booming laugh. But it wasn’t the normal happy go lucky laugh Mark was used to. Just like with his voice it sounded a lot darker.

“Don’t give me that. This has been a long time coming. S’not my fault you decided to ignore me,” Jack laughed again. “Don’t worry about it,” Jack’s eye glowed brighter and suddenly large dark green, dripping hands were coming up from behind him.

“I’m the one in control now,” Mark brought a hand up to his mouth in shock. The thing in front of him wasn’t Jack. This thing wasn’t even human. Mark’s breathing started to become heavy, he needed to get out of here. He moved away, slowly, from the frame of the door. Keeping his eyes on the creature in front of him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t looking where he was going and he hit his funny bone on the wall. He couldn’t stop the short cry of pain and he saw as the creature turned sharply towards the noise. The glowing green eye narrowed in his direction and Mark felt the shivers pass through him again.

The creature let a small cruel smile appear on his face. Mark backed away in fear and quickly turned and bolted down the hall. He tried to ignore the pounding of his heart, threatening to pop out, in favor of running from whatever had taken his best friend’s body. He heard a voice from behind, followed by the sound of and the feeling of ground shaking steps.

“Ah Mark, you ruined my surprise. Ah well, this works to I guess. Run Markimoo, run like the little prey ya are,” A shrill laugh escaped the creature and Mark continued to run. Maybe if he could make it into the walls, he would be safe. He slid into the kitchen and headed toward the far wall. The closest one was actually on the counter behind the coffee maker, but Mark wouldn’t be able to climb fast enough in order to make it.

He was just about to reach the entrance when a hand, the same one he saw come from behind the creature slammed down in front of him. He screeched to a halt. Now that he had a closer look the hand was indeed dripping. It actually seemed to be made of some sort of dark green goop.

“Trying to go into the walls are ya Marky. That’s not exactly fair is it,” Mark gulped and turned back around, finding himself running down the hall once again. He continued to feel the pressing footfalls behind him. Centering in on him. With all his strength, stamina, and mostly adrenaline he pushed through and ran until he found himself in Jack’s bedroom. He came to a halt in the middle of the floor when he saw the creature lying on his side on top of the bed. His head held up by his arm and his eyes were entirely focused on his. A cruel smirk was on his face.

“Surprise,” Mark turned to run back out into the hallway. Not even stopping to wonder how he had gotten here before him, he didn’t have the time. But as he turned around a large goopy hand flew above him and slammed the door shut. Mark’s heart hurt from the hard pounding against his chest. A slight breeze ruffled his hair and he slowly turned around. Only to yell in terror when he saw that the creature was mere inches from him. The creature continued giving him the same smirk and Mark couldn’t help but think about how wrong it looked on Jack’s face. Everything about this was just plain wrong.

“Looks like I win,” Not-Jack said, his smirk still ever so clear on his face. Mark was frozen in terror. “Guess it’s time to claim my prize,” Not-Jack’s hand shot toward him with unhuman like speed. Mark didn’t even have a chance and he was soon encased within the creature’s fist. The grip was tight, painfully so. Mark didn’t even have a chance to try and struggle against the hand.

Not-Jack picked himself off the ground, dusting himself off with his free hand as if the ground had been covered in dirt. The creature looked at him, studied him. Mark couldn’t help but be engrossed by the one glowing green, septic looking eye. Mark gulped and decided to ask the question plaguing his mind this whole time.

“W-who are you?” His voice shook with a fear he hadn’t felt in a long time. Not-Jack looked at him and then suddenly threw his head back in a booming laughter. Mark wished he could have covered his ears, but unfortunately his hands were trapped at his sides. Thankfully the laugh didn’t last long.

“You can call me Anti,” Right after the reveal of the creature’s name, Mark felt the grip around him loosen up and Mark suddenly found himself flying through the air. He screamed and landed at an awkward and painful angle on top of the bed. Mark groaned and soon felt the mattress dip down, indicating someone else had gotten on the bed. He quickly tried to right himself, but was pushed back down by a finger longer and much more powerful than himself. He groaned at the hard poke to his side. This creature, Anti, did not know how to be gentle.

“Ya know, I’ve been watching you for a while. Through Jack’s eyes. I always found ya so interesting.” Anti’s face was very close now and Mark didn’t like where this was going. Not only was the guy a creep for watching him, but the emphasis he used on the word ‘interesting’ set a bad feeling deep in his gut.

“You’re so small,” Anti’s hand started toward him. “So fragile,” With his thumb and forefinger, Anti grabbed Mark’s middle and put a bit of a squeeze on it. Mark gasped and didn’t move in fear of Anti hardening his grip even more. Through the aching pain on his midsection he saw that Anti was looking at him with a slight look of disappointment.

“It’s too bad Jack was too nice to see exactly how far you could go,” The grip gave a sudden hard pinch and Mark heard a snap coming from his midsection. The fingers dropped their hold on him and left his person but the pain from the snap he had heard came at full force and Mark was in too much pain to care. He realized that the snapping had been one of his ribs.

“Good thing Jack isn’t the one in control anymore,” Anti laughed again and Mark looked up in fear as he held his side. Tear pricked the corner of his eyes and he let a few fall. Anti paused and looked down at him. One of his fingers moved over to Mark, carefully wiping the tears away. A smile on his face.

“Aww, don’t cry Mark. It’s okay. I’ll make sure Jack watches every single moment of this,” Anti laughed again and Mark curled in on himself in fear. The pain of his broken rib was now nothing in comparison to what Anti had just implied. He knew a broken rib would be the least painful thing Anti would do to him.

Mark’s screams continued throughout the night.

Chapter Text

The human was silent the entire ride to wherever they were going. Danny wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing but he was thankful all the same. Honestly he wouldn’t know what to do if the human started talking to him. But he knew he would have to face that bridge eventually. And probably sooner rather than later.

The human’s intentions were unknown to Danny and he trembled at the thought of what they could be. He hugged his knees, making himself seem smaller. He was reminded of the time Ross was bought. His only friend in that hellhole. After he was taken away Danny was up all night with the worst-case scenarios running through his head for his friend. Eventually Danny just had to accept that he was gone and he would never know what happened to him. It was sad but at least it helped him sleep at night.

The car hit a bump and sent his prison a good foot in the air.

“Whoa!” A giant hand moved over and placed itself on top of the glass, grounding it once again. “Sorry about that little guy,” The human said, giving him a quick glance that he assumed was supposed to be reassuring and then turned back to the road. Dan’s heart rate picked up and he cowered at the sight above him. He knew very well that a wall was separating the hand from reaching him, but it was made of glass. Dan could see every detail and felt weak in the impending shadow.

The car ride stretched on, Dan trying very hard to avoid looking at any part of the human. Eventually he figured out the best way to do that was to curl up, head in his knees. Not being able to see around him actually helped calm his nerves, if only slightly.

The car came to a slow stop. Were they here? A voice surprised Danny, one that was not familiar.

“Hello, can I take your order?” Danny kept his head down, but listened in. The human who had bought him answered.

“Yeah, hold on a minute,” Danny not only heard but felt the vibrations of a tap come from above. In surprise, he uncurled himself and found himself staring into the eyes of the human. A smile on his face.

“You want anything?” Danny blinked. Was he really asking him?

“W-What?” Danny asked in surprise. The human laughed.

“You know, food. Do you want anything to eat?” Dan wasn’t really sure what to do or say. He had never been offered the chance to choose what he wanted to eat. It was always the same at the tinies shop. He nodded, because actual food sounded great. But he kept his mouth shut because he didn’t even know what to ask for. The human seemed to pick up on this and bit his lip in thought.

“Does a burger sound good to you?” Danny wasn’t sure what that even was, but he nodded anyway. The human smiled. “Cool,” he turned back toward the window.

“Alright, I’m ready. I’ll have two burgers, a coke and a large fry please.” There was a short pause.

“Does everything look good on the screen,”

“Yep,”

“Alright that will be $10.23 at the first window,”

“Thanks,” The human went back to looking in front of him and Danny once again felt the car move. But this time it was slower and they stopped again fairly quickly. Dan looked over and could barely see another human past his human’s head. The tiny stopped for a second. Did he really call the human his human? He shook his head and ignored it, instead watching in slight fascination at the exchange going on.

The human handed a card to the lady at the window. A few seconds later the lady gave it back to him and then gave him a big white paper bag. The human thanked the lady and looked through the bag before nodding to himself and setting it down next to Dan, making him flinch. The human didn’t seem to notice though and before Dan knew it the car was moving again.

“We’re almost home, don’t worry.” The human said, glancing down at him before quickly putting his eyes back on the road. ‘Don’t worry?’ Dan thought. He was freaking scared. Who knows what was going to happen to him. ‘Although,’ he thought as he stared at the bag next to him. ‘Why would the human even ask for what he wanted?’ Dan was officially confused.

The car stopped again, this time permanently. He watched as the human took out the key and opened the door beside him. The human looked between him and the bag with a thoughtful expression.

“Now how am I gonna do this?” he muttered to himself. He reached down with both hands, grabbing his cage. He tensed and did his best to not get caught off balance. Thankfully the human was being careful and so the ride was pretty smooth. The human shifted the cage around until it was being held under his arm, a hand holding the bottom. His other hand then grabbed the bag full of food and closed the door. As they headed into the house, Dan tried his best to push himself into the corner. Again, he didn’t care if a wall separated them. He didn’t want to be anywhere near the human’s hands.

When they got inside the human set everything down on what Dan assumed was the kitchen table. He gained his bearings and watched the human take out the food, one at a time.

“Man, I freaking love Wendy’s,” the human exclaimed out of nowhere, causing Dan to flinch. The human’s right hand then flew to the front of his cage and Dan pushed himself up against the far wall. The cage door slid open and Dan braced himself for the hand to reach for him. But to his surprise, the hand retreated and started unwrapping one of the burgers instead. Once it was out, the human held it out in front of the cage. Dan’s stomach growled and without really thinking about it, he started moving toward the opening. Just as he was almost there, the burger was suddenly whisked away, causing Dan to flinch once again.

“Uh-Uh, first you have to do something,” The human said, waving the burger in the air. Danny felt his shoulders slump. This was it, this was where his luck ended. The human was finally going to show his true colors. He steeled himself, waiting.

“You have to tell me your name.” Danny blinked in surprise. That wasn’t what he was expecting at all. He looked up at the human, his expression asking ‘are you serious?’ The human laughed.

“Would it make it better if I told you my name first? It’s Arin. Now what’s yours?” The tiny looked down.

“Dan,” He said softly. The human’s smile widened, eyes shining. He set the unwrapped burger down in front of him.

“Nice to meet you Dan. Bon appetite.” Arin quickly started ripping into his own food, which Dan did his best to ignore. He stared at the burger. Waiting for the catch. After a few moments, Arin noticed that Dan hadn’t moved.

“Dude, it’s going to get cold if you don’t eat it soon.” Dan, startled, looked up at Arin before looking back at the burger. He took a few tentative steps toward it before glancing back up at Arin. Arin watched him, a look of slight amusement on his face. Dan stepped out of the cage and stood in front of the burger. The food was bigger than he was, but then again what wasn’t. As he looked it up and down, figuring out a way to eat it, a large shadow passed by overhead. Dan cowered and watched as an arm stretched above him. The cage behind him was then picked up, like it was nothing.

“Sorry, but I don’t really think it would do us any good if you kept running back into this,” Arin stood and put the cage on the nearby counter before taking back his seat. Danny took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself. So far, it wasn’t working much. Arin seemed to notice this.

“Dude, chill. It’s okay,” Dan blinked at his words and looked up at the human, who was giving him a laid-back smile. Now Dan rarely got angry or upset, at least never the type of angry or upset where he blew up. But the overwhelming amount of just everything finally crashed. Words started flowing from his mouth before he could stop himself.

“Chill? Chill?! How am I supposed to chill when I am in the presence of a literal giant! A human, who could do whatever they wanted and I couldn’t stop them! I am completely out of my element here; I don’t know you! I don’t know what’s going to happen. And you definitely aren’t helping! So, don’t tell me to chill!” He breathed deeply, tears threatening to spill. His rant a mixture of pent up anger, frustration and sadness.

His eyes widened when he realized what exactly it was that he just did. He just blew up on a freaking giant. One that could do anything to him as he so graciously pointed out. He looked down, refusing to meet what was sure to be the human’s angry gaze. Another babble of words spilled out of his mouth. This time soft and panicked.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t m-mean it. I—“ Dan was cut off as a shadow engulfed him. His head shot up and was met with a hand heading right for him. Dan tried to back away, to turn and run. But the human was too fast and he soon found himself inside the hand. Thick fingers wrapping around his tiny thin frame. He found himself being lifted into the air and he struggled with all his might, though he knew it was useless.

He was brought chest level to the human. Dan shook and continued to look down. He really didn’t want to see the human’s anger. He noticed the human’s other hand reach up toward him and Dan shut his eyes waiting for the pain. To his utter shock though, all he felt was a finger ruffle his hair. His eyes opened and he looked up. Instead of the anger he expected, Arin’s face was calm and sympathetic.

“Okay, so maybe chill was the wrong thing to say,” he said and the fingers let go. Depositing Dan on the palm of his hand. “But I also said it’s okay, and I mean that. I know your scared and that’s cool, it’s fine. It’s going to take a while to get used to this. For both of us. I want us to be friends dude.” Danny blinked. ‘Friends?’ He thought. ‘Not pet?’ He bit his lip and nodded.

“I’d like that,” Dan said softly, feeling his hopes rise. Arin laughed and set Dan back down on the table, next to his burger.

“Awesome dude, now eat up. I’m sure your pretty hungry after everything,” Dan heard his stomach rumble and nodded vigorously. This time they both dug into their food, Dan settling on ripping small pieces from the burger and making a mini one that was easier to eat. Dan still avoided looking at Arin as he ate, however. It was very unsettling, seeing someone eat pieces as big or even bigger than you.

But even so, Dan felt actual real hope for the first time in a long time.

Chapter Text

Dan was crying. He was sat in his closet, alone, head in his knees crying soft tears. He made sure his cries were more or less silent, though. He didn’t want to wake up Phil. He breathed heavily, tears running down his cheeks and onto his pants. How could he have been so careless? He was so stupid; he was supposed to protect Phil not—

“Dan?” Dan froze as a soft voice called his name. The closet door edged open, just barley an inch. But it was enough and Dan watched Phil squeeze himself through. Phil looked up at him and Dan looked away. But his eyes couldn’t help but wander over to Phil’s bandaged arm.

“You should be resting your arm,” Dan muttered into his knees. Phil frowned at Dan’s current state. He looked to his bandaged arm and then back up to Dan. The tiny walked over to the human with no hesitation. Dan, however, flinched.

“It was an accident Dan,” Phil said, placing a hand on Dan’s leg. Dan’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head.

“I should’ve been more careful,” He mumbled, his tears continued to fill his eyes. Phil sighed. He was never going to get through to Dan this way. He had to make him realize that it wasn’t something to be upset over. He looked Dan’s leg up and down. It wasn’t that big of a climb at all, especially since his legs were bent. He flexed his hand and winced. His arm still hurt, but he could make it. He had climbed with worse injuries before. (Not that Dan needed to know that).

He gripped Dan’s pants leg and started to climb. He felt Dan tense and freeze as he made his way to the top of his best friend’s knee. He pulled himself up and sat down, crisscross, staring up at Dan. Dan on his part, was doing his best not to freak out while Phil was climbing him. Usually he would have given him a hand, but as it was, he was a little afraid to even touch him at the moment. He didn’t want to mess up again and get Phil even more hurt.

“Dan, look at me,” Dan did and Phil gave him a smile.

“It’s fine. I’m okay, you didn’t mean it,” Dan shook his head.

“I should have been more careful. I freaking sprained your arm Phil! How is that okay!” Dan let out a loud sob and buried his head in his hands. The fact that he hurt his best friend, it just made him feel the worst. Phil was silent and he thought over what to do. He sighed, before standing and taking a hold of Dan’s black shirt. He opened his arms as wide as they could go and plopped himself over as much of Dan’s chest as he could reach, which wasn’t a lot.

Dan stopped his cries and looked down as he felt the weight on his chest. Phil was hanging from his shirt, arms spread, hugging him.

“I forgive you Dan, please forgive yourself,” Phil said as he hung on. Dan felt the tears, but they were there for a whole new reason. The fact that Phil wasn’t scared of him, and forgave him even after Dan hurt him. With shaking hands, Dan scooped up Phil. Before returning the hug. Phil smiled and gently rubbed Dan’s chest in a comforting way.

“You made a mistake, I’m not going to hold you accountable for it. What kind of best friend would I be if I did that?” Phil asked. Dan laughed and hugged Phil a little tighter, though Phil could tell he was still being extra cautious.

“A reasonable one?” Dan came back with. Phil laughed, seeing the joke behind it. He felt more than heard Dan sigh.

“Thank you Phil,” Phil smiled and Dan finally broke the hug by pulling Phil away from his chest and up to his face. Phil saw Dan hesitate for a moment before his other hand came up and gently lifted his sprained arm.

“How’s your arm feeling?” He asked and Phil flexed his muscles. He shrugged.

“Still hurts, but not too badly. Shouldn’t take long to heal,” Dan gave a small smile and nodded.

“Still, we should get you back to bed. You really need to rest it or it will never heal,” Dan stood, cupping his hands to ensure that Phil wouldn’t fall, and walked out of the dark closet. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the brightness.

“It’ll be fine. Trust me, I’ve had worse and I was still climbing,” Phil said before he realized his mistake. Dan’s eyebrows raised in shock.

“What?!”

“Nothing, your right. I need to rest!” Phil laughed nervously and Dan shook his head, moving over to the bed. He would coax it out of Phil later. For now, they both needed the rest.

Chapter Text

Dan sighed at the amount of work sat in front of him. Sometimes it put him off on becoming a lawyer, but he was determined to help tinies, just like Phil. Speaking of Phil, the tiny was standing on the bed next to him and his book. Helping him out.

“Maybe if you changed that answer around a bit. It’s kind of choppy,” Phil said, pointed to the sentence in question. Dan shrugged and went to change it, realizing Phil was right when he read it back to himself. Phil reread it when he was done and nodded in approval. Dan smiled, before frowning once again when he realized how much more he had left to get through. He groaned and flopped his head onto the bed, shaking it and forcing Phil to try and keep his balance.

“This is going to take forever!” Phil went up and pat the side of his head in comfort.

“But you’re doing great! How about a few more questions and then we take a break?” Dan looked at Phil, who was eye level with him at the moment. He glanced at his work before lifting his head up.

“Okay,” he said in defeat. Phil grinned and walked back over near the book. Dan read over the next problem and reached over for his pencil without looking. His hand grabbed something, but it wasn’t the pencil.

“Dan!” Phil’s panicked voice made Dan drop him, thankfully onto the bed. His eyes focused away from his book and onto Phil, who was sat on the bed holding his arm. A wave of guilt and panic swirled in Dan’s gut.

“P-Phil! I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” He hovered over him, but didn’t touch him. He kept his hands at a distance. Phil nodded, still rubbing his arm.

“I’m fine, I think. Just my arm…” he trailed of and Dan practically jumped of the bed, but made sure not to jostle Phil too much.

“I-I’ll go get something to wrap that with,” He stuttered and went to go find the first aid kit. Phil watched with sad eyes, knowing Dan was beating himself up for the mistake. Phil knew that it was an accident but Dan wouldn’t be so forgiving to himself. Dan came back with a small bundle of gauze and scissors. Without a word, Dan cut pieces small enough and left them next to Phil to wrap around his arm. Phil did so, and soon his arm was wrapped. The tiny looked up at the human with a smile.

“Now let’s finish up your work,” Phil said, trying to move past what just happened. But Dan just shook his head and placed all the books and papers on his desk.

“N-no you should rest. We can finish tomorrow or something,” Dan said, mumbling the last part. Though Phil still caught his words. With that Dan muttered a ‘goodnight’ and exited the room, moving into the hall. Phil sat there for several minutes waiting to see if Dan would come back. When he didn’t, Phil sighed and started using the sheets of the bed to climb down. However, with his probably sprained arm, it took a while to make it to the floor. Once he did make it though, he headed toward the hallway. He wasn’t about to leave Dan like this.

Chapter Text

Nate finished his glass of water, letting the last few drops fall onto his tongue. He smacked his lips and kept hold of the glass as he watched Mat run around the table trying to come up with stuff for his new theory. Now Nate loved helping Mat out. Seeing Mat excited about learning something new or figuring something out always made him excited too. But right now, he was just plain bored. The only thing Mat was doing right now was pacing up and down the table right in front of him.

Nate sighed and lifted the glass, staring through it and looking right at Mat. A mischievous smirk appeared on his face as a playful idea came to mind. With careful and silent ease, he placed the glass overtop of Mat. The tiny didn’t notice until he smacked right into the side of it.

“What the…?” He rubbed his head and Nate laughed. Mat looked up at him with an annoyed glare.

“Seriously?” He said in a flat tone. Nate continued to laugh.

“Sorry, sorry. Couldn’t resist,” He took the glass off of Mat.

“Thank you,” He said and got back to his thinking. He had to find a way to work around a certain fact or the whole theory fell apart. Nate watched as Mat picked back up his pacing. With the mischievous glint in his eyes still present, Nate waited before placing the cup on top of Mat once again. Nate laughed harder than before when Mat smacked into it yet again. Mat sighed in annoyance.

“Nate!” Nate finished up his laughter, it ending with a few last snickers.

“Sorry, I’ll stop. I promise.” Mat gave him a look, one that said ‘I don’t trust you’ but he got back to his thinking anyway. Nate on his part had no intention of stopping and instead waited for his next chance. He got ready to lower the glass again, but Mat had been watching out for it this time. He ran and the glass caught empty air.

“Hey!” Nate laughed. He stood up from the chair, and lifted the glass again. Trying to pick out a chance to trap Mat. But Mat kept on running zigzags around the table. The tiny was smart.

“Stop moving!” Mat dove out of the way of the glass and continued to run.

“I don’t think so!” Suddenly the top of the glass was right in front of him and Mat ran right into it. The cup was tilted and Mat fell to the bottom in a heap. He glared at Nate through the glass.

“Gotcha! Finally,” he laughed and shook the glass slightly. Mat huffed and crossed his arms, making Nate laugh even more. He was so cute when he was angry. He tilted the glass once again and Mat rolled out onto Nate’s palm. The tiny gathered himself.

“Why?” Mat asked in irritation, arms folded. Nate smiled and gave a small shrug.

“I was bored. We’ve been doing this for hours now. Let’s take a break!” Mat sighed and unfolded his arms.

“Fine, but not until I figure out this last fact,” Nate groaned and Mat expected to be put down. Instead, however, Nate perked up and grabbed the laptop, typing with his free hand. Once he was done, he grinned and brought the hand holding Mat up to the screen.

“There! Now we can take a break!” Mat looked at the screen with wide eyes. Nate had typed out a perfect solution to his problem. He was shocked and looked back up at Nate, who was still grinning. Mat couldn’t help the small smile appearing on his own face. He chuckled quietly.

“Alright. I guess that works,” he said jokingly. The two of them knowing Nate had hit the nail on it. Nate stood and brought Mat with him into the living room.

“Video games here we come!”

Chapter Text

Danny had quickly learned that he loved video games. Though he couldn’t really play them himself, it was always fun to watch Arin do so. Especially with the older ones. For some reason those happened to be his favorite. He was lucky Arin had so many.

They had very quickly made it a thing. Where they would play video games together for a few hours every day. It was nice and they had some great conversations that way. They both had learned a lot from each other and Danny found himself being less and less scared of the human. Something Arin had noticed and was happy about as well.

They were in the middle of this routine of theirs. Danny had picked out a game called Sonic the Hedgehog earlier for Arin to play. Arin had been hesitant to play it but eventually gave in. Danny even heard him mutter something along the lines of ‘why do I even have this’ under his breath, but he ignored it. He was interested to see what this game had in store.

The first part of the game went by with no troubles. Arin had even poked fun at the character known as Dr. Eggman. Which Danny laughed at and agreed on. As the courses continued, Arin started to complain more and more about the game. For the most part, Danny laughed at Arin’s struggles. It was kind of funny to watch.

But at one part in the game, Arin kept dying over and over. He couldn’t get passed the course for the life of him and that was where things had turned sour. Danny really should have been expecting it with Arin’s complaining, but he didn’t.

“What the hell?!” Arin suddenly screamed at the game, followed by a string of colorful cuss words. Danny jumped and flinched back at the pure angry tone of the human. He had never seen Arin this angry before, and it continued as Arin died again.

“Come on! Are you kidding me?!” Arin continued to yell and Danny couldn’t stop the small whimper from escaping. Somehow Arin had seemed to hear him and looked over at him, eyes hard. Danny flinched again and moved so far against the cushion he was practically begging for it to swallow him. The tiny was about ready to bolt. Arin’s eyes widened and softened as he realized what he had done.

“Oh crap, Danny wait—“ Before he could finish Danny climbed down the side of the couch and bolted underneath it. The dark, closed off space allowing him some comfort. Danny’s breath was panicked and he heard the game pause. Silence filled the room and after what seemed like hours, but was in actuality only a few seconds, Danny saw Arin get up off the couch and crouch down. A brown, guilt filled eye soon became visible.

“Danny?” Arin’s tone was soft, a complete 180 to what it had been a few moments ago. Danny swallowed down a lump in his throat, but couldn’t find it in him to move. Arin sighed.

“I probably should have warned you how angry I can get at video games, huh?” Arin said and Danny couldn’t help but laugh slightly. Arin turned serious.

“I’m really sorry for scaring you,” Arin looked down at the carpet. Seemingly entranced by it. “I understand if you want to stay under there or want me to leave or something,” Arin sighed. At the sound of a cough, he looked up to find Danny right in front of his face. He still seemed closed off, but a small smile was on his face.

“It was an accident. Besides, I just realized how dusty it is under here. That and I’m not going to make you leave your own living room.” The tiny explained, rolling his eyes. Arin smiled and backed away from the couch so Danny could walk out into the open. Arin started reaching for Danny, but halted when he saw Danny flinch. Even though he tried hard to cover it up.

“Sorry,” Danny apologized and looked down in guilt. Arin shook his head.

“You don’t have to be sorry. I should be sorry. This is all my fault. Me and my stupid anger problems,” Arin sighed and plopped down onto the floor in front of Dan. Arms far bigger than Danny supporting his head. Danny kicked a piece of the carpet and chuckled, looking up at Arin.

“I think we both still have some issues we need to get over,” Arin nodded in agreement and turned his head toward their paused game. Danny followed his gaze.

“Maybe we should put Sonic on the shelf for now,” Danny suggested and Arin nodded.

“That sounds like a stellar plan. Let’s make it better and go get something to eat as well,” Arin added and Danny laughed.

“Sounds perfect.” Arin moved his hand, this time being extra slow and setting his hand down in front of the tiny. Dan, for his part, didn’t flinch and stepped on with only slight hesitation. They both smiled at each other. They still had some things to work out, sure, but something told them that they would get through it. Together.

Chapter Text

Nate really was desperate, wasn’t he? To go this far in order to escape. But he was. There was no question there. He had been here longer than he could remember. A time when he wasn’t, just distant memories. His family, he couldn’t even remember his family. It had been so long. Were they dead? Alive? Did they miss him?

The last few years had been filled with nothing but pain. So much pain. He just wanted it to end. He just wanted to rest. So why wouldn’t he take this chance? It would be so easy. Mr. Mason wasn’t here, nobody could stop him. It would just take one step…

Nate suddenly scrambled away from the edge of the desk. His heart was beating fast and his breaths quick. A hand gripped his chest. What was he thinking? Death wasn’t the answer, it never was. But he had almost—

Nate’s legs shook underneath him and he collapsed onto the desk. Tears pricked the corner of his eyes. He wouldn’t resort to that, no matter how bad it got. There had to be a reason he survived this long. It was painful but he had to keep going. For what? He wasn’t sure. But he had to.

He would find another means of escape. Someday.

Chapter Text

No, no, no, no, no, Mr. Mason thought as he scrambled around his classroom in search of the tiny. He had only been out for a second. Not to mention the thing had been locked in a drawer during that time. It couldn’t have just up and disappeared on him.

He was growing incredibly more frustrated the more time he spent searching. It was only 4 inches tall for pete sakes. It couldn’t have gone that far. He had to find it. He couldn’t let it get away.

An hour of searching under every desk and chair and in every corner of the classroom left him with nothing. It was clear the tiny wasn’t in the classroom anymore. Mr. Mason let out a cry of frustration as he practically fell into his chair. His forehead hit the table and his hands clawed at his hair.

He sat up as a thought occurred to him. Sure, the tiny wasn’t in his classroom anymore. But there was no way it had managed to get out of the school. With a smirk on his face, Mr. Mason exited his room and headed down towards the Principal’s office. He would get that tiny back one way or another, and when he did he would make sure to put it in something a little more secure than a drawer.

Chapter Text

Mark pressed himself up against the wall, breathing heavily. His heart pounded in his chest at the close call. He risked a glance around the corner of the coffee maker to see the human, Jack, going about his business in the kitchen as if he hadn’t just almost crushed him with a jar of mayonnaise.

Of course, the human didn’t know about him, so the blame really fell on Mark. But screw that, he was going to blame the human for this. He watched the human go through the cupboards, most likely looking for something to eat. Mark glanced at his exit, a hidden door a good few feet away from where he was. And in order to reach it he would have to dart out into the open for a second. But he couldn’t exactly do that while the human was this close.

Jack started humming to himself as he lathered a piece of bread with some mayonnaise. As he made up the rest of his sandwich he realized he had forgotten to put on some coffee. He sighed. He had wanted his food and his coffee done at the same time. Oh well. He went over to the machine and grabbed the side to fill it with water.

Mark ducked and cowered as low to the ground as possible when he saw Jack coming toward him. His hand coming dangerously close as it wrapped around the container to take it. It was just his luck that the human wanted some coffee right this second. He heard the sound of the water running, filling up the container. It was quickly shut off though, and Jack made his way back to where he was hiding. He held his breath as Jack put in the grounds of his favorite coffee.

The machine started and Jack looked back at his sandwich. Stomach growling, he went ahead and took a big bite out of it. He licked his lips and started putting some stuff away as he waited.

Mark wanted to turn away, but found that he couldn’t as the human took a bite almost as big as he was. The tiny shuddered in response and watched in disgust as he could plainly see the piece of food travel down the human’s throat. Finally, he teared away from the scene and did his best to forget what he saw. But with something that big and horrifying, it was proving to be hard.

Jack finished putting his things away just as the coffee beeped at him to signal that it was ready. With a big grin on his face, he took the kettle and poured his sweet coffee into his mug. He could already feel the heat emanating off of it. With his coffee in one hand and his sandwich in the other, Jack headed back into the living room to finish his show.

Mark practically collapsed in relief when Jack had finally left and wasted no time in running to his exit. As he made it into the walls he allowed himself to stop and breath for a moment. That had been the closest he had been to the human, while awake at least. And he had almost been crushed and caught. Mark rubbed his eyes, tired from the whole fiasco. He decided it would probably be best to stick to nights to go out and collect supplies. There was no way he could go through that again.

Chapter Text

It started with fear. A fear of the unknown and a fear of the giant human who had become his ‘owner.’ He had been young when he was bought, only seventeen years old. He had grown up in the tinies shop and didn’t know anything else. Almost everything terrified him at first, but none more so than the human. Phil—the human had introduced himself as—was taller than even most humans. In Dan’s eyes, Phil was just another human. The horror stories he had heard from the other tinies in the shop would flood Dan’s mind. Scaring him even more. It took a while for Dan’s fear to die down.

Then came doubt. The following months after they had first met, Phil had proved himself to be a friendly spirit. He was slow and careful with Dan and never got angry. He also didn’t treat Dan as a pet, but instead as a friend. It was nice for Dan until thoughts of doubt seeped its way into his brain. What if Phil was just toying with him and any minute he would turn against him and all those horror stories Dan had heard would come true? During this time, Dan was constantly tense around Phil. Dan’s doubt went away soon after it had settled in, though. After a particular situation (but that was a story for another time).

A few years later and worthlessness settled inside of Dan’s heart and mind. Phil had been so good to him the past few years, even going out of his way for some things. Dan didn’t deserve him as a friend. Phil was being so good to him and Dan couldn’t do anything in return. Dan went into a slump for a few weeks. His mind racing with those types of thoughts. Luckily Phil had taken notice of Dan’s slump and they both had a talk about it. The conversation ended with the worthlessness Dan felt shrinking down to nothing.

Finally, there was happiness. Cut to present day and every morning Dan was waking up with a smile on his face. Him and Phil were in complete sync with each other, to the point where others thought they could read each other’s mind. Dan was no longer the scared doubtful kid, or the somewhat depressed person he was a few years back. Dan, along with his best friend Phil, were the happiest they could possibly be. And Dan wouldn’t change a thing.

Chapter Text

Honestly Jack didn’t couldn’t even remember how the argument had started. But knowing them it had probably been about something stupid. The only thing he did know though, was how it had escalated. So much so that it basically had them shouting at each other. Throwing insults at each other left and right. Until it went a step to far.

“I wish I had never bought you!” Mark had yelled. At the time, they both had frozen after his words. Mark seemed shocked at what had come out of his mouth and Jack did as well. But Jack’s shock quickly turned into a mixture of anger and sadness. He ran, ignoring Mark’s calls to ‘wait’ and ‘come back’. He now found himself under the bed, huddled near one of the legs.

He was sure Mark hadn’t meant it, but it had still hurt. He was happy here, with Mark. If Mark had never bought him, who knows where he would be right now. Maybe the tinies shop still and maybe somewhere even worse. No one could say and he did not feel like going down those rabbit holes.

Jack heard Mark’s footsteps enter the room. He looked out to see that he had stopped in the center. Jack scooted a bit more behind the wooden leg, but he was still visible if Mark decided to check under the bed.

“Jack?” Mark’s voice rang out across the room, asking to know where he was. His voice was soft and Jack could clearly detect the guilt. Jack thought about answering, but decided against it. Instead, he listened to Mark as he continued.

“I’m sorry. I was mad and I wasn’t thinking when I said it. I’m glad you’re here.” Mark paused and Jack saw Mark shift his footing. “I’ll be in the living room if you need me.” He said after a few minutes. He turned around, but stopped when he reached the door.

“I’m really sorry,” he said again and then left the room. Jack let out a shaky breath and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. He was thankful to Mark for leaving him alone for a bit.

He stayed there for another few minutes, before rising to his feet and heading in the direction of the living room. Someone needed to know that he accepted their apology. And he needed to apologize as well. Because though they had ups and downs, neither of them wanted to give any of this up.

Chapter Text

“I am not wearing that,” Dan said as he stared at the abomination in front of him. Phil pouted, holding the small sweater between his fingers. The two of them had been invited to a Christmas party by a few of their friends. Phil had then taken it upon himself to go and buy them some new Christmas jumpers online to wear. Unfortunately, Dan hadn’t been there when he did, something he was regretting now.

“What!? Why not? It’s nice,” Dan stared at him and then back at the jumper.

“Phil the party isn’t an ugly jumper contest,” Phil gasped and held the tiny piece of clothing to his chest.

“It’s not ugly!” Dan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He stared up at Phil again.

“You are wearing your contacts, right?”

“Yes!” Dan tilted his head.

“Then you just have terrible taste in jumpers,” Phil’s eyes widened.

“Dan!” Dan chuckled at Phil’s reaction, but quickly put focus back on the jumper. There was no way Phil actually found the sweater nice looking. It was the definition of an ugly jumper. Mismatched and ugly colors--there was a yellow-green puke-ish color for pete sakes--an awful, busy design. Overall, Dan hated it.

“Please wear it?” Phil asked, pouting. Dan sighed.

“Why do you want me to wear it so badly. I have other jumpers I can wear.” Ones that he actually liked. Phil looked to the side and sighed before going over to his closet and pulling out an exact copy of the jumper in front of him, only human-sized.

“I might have accidentally bought us these and I can’t return them. I thought we could look ugly together?” He shrugged and Dan’s eyes widened.

“So you do think it’s ugly!” Phil rolled his eyes.

“Of course I do. I mean, I like color and festive settings, but even this is a little much.” Dan raised an eyebrow.

“Well, if you hate it so much why don’t you wear another one. We both have other jumpers,” Phil suddenly looked sheepish and Dan fought the urge to facepalm.

“What did you do?” After spending seven or so years with Phil, it became clear he was very clumsy. Heck, it became clear in the first day he was clumsy. Dan crossed his arms, awaiting the human’s explanation.

“I might have accidentally ruined all my jumpers,” he said, holding the ugly jumper tightly to his chest. Dan blinked and then through his hands up in the air.

“How did you manage that!” Phil winced.

“I tried washing them all and put it on the wrong setting,” He dug deep into his closet and brought out a tattered piece of cloth. Dan barely recognized it has one of Phil’s old jumpers. He winced at the damage.

“Well then,” he shook his head. “Only you Phil,” Phil laughed and Dan cracked a smile.

“So, your whole reason for trying to get me to wear it is so you won’t be the only one with an ugly jumper?” Phil nodded. Dan sighed and held out his hand.

“Gimme,” Phil’ eyes widened in surprise and he smiled.

“Really?” Dan smiled.

“Yes really, if you have to look ugly then we’ll look ugly together! Now give it to me before I change my mind.” Phil laughed and handed Dan the jumper, who put it on over his tee-shirt. He looked down at it.

“I mean, it’s actually not that bad…” Phil had just finished pulling on his own jumper. He gave Dan a look.

“Yes, it is,” Dan laughed.

“No, yeah, it’s awful.”

Needless to say, they were big hits at the party that evening.

Chapter Text

Mat smiled as he walked down the hall of his home. The year had been a stressful one, with everything that had happened with Nate and all. But it ended happy and that was all anyone could hope for. Though Nate was still scared of humans, he was safe. And that’s all that that really mattered.

And now it was only a few days until Christmas. Mat was excited to celebrate Nate’s first Christmas. It was sure to be a very interesting one. Now all that remained was for Mat to figure out what to get the tiny. He had been going back and forth on ideas all week, but he still hadn’t decided on the perfect gift. He was running out of time.

“We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas,” Mat stopped as he came across Nate’s bedroom door, a voice coming from it. Curious, Mat opened the door a crack and peeked in. His eyes scanned the room before resting on Nate, who was seated on the bed, eyes closed.

“We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.” Though Nate was small, his voice still echoed clear as day. For a few moments, all Mat could do was watch and listen.

“Good tidings I bring to you and your kin. Glad tidings for Christmas and a happy New Year.” Mat had never really heard Nate sing before. He knew Nate liked to hum to himself, especially when he was nervous. But Nate’s singing was amazing. Unlike anything Mat had heard before. He smiled and closed the door softly, leaving Nate alone.

As he continued his walk to the living room, he realized what the perfect gift for Nate would be. He grinned as a took out his phone, looking it up.

***

“Merry Christmas!” Mat said as he brought Nate into the decorated living room. Nate had recently gotten a lot better with physical contact, at least from Mat anyway. Nate rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and blinked at the bright colorful lights lining the tree. But he managed a small smile.

“Merry Christmas,” For Nate, this was a miracle. For the first time in a long while, he was spending Christmas with someone he trusted and who actually cared about him. It was a nice feeling that warmed his chest in a way it never had before. Mat set Nate on the ground and sat cross legged behind him. They were both facing the tree.

Mat’s arm reached over Nate and Nate was able to suppress the urge to flinch. He was getting a lot better at that after several months. Mat picked up a gift-wrapped box, roughly the same size as him and set it down in front of him. Nate blinked and looked up at Mat in confusion.

“For you, good sir.” Mat said with a smile on his face. Nate’s face got red and he smiled. He hadn’t been expecting a present.

“But I didn’t get you anything,” He said sadly, his smile replaced with a frown. Mat laughed and pushed the present closer.

“It’s okay, I don’t really need anything else.” Nate being safe was enough of a present for him, although he kept that bit to himself. Nate bit his lip but stood up and started tearing into the gift. It took some help from Mat but eventually he was able to get it open. He peeked inside the box and his mouth dropped open in shock.

“What?” Nate blinked and rubbed his eyes some more, to make sure what he was seeing was what he was actually seeing. A tiny guitar, the perfect size for him, was staring up at him from inside the box. He heard Mat chuckle and he looked up as a hand pinched the guitar between its fingers and hoisted it out of the box. Mat held it out for Nate to take. Nate hesitated before taking the guitar into his own hands.

“I walked in on you singing a few days ago,” Mat started, grabbing Nate’s attention. “You were so good, amazing even. And I know how much you’ve been into music lately.” It was true, any chance Nate got, he was looking up different kinds of music, though he seemed to have taken a special liking to rock. Mat smiled down at the tiny.

“I figured if you had a guitar you own size you could create your own music.” He finished with a shrug. He felt something collide with his knee and looked down to see Nate hugging him. With a smile, Mat took Nate into his hands and held him against his chest.

“Thank you,” Nate said softly. Mat blinked away the tears that started forming. He was not about to cry, not yet anyway. Christmas had just started. Instead, he laughed and set Nate back down. Handing his guitar back to him. Nate took it graciously.

“How about testing it out?” Mat suggested and Nate nodded, looking excited. With a deep breath, Nate held his hand over the strings and strummed. A nice, melodic sound echoed around them.

“Wow,” Nate whispered. Mat nodded, agreeing with him. Mat watched as Nate fiddled around with his new possession.

“So, when can I expect you new album?” Mat asked with a grin, Nate looked up at him and surprised Mat with a smirk.

“Come on, I know I’m great and all but at least have some patience,” He said jokingly. Mat just stared at Nate for a moment, mouth open, before laughing. Nate joined in, albeit a little quieter.

“Nate, my friend.” He caught Nate’s attention again. “I think both our futures look pretty bright,” he said softly. Nate gave a small smile and nodded, agreeing with him. For the first time in a long time, he was excited to see what this new year would bring.

Chapter Text

Jack loved Christmas. Being with family, opening presents, giving presents. He loved the snow and just the entire feeling that came with the holiday season. And this year, it would be his first Christmas with Mark. He couldn’t wait for Mark to see what he had gotten him. He was so antsy he wasn’t sure he could wait the few more days left.

The Irishman walked through the house, searching for his tiny friend. Though the holiday was so close, Jack found it weird that Mark hadn’t mentioned it once. Maybe he didn’t know. Mark had told him a while ago that he didn’t have a very good sense of time. Apparently, borrowers didn’t have much use for dates. So, it was possible Mark didn’t know how close Christmas was.

Jack figured he was half to blame for that as well. He had yet to decorate his home. He had put up the tree, but he hadn’t had the time to decorate even that. It was no wonder Mark hadn’t mentioned anything.

Well, maybe they could do the decorating together then. Jack thought happily. He was sure Mark would love it.

“Mark!” Jack called out, after not seeing the tiny right away. Movement caught in the corner of his eye and he turned to see Mark, wrapping up his hook and string. Jack smiled and went to the table. He didn’t bother sitting, so he was currently looming over Mark. His shadow fell over him, covering the tiny in darkness. Mark tensed slightly, but quickly relaxed and looked up at Jack as he finished up.

“What’s up jolly green giant?” Jack chuckled at the nickname, running a hand through his green hair. It was pretty accurate, all things considered. He grinned down at Mark and the tiny raised an eyebrow. Jack only grinned like that when he had an idea.

“We’re going to decorate the house!” He threw his arms up excitedly. Mark chuckled, always amused by Jack’s enthusiasm for things. He hooked his climbing gear to his belt.

“What’s the occasion?” Jack blinked. He thought Mark would get it after he mentioned decorating. He guessed he would just have to go outright and say it.

“Christmas! It’s in a few days!” Jack waited for the moment where Mark’s eyes would light up with remembrance and be just as excited as he was. But that didn’t happen. Instead, all he got was a look of confusion.

“Christmas?” He asked. By the way Jack had said it, it was clear he had expected Mark to know what that was. But Mark was currently stumped. He noticed the way Jack’s mouth dropped open.

“You don’t know what Christmas is?” He asked in barely a whisper. It was the quietest Mark had ever heard him talk. He shook his head and he heard Jack gasp.

“I’m not really in tune with the holidays that humans celebrate,” Mark explained. It was the same as his lack of time. Dates and holidays weren’t all that important to people who were just trying to survive. He didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but Jack looked mortified.

“You have no idea what Christmas is!” Jack shouted. Mark didn’t even bother covering his ears. Too used to Jack’s loud voice. He shook his head and it looked as if the human was about to have some sort of attack. “It’s a holiday, celebrated in winter!?” Jack tried. This time Mark looked thoughtful.

“A holiday in winter…?” He murmured to himself. His eyes widened as his brain connected a few dots.

“Oh! I think I know what you’re talking about.” Mark said suddenly and Jack listened. “I’m still not sure what it is, but every year, during the same time, humans would decorate the house and sometimes the family would leave, other times more people would come. And they always got up early on a certain day and opened presents.” Jack smiled.

“Yeah, that’s Christmas!” Mark nodded.

“We didn’t really pay much attention to it though. The only thing that made it different than any other time was that humans were more likely to leave some special stuff out. We called it Borrowing Season.” He shrugged and Jack’s mouth hung open once again.

“So, you’ve never celebrated Christmas before?” Jack asked, already knowing what the answer was. Mark nodded and Jack’s eyes suddenly hardened. Mark took a step back at the quick change in demeanor.

“Um, Jack?” he tried cautiously. Jack looked at him and grinned.

“Mark, get ready. Because we are about to celebrate your first Christmas!” Jack threw his hands in the air, a look of determination on his face. Mark gulped, but smiled. As a borrower, they never really celebrated holidays, Borrowing Season was the closest thing they had. It might be fun to finally participate in a human’s holiday. He looked up at Jack and nodded.

“We’ll start by decorating and then we’ll bake cookies and you can help me wrap some presents!” Jack continued on his list, surprising Mark by scooping him up in his hand. Mark yelped as he was swept off his feet. He sighed and leaned against the fingers behind him. Mark smiled as Jack kept talking, bringing him towards the tree in the living room. He had been wondering why Jack had put a tree in the house.

As Jack continued talking, his enthusiasm rubbed off onto Mark. He had already known this year was going to be different. Being with Jack was different. But it was a good different and he couldn’t wait to celebrate Christmas with him.

Chapter Text

Arin grumbled to himself, arms crossed over his torso in an attempt to conserve body heat. This was one of the bad things about being a nomad—or excuse him, a wild tiny as the humans called them. Winter was not a kind soul to people only a few inches tall. He already had trouble staying warm when there wasn’t snow on the ground. Speaking of snow, the whole reason he moved to California was so he didn’t run into this problem. Guess global warming was real, go figure.

Though he complained about being a nomad, he still preferred it to settling down in some human’s home. He found the risk of getting caught too great, staying in one place like that. Which was why he couldn’t understand why his friend Mark decided to settle. And in Ireland of all places, dude wasn’t even in the US anymore. Whatever, he shook his head and hugged himself tighter, he couldn’t speak for his friend. Only for himself.

And at the moment he was ankles deep in snow and freezing his butt off. He needed to find shelter, somewhere warm, before he died of hypothermia. He trudged through the snow for another few hours before finally seeing a house in the distance. He sighed in relief at the thought of being able to feel his lower half again. He continued on, pushing himself just a bit more.

He finally reached the house and was thankful when he saw a way in right away. A little crack in the side of the house, too small for a human to notice but perfect for him to slip through. So, he did, lifting his feet out of the snow and sliding sideways into the small crack. Just as he had hoped, he found himself within the walls of the house. Unfortunately, the cold still nipped at him, making him shiver and putting his arms back around himself. He needed to go into the house more if he wanted any chance of getting warm.

He walked down the path the inside walls provided. His feet were numb, but he ignored it. It wouldn’t do him much good to stop here. He noticed how dusty it seemed around him, a good tell that nobody was here. It didn’t surprise him, though. There weren’t many borrowers left in the wild. Most of his kind had been captured way back when. It was a sad truth, one Arin put towards the back of his mind in favor of finding somewhere warm.

He saw light at the end of his path and found himself another crack in the wall. Before going through it though, he allowed himself a moment to rest and slid against the wall into a seated position. He still couldn’t feel his feet and that sort of worried him. Carefully, he took of his leather shoes and socks. He winced at the blue tint. That was not a good sign. He really needed to get somewhere warm.

He put his socks and shoes back on and slipped in through the crack. He blinked as he got used to the light and found himself on top of a desk inside a human’s room. He froze as he noticed the figure on the bed, but relaxed when he saw the steady up and down of the human’s chest. The human was fast asleep, laying on his side.

Arin collected himself and looked around the room for something warm, like a sock or something. But his eyes wandered back up towards the sleeping human. He bit his lip as a thought came into his mind. On how warm it must be right between the bed and the human. It was such a stupid idea, but the idea of warmth was just too good to pass up at the moment. Arin cursed himself and made his way off the desk and up the nightstand next to the bed. From there, he jumped the short distance and landed on the bed. He teetered slightly thanks to the uneven ground but was able to catch himself from falling over.

He was now incredibly close to the human and sleeping or not he realized what a bad idea this was. But he still found himself moving toward him, he could already feel the warmth the giant body was providing and it was heaven to his frozen state. Taking the risk, he laid down near the human’s chest and half wrapped himself in the blanket. Immediately he felt warmer and in that moment, he couldn’t bring himself to care that he was literally touching the human.

He yawned as the warmth seeped its way into his mind, making him sleepy. Not to mention he had been walking around in the cold for several hours. His mind started to drift away and his eyes closed slowly as he snuggled into the blanket and human. He would wake up before the human even knew he was there, he just needed a few hours.

With his plan in mind, Arin fell asleep.

***

Danny was not expecting to see a tiny when he woke up the next morning. But as he opened his eyes and looked down at the feeling of something small against his chest he saw him. A tiny, curled up against him and fast asleep.

He froze, not knowing what to do. He settled for looking over the tiny. He was definitely male, with medium length hair and a streak of blond amongst brown. He was wearing clothes that told Danny he made them himself. A wild tiny then, he thought to himself.

He continued to lay in bed for about another hour before the tiny started stirring. Arin yawned and stretched, forgetting where he was for the moment. His brain not quite awake yet. He blinked his eyes open, eyebrows furrowed in confusion when he was met with a weird wall. One that seemed to be moving. It took another second for his brain to catch up and his eyes widened. He sat up quickly and prayed to anyone listening that he hadn’t overslept. He turned towards the human’s face. Big brown eyes stared back at him through a mess of equally brown curls.

Well, he was screwed.

Danny noticed his expression, one of realization that was slowly turning into fear. He held his hands up in the air as a form of saying it was okay, but all he succeeded in doing was making the tiny flinch and scoot more away from him. Danny winced, never feeling so big in his life.

Arin was starting to panic and looked around widely for some sort of escape. He had to get away before the human could get his hands on him. But he was effectively trapped up there on the bed. He cursed his past self for the stupid decision he made. So far, the only good thing about it was that he was no longer cold. Although he would take being cold to being captured any day.

Arin knew it was pointless, but had to at least try. With quick motions, he stood on the unstable surface and did his best attempt at a run, away from the human. Danny, seeing this, instinctively called out.

“Wait!” Danny winced as he realized the loudness of his voice and Arin stumbled because of it. Losing his balance and falling into the soft mattress. Danny sat up a little more, looking over the tiny.

“Are you okay?” Arin picked himself up and glared up at the giant.

“Oh yeah, I’m just freaking peachy,” he was already at the mercy of the human, so he figured screw it. Nothing Arin said or did really mattered at this point. Danny blinked at the back talk he received and found himself smiling at the tiny’s attitude. Arin gave him a look.

“What?” Arin said rather forcefully and Danny coughed in order to cover up. He looked at the tiny, making sure to keep whatever distance he could and to not make any sudden movements. He didn’t want the tiny to run again.

“So, uh, what were you doing?” Danny asked rubbing the back of his head as he asked probably the most important question at the moment. Arin sighed, folding his arms. He didn’t really want to tell him, but he was still a bit wary of the human, even if he hadn’t been grabbed like he had been expecting. He shrugged.

“I was cold, you were warm. Simple as that.” He stated plainly. Speaking of the cold, already he could feel it starting to nick at him again. The human must not have the heater on. Danny blinked, it wasn’t that cold inside the house. At least not cold enough that the tiny would take the risk to sleep next to him. His eyes widened.

“Wait, are you saying you came from outside?!” Arin gave him a look.

“No, I came from a rift in space that opened up in your bedroom. Of course, I came from outside! What of it?” Arin replied, his sarcastic nature coming through. Danny, for his part, just looked at Arin in disbelief.

“But there’s snow outside!” Arin scoffed.

“I know, I moved to California to avoid this, not run into it. Figures, am I right.” He shrugged and Danny just continued to stare at him. Arin shifted his weight, uncomfortable in the human’s gaze.

“So, are you going to let me go?” Arin asked and Danny snapped out of his staring.

“What? You mean go back outside?” Arin nodded and Danny furrowed his eyebrows.

“Dude, it’s winter. There is snow outside! You can’t seriously want to go back out there!” Arin looked away. Truth be told, it was the last thing he wanted. But it was his only option.

“Of course, I don’t dude. But this is what I chose as my life and I’ve got to live with it.” Arin said. He’s been through a lot worse than a little snow. He could handle it. Danny looked toward the window, the sky was filled with dark clouds and a swirl of snow danced as it fell. It looked way to cold out there. He couldn’t let the tiny go back out there with a good conscious. But he didn’t want to force the tiny to stay either. An idea formed in his mind and he turned back to the tiny.

“What if we make a deal?” Arin raised an eyebrow, hiding his wariness behind an act of calm.

“A deal?” Danny nodded.

“I don’t want to force you to do anything, but it is really bad outside. So, how about you stay here. Just until winter is over and then you can be on your way.” Danny suggested. Arin’s eyes widened.

“And you’ll let me go? Just like that?” Arin asked, disbelief in his tone. A human didn’t just come across something like him and let them go. But this guy seemed serious. Danny nodded.

“Promise. I won’t even bother you while you’re here and you can help yourself to whatever I have.” Danny smiled and Arin could somehow tell that he was telling the truth. He couldn’t believe he was even considering it, but it seemed like a good deal. He would get away from the cold and have a constant food supply all winter. Something he didn’t usually get. He looked up at the human.

“Just until spring,” The human smiled and nodded. Arin bit his lip, taking another glance around the room. There was a reason he was a nomad, but his reasoning in this case was out the window considering the human already knew about him. And it did seem like he would keep his word and leave him alone. He sighed in defeat.

“Alright, fine.” Danny smiled, but kept back from making any exciting movements. Though the tiny was appearing calm, he knew there was an underlying of fear. He had seen it when he had first woken up, after all.

“Awesome! Oh yeah, I’m Danny,” The human introduced himself. Arin nodded and gave a small smile.

“Arin,” He shivered as a sudden cold washed over him and he looked up at Danny.

“Mind turning on the heater?” Danny’s eyes widened.

“Oh yeah! Right,” Being careful to avoid Arin, Danny got out of bed using the opposite side. He opened the door to his hallway and turned the heater on to a nice temperature of 75 degrees. He was smiling as he entered back into his room.

“There, all set. Should warm up the entire house here pretty soon,” He looked toward the bed and his smile dropped as he saw Arin wasn’t there. He looked around the room, only to catch Arin on his desk near the wall. Arin turned to him.

“Don’t worry. I already promised I wasn’t going back outside.” He just needed to get away from the human for a while. Danny nodded and Arin slipped back into the crack in the wall. He had some exploring to do.

Chapter Text

Phil came home to a small box sitting on top of his desk. He couldn’t really say that he was surprised though. It was his 22nd birthday after all. His mom always got him something for the special day. She thought money was to impersonal. Phil kind of had to agree with her on that, and he always loved all her gifts.

Speaking of his mom, Phil heard a knock on the door.

“Come in!” His mom entered the room, a smile on her face. She went up to him and hugged him, Phil laughed and hugged her back.

“Happy Birthday!” They pulled away and his mom looked at the box.

“Have you looked at your present yet?” Phil shook his head.

“Not yet, I just got home.” His mom laughed and headed toward the door.

“Well, go ahead and open it. I’m going to get dinner ready. We’re having your favorite,” Phil smiled.

“Thanks Mom!” She closed the door behind her and Phil took a closer look at the box. It wasn’t wrapped like a normal gift and there were tiny holes cut into the top of it. He tilted his head in confusion, but shrugged. No use pondering over it when he could just open it.

He took hold of the lid and separated it from the rest of the box. It was discarded to the side and Phil took a peek inside the box. His eyes widened when he was met with a tiny, huddled in the corner.

“A tiny?” He bent down a little to get a closer look, but when he tried the little guy flinched and yelped, curling in on himself even more. Phil shot back, guilt starting to form from scaring him.

“Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” He tried. The tiny, though still curled up in the corner, lifted his head slightly. Brown, tear filled eyes stared back at him, making Phil’s heart swell. He wasn’t expecting a tiny and had only known this one for about five seconds, but he had a feeling that something great had already started in both of their lives. He smiled down at the tiny, it reflecting in his eyes.

“My name is Phil,” he said softly, trying hard not to scare the tiny again though it was clear the tiny was already very afraid. The tiny still looked up at him with eyes full of terror and a bit of Phil’s smile fell from his face. He really didn’t know how to handle this situation. He stared at the tiny and at the box he was in.

“You probably want out of that box, huh?” Phil asked and he watched the tiny carefully for any sort of reaction. The tiny gave a quick nod before his eyes widened and he shook his head no. A thoughtful look crossed Phil’s face and he understood the tiny’s quick change of mind. Yes, he wanted out, but he didn’t want to be handled. Phil could work with that. He picked up the box, noticing how the tiny braced himself against the wall.

“I’m going to tilt the box slowly, so you can get out. Okay?” He said, continuing in his soft tone. He hoped it was helping. He saw the tiny look at him with wide eyes and gave a very slow, very tiny nod. Phil smiled and did as he said he would. The tiny hit a few bumps but eventually made his way out of the box and onto the desk. He looked around the room and then up at Phil. There was still terror in his eyes, but Phil was pleased to see less than before. Even by just a fraction.

“There,” Now that the tiny was no longer curled in on himself he could get a proper look at him. He looked younger than him, by a few years at least. His hair was brown and swept to the side in almost the same way as his own and he wore an oversize grey shirt. Phil would have to go out and get him some proper clothes soon. He leaned down, but made sure to still keep his distance and he gave the tiny a kind smile.

“Phil! Dinner!” Phil straightened at the sound of his mom calling and he noticed the tiny flinch back. Phil stopped himself from yelling back, not wanting to startle the tiny any more. Instead he turned back towards the little guy.

“I’ll be right back,” He said softly. He was about to leave, but paused and bit his lip as he glanced back at the tiny. He didn’t want him to somehow escape and get lost and hurt somewhere. But he didn’t want to put him back in the box either.

“Hey,” He grabbed the tiny’s attention. “You’ll stay here right? I don’t want you getting hurt.” He noticed the tiny’s eyes widen. Then several moments of nothing before the tiny nodded ever so slightly. Phil smiled and nodded before leaving the room for good and entering the kitchen. He saw his mom loading up one of the plates. She noticed him and gave him a smile.

“I heard you talking in your room. Did you like your present?” Phil nodded but frowned.

“Yeah, but the poor guy is terrified. I feel bad,” His mom nodded and set down his plate in front of him.

“I noticed that while I was at the shelter. Poor kid, I knew he needed a good home. And what better home than here with you,” Phil blushed slightly but then looked at her in confusion.

“You got him from the shelter?” She nodded again and waved over to the counter.

“Yep, all of his information is in that folder. But there isn’t much. According to the workers there, he’s always been to terrified to talk to them.” Phil nodded. He looked at his plate and then back up at his mom.

“Can I…?” His mom cut him off.

“Of course you can. Just don’t mess up your room,” He blinked before smiling. He gave her a quick hug before grabbing his plate and the folder from the counter. As he opened his door he was actually a little surprised to see the tiny still there sat on the desk. He pushed the door open all the way and the tiny looked up at him, the fear still there. But Phil just gave him another kind smile and set down the plate of food on the other side of the desk.

“I brought some food for us. Hope you’re hungry!” He grabbed a small piece of his food and deposited it onto a napkin and set it in front of him. The tiny flinched and backed away in fear and Phil was quick to take his hands away. He then took a seat on the opposite side of the desk, not wanting to crowd the tiny.

He started eating and took a few bites before glancing back towards the tiny. He watched as the tiny cautiously approached the piece of food. His hand reached out and grabbed a chunk off the piece and then taking a small, hesitant bite out of it. Phil’s smile grew as he watched the tiny’s face light up and start to devour the morsel. He turned back to his own food.

“…Thank you…” Phil paused mid bite and blinked in surprise at the almost inaudible mutter. He looked at the tiny, but he continued eating. Not paying any attention to him. Phil hummed and smiled, knowing what he heard.
They both ate in peace.

Chapter Text

The first time Mat was in Nate’s pocket, he was surprised by the loud thumping coming from Nate’s chest. Nate’s heartbeat. After the initial shock, Mat actually found it comforting. Like he was being protected. But most importantly, he found it interesting. Thus, began his research on the heart.

As he researched, he found himself the most interested in the actual beating of the heart, rather than the structure and purpose. It became especially interesting when emotions were tied into it. The state of a person’s emotions or feelings could affect the rate of the heart. Some examples he gathered were if a person was scared, the heart rate would greatly increase. Sadness would lower the heart rate by a little less than normal.

Reading all about it was all well and good for Mat, but he wanted some hands-on work. He wanted to go out there and discover or test these things himself. So, he got an idea. Probably a dumb idea, but an idea.

It was dangerous to be near a sleeping human. But Mat was pretty confident in his own abilities as well as in Nate’s tendency to be still in sleep. He was sure everything would go accordingly. He really had no reason to fear. His heart beat a little faster from inside his chest, but he ignored it. He wasn’t focusing on his own heartbeat right now. Instead, he jumped about a foot and landed on the bed with a roll.

The room was dark but Mat was able to see fairly well. A few feet in from of him was flat ground before it swiftly rose up into a mountainous form. If he looked hard enough he could see the steady rise and fall of Nate’s chest. Taking a deep breath, he gripped the comforter and started his climb up Nate.

He made it to the top in almost no time at all. As he gained his bearings and balance, he found the constant rising and falling of the ground one of the weirdest things. He was forced to stand still for a few minutes in order to get used to it and finally he was able to walk to where Nate’s heart rest. The thumping from underneath made him shake slightly and Mat moved so he was now laying down on Nate’s chest. He put an ear up to the ground.

Nate’s heartbeat was slow and calm. Only beating roughly 36 beats per minute, instead of the usual 60. A decrease of 24 beats. Mat wished he had something to write with, but he would just have to remember it for later. It was definitely fascinating.

Suddenly, the heartbeat began to speed up, causing Mat to jump back in surprise. He heard a soft groan and looked up to see Nate, awake, and looking at him with a questioning gaze. Mat’s own heart rate sped up and he gave a sheepish smile.

“Hey Nate,” Nate blinked, still groggy from having just woken up.

“Mat? What are you doing?” A small blush found its way onto Mat’s face and Mat was glad for the cover the night provided.

“Just an experiment,” he mumbled, but in the quiet room, it was easy for Nate to pick his voice up. He raised an eyebrow.

“An experiment?” Mat nodded and placed a hand onto Nate’s chest, right over his heart.

“About heartbeats and stuff. Ya ’know, um… well sorry for waking you up. I’ll just go now.” He wasn’t sure why but he found it embarrassing to be caught and explaining himself didn’t make it any better. He stood quickly and was about to climb down when Nate’s hand came out of nowhere and scooped him up. He gave a small yelp in surprise and was brought in front of Nate’s face. An amused smile played on his lips.

“Heartbeats huh? Sounds cool. You’ll have to tell me about it in the morning.” Mat’s eyes widened and he gripped Nate’s thumb, which was positioned across his chest. He wasn’t weirded out? And was Nate really interested in what he had to say? He knew the human was different, but… his thoughts trailed off as Nate yawned and brought his hand to his chest. He didn’t release him yet, though.

“But I need sleep right now and so do you. So, goodnight,” Nate laid Mat down on his chest and used his hand as a blanket for Mat. Nate’s eyes closed and Mat shifted, not knowing what to do.

“Um, Nate?”

“Go to sleep Mat,” Nate said tiredly. Mat blinked and laid his head down. A thumping could be heard and Mat realized Nate had put him over his heart. Mat smiled and settled down. The beat of Nate’s heart lulling him to sleep.

“Goodnight Nate,”

Chapter Text

Jack groaned as he looked around the kitchen, trying to find a stupid clip for his bag of chips. He knows he keeps them in here. Somewhere. He pulled open the next drawer, looking through the cluttered mess. Sighing, he closed it. That was the fifth drawers he’s looked in already. He only had one more drawer. He looked at the top drawer before opening it slightly and sticking his hand inside. Feeling around, hoping it was in this last drawer.

As light flooded the darkness and a giant hand stuck itself inside, Mark flattened himself up against the wall. Petrified and not knowing what to do. He had decided to go out a bit earlier against his better judgement. But he had convinced himself that it would only be a quick run. All he needed was some tape, which was kept in the top drawer closest to his home. Jack was not supposed to come in while he was trapped in the drawer.

Mark watched as the hand made contact with the wood bottom and started moving, looking around and feeling things as if it were its own creature. Mark was helpless as he watched the hand steadily get closer and closer to where he was.

He looked around at the contents of the drawer, wishing he knew what Jack was looking for. Because if Jack couldn’t find it, two things could happen. One, his hand would reach Mark and capture him in his grasp. Or two, if somehow Mark was able to escape that fate Jack would open the drawer to get a better view and discover him and he would most likely end up in that grasp anyway. This was currently a no win situation.

But then, a miracle happened.

“Freakin’ clip. Where are ya?” Jack muttered and Mark wasted no time in looking around him. A white clip lay not a few inches away. Glancing back at the hand, Mark grabbed the clip and pushed it in line of the hand. He then quickly retreated back into the corner. He watched as the hand touched it, wiping a finger across to make sure it really was the object the human was looking for. And then, quickly and with no warning or hesitation, the hand snatched the object up. The clip disappeared from sight as the hand closed around it and it was soon whisked away.

“There it is! Finally…” The drawer closed and Mark waited until the footsteps faded before collapsing in a heap onto the ground. His breaths were rabid as he thought back to what he had just witnessed. How easily the human was able to just pick up the clip and whisk it away when it had taken all of Mark’s strength to push it over there. How that could have easily been him, grabbed and trapped in a hand far bigger and more powerful than him.

After his first close encounter with the human, his brain went wild with entertaining the idea of him being caught. He had come up with so many unwanted scenarios. Ones he severely hoped never came true. But he was sure that after tonight he would be having some more of those unwanted scenarios through nightmares. Joy.

His only comfort was that it was just that, a nightmare.

Mark calmed all the way down and pulled his pack back up onto his shoulder. He had already gotten the tape, there was no need to stay in the drawer any longer. He wanted to get home, back to the safety of the walls where there was no chance of being caught.

Chapter Text

Arin gasped for breath as the rat had him pinned. Its jaws snapped at him, wishing for a taste. Arin did his best against the giant pest and managed to hit it in the eye. The rat stumbled off of him, temporarily shaken by the attack. Arin tried to take this opportunity to leave, but a short jolt of pain from his side stopped him.

Looking down he saw that his shirt was torn and a huge gash trailed across his side. It was dripping with blood that fell to the ground in a small puddle and Arin cursed the rat’s sharp claws. Tearing his eyes away from the wound, he watched the rat as it shook of his attack.

It growled at him and moved toward him slowly. It seemed to be slightly cautious of him now, knowing he could fight back, but it was still more than willing to continue to try and make a meal out of him.

Using the wall as support, Arin stood, grabbing the thumbtack he had been using before being knocked down and holding it out in front of him. No way he was going down without a fight. He was about to show this rat what he was made of.

The rat lunged with its right paw and slashed him across the arm. It teared his clothes and drew more blood. Arin grunted and with his other hand, slashed the rat’s face with the tack. The rat screamed in pain, a sound that ran across his spine and made him shiver. It backed away as it clawed at its face and for a second he thought he won. But instead of turning tail and running away, the rat swung his claws at him again, aiming right for his face. This time though, Arin was able to deflect it. Using his tack and knocking the paw away from him.

Arin formed a tiny smile as him and the rat faced off. Arin was breathing heavily, already pretty tired and worn, especially from his injuries. But the rat was to. All he needed was to get in a few more hits and the fight would be his. He positioned himself into a stance and held the tack out in front of him like a sword. He was just about to push off the wall and lunge at the rat when a voice broke out overhead.

“What the…!?” Both Arin and the rat tensed up as a shadow fell over them. The rat hissed up at the human, but when a hand started coming down, the rat ran away. Back into the hole that led inside the walls. Arin distantly wished he could do the same as the hand carefully scooped him up. He sat in the center of the palm as he was brought up to Danny’s face. He was met with a look of worry.

“Holy crap Arin! Are you okay?” Danny’s eyes switched between his injuries, his concern growing the more he inspected them. Arin grumbled, not liking being under the human’s gaze.

“I could have handled it myself.” He grumbled, but as the adrenaline from the fight started to wear off, he felt tired and weak. He quickly realized exactly how much his injuries were affecting him. He had already lost a lot of blood. And the pain seemed to be hitting him at full force now. Maybe it was a good thing Danny had intervened.

“Those don’t look good,” Danny’s thumb came up to the injury on Arin’s torso and touched it gently. Arin hissed in pain at the contact and the thumb swiftly moved away.

“Let’s get you patched up,” Arin wanted to argue, but at the same time didn’t have the energy for it. So, he just nodded and allowed Danny to carry him over to the table. He was set down on the table top and he watched as Danny left to go get the first aid kit.

Danny practically ran back as he gripped the kit in his hands. The look of worry on his face was slowly making Arin realize how badly this was affecting him. Why did the human care about him so much? It’s been a mystery to him since he came to this house a couple of weeks ago.

“Alright, I’m gonna have to have you take off your shirt.” Arin did as told, managing to get it off without jostling his injuries. He winced as he took in what was left of his shirt. He would definitely need a new one. He tossed the shirt aside and turned his gaze back towards Danny, who was just now putting some rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball. Arin winced, knowing it was going to sting. Danny started coming toward him with it, but paused.

“May I?” Arin blinked, shocked by the question, and nodded. Danny gave a soft smile and started cleaning his wounds. Arin hissed as the alcohol stung, but didn’t struggle. Knowing this was what he needed. It only took Danny about two minutes to clean both his wounds. After he was done, he took out some gauze and scissors. Cutting the cloth into small pieces. Before he had a chance to try and put them on him though, Arin stopped him.

“I think I can do this part myself.” Danny gave a sheepish smile and handed the gauze over to Arin. It was a bit difficult, but Arin managed to wrap both his injuries. Arin relaxed slightly, already feeling better.

“Why did you think it was a good idea to get into a fight with a rat!?” Danny asked suddenly and Arin looked up at him.

“I didn’t want to. It’s not my fault the house has rats,” Danny’s expression changed from angry concern to guilt.

“Oh no. You’re right. I’m so sorry Arin. I’ll have to do something about that…” he trailed off, probably trying to come up with ways to get the rats out. Arin sighed, feeling his own guilt starting to seep in.

“It’s not your fault either. But yeah, a way to get rid of the rats would be nice.” Danny looked at him with a small frown, the concern back. He leaned in close, but Arin managed to stay where he was. The human looked to the side before glancing back at him.

“If you ever need help, all you have to do is call. I don’t want you getting hurt again, okay?” Danny blushed, slightly embarrassed by his own words, but meaning them all the same. Arin sighed, but gave a small smile.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll keep that in mind,”

Chapter Text

“Tell me where we’re going again?” Mat asked from his spot on Nate’s shoulder. Nate glanced up at the rearview mirror, eyes locking with Mat’s for a second before turning back toward the road.

“We’re visiting a friend of mine,” Nate answered. “We play D&D together on occasion. She’s super nice,” Mat tilted his head in confusion, not sure what D&D meant. He decided to lodge away that question for another time.

“Not that I’m not grateful for you taking me along, but why?” If Mat was being honest with himself, he was still pretty afraid of humans. Nate, was of course, fine for the most part. He had gotten used to Nate over these past few months, but even then, there were times when he still scared him.

“Because you’re too sheltered and need to get out more. Meet new people.” Mat hummed and gave Nate a look, Nate pretended to not see but his smile gave it away.

“Besides, like I said, she is super nice and sweet. Everything will be fine,” Nate said, having picked up on his friend’s trepidation. Mat nodded, still not sure, but feeling slightly better after Nate’s reassurance.

“And would you look at that. Looks like we’re here!” Nate pulled over and parked on the side of the road, in front of a fairly normal looking house. It was on the small side, but it looked comfortable and inviting. Mat gripped tight on Nate’s shirt as Nate got up and out of the car. The car door shut with a loud bang, making Mat wince. He hated loud noises.

Nate walked right up to the door and knocked. It was silent for a moment before a distant voice coming from inside called out.

“Coming!” It was another moment before the door opened up, revealing a woman with short pinkish-purple hair. Something Mat had never really seen before. She wore a bright smile as she took in who was at the door.

“Nate! So, glad you could make it.” Nate laughed.

“Same here, it’s been a while.” She nodded and moved out of the way, motioning inside with her hand.

“Well, come on in.” Nate did so, scooting his way through the doorframe. The woman closed and locked the door behind them and Mat took this opportunity to look around. It was a normal looking place, much like the outside, except for the cages and other things around. They were empty, and Mat had to wonder what they usually contained. His attention was turned back to the woman when she came closer, eyes now on him.

“And you must be Mat. Nate’s told me about you! I’m Holly, nice to meet you.” Her voice was soft and lowered in volume. Something Mat was grateful for. She held out a hand and Mat stared in confusion at it before realizing what she meant by it. He held out his own hand and Holly engulfed it with her forefinger and thumb. Her touch was gentle and it lasted no more than a second before she pulled away.

“Let’s head to the kitchen, I already have lunch all set up for us,” Nate followed her to the kitchen, Holly going straight for the oven while Nate placed Mat down on the table before taking a seat himself. As Holly opened the oven, a delicious aroma wafted through the air.

“What is that?” Mat asked, consumed by the smell. Holly turned around, oven mitts off. She smiled.

“It’s vegan chicken. I’ve also got some potato salad to go along with it.” Nate leaned down towards him, answering his question before he had a chance to ask it.

“Holly’s vegan, meaning she doesn’t eat anything made from animals,” Mat nodded, thankful for the bit of insight. Holly nodded along in agreement.

“Well, the food needs some time to cool down. Should be done in just a few minutes though.” She took a seat next to Nate.

“So, how has Paultin been doing?” Nate smiled.

“Good, good. And Strix,” They struck up a confusing conversation on Mat’s end. So, Mat just tuned out and instead decided to look around a bit more. A squawking sound suddenly sounded from nearby and a sudden mass landed next to Mat. He flinched and backed away, getting a better look at the thing in turn.

It was a bird. A colorful one, and one not much bigger than him. Its wings fanned out before settling against its side. Mat had to admit that it was beautiful, but he wasn’t that big of a fan of animals in general, for obvious reasons.

“Oh! There’s my little birb,” Holly said in a sweeter version of her already sweet voice. She reached down a hand and stroked the side of the birds face with a finger. The bird leaned into it, happy about getting scritches. Holly turned her gaze to Mat, who was a good few feet away from the bird.

“It’s okay Mat, he won’t hurt you.” Mat looked at the bird, who looked back at him. No one could blame him for being cautious. Like he said, animals tended to see tinies as either food or playthings. But if Holly said it was alright, then maybe he would give the bird a chance. As he headed over to the bird, he realized how much trust he already had in Holly. Guess there was just something about her.

He approached the bird, a hand held up in front of him as he did so. The bird tilted its head and hopped closer to him. Mat stopped, before braving the last few steps to the bird. His hand touched the space right above the beak. Mat froze for a moment, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, he decided to move his hand around. The bird leaned into it and Mat smiled.

“See, looks like he likes you!” Holly said and Nate gave him a thumbs up before they returned back to their conversation. Mat continued to pet the bird, letting his hand move down the side of its neck. Looks like this little bird wasn’t bad at all. Of course, he would still be very weary of any other bird. Just because this one was nice and liked him didn’t mean the next one would.

Now that he was no longer scared, he was suddenly excited at the opportunity to study the bird up close. Especially its wings. He walked to the side of it and was gentle in lifting the birds wings up. It was a bit difficult at his size, but he managed. It also helped that the bird cooperated. He fanned out the wing, captivated. An idea started forming as his eyes danced across the wing. Of a working set of wings of his own. Now that would be awesome.

Mind made up, he memorized the design of the wing. He got the side down, but he would need a top view in order to be the most accurate. He rubbed the bird as he climbed on top of its back.

“Alright little birb,” he said as he did so, using Holly’s word from before. “I just need to get a top view, okay?” He settled down on top of the bird and reached over to pull out its wings when they unfurled themselves. Mat smiled.

“Oh, thanks I…” He trailed off when realization struck him. His eyes widened.

“Wait wait wait, no no no no,” He tried, but it was too late. With the bird’s wings unfurled, it took off into the air. As if Mat had no effect on it at all. Mat screamed and Holly and Nate turned in horror as they saw Mat going for a joy ride.

“Mat!” Nate yelled and both him and Holly took off after them. The bird flew into the living room and Mat started slipping. He tried to grip tighter, but to no avail. As the bird took a sharp turn, Mat fully lost his grip and started free falling towards the floor. He screamed, expecting to hit hard floor but was pleasantly surprised when instead he landed on a familiar surface.

“Gotcha!” Both Nate and Holly yelled close to the same time. Nate looked over to see Holly was gently cradling the bird in her hand. Nate turned his attention back to Mat.

“Mat? You okay buddy?” Mat calmed his breathing and looked up at Nate with a smile.

“Not gonna lie, that was actually pretty fun.” Nate stared at him, before letting out a little laugh of disbelief.

“Yeah, well you’re definitely never doing anything like that again.” The tiny laughed sheepishly, hand rubbing the back of his neck. He probably shouldn’t tell Nate about his idea for the wings just yet then.

“I’m going to go put this little guy back in his cage,” Holly said, grabbing their attention. “And then we can eat!” Nate and Mat looked at each other and smiled.

“Sounds good!”

Chapter Text

The phone rang, jogging Arin out of his sleepy state. He set his breakfast aside and took out his phone. Squinting his eyes in order to read who was calling. His eyes widened and he was suddenly very much awake. A smile broke out on his face and he finally answered the ringing phone.

“Hey man!” Danny stared on in confusion. His own breakfast set aside. He had to wonder who it was to make Arin react like that. If he strained his ears, he could hear a very quiet voice, but he couldn’t make out the words.

“Wait, you’re coming back today?” Arin took a glance at the calendar on the wall nearby.

“What time?” Arin listened and nodded to himself. Danny wished he could hear the other person.

“Alright, see you then.” He hung up the phone and Danny could no longer contain his curiosity.

“What was that about?” Arin’s eyes focused on him and a look of surprise appeared on his face. As if he had forgotten Danny was there.

“Oh right. That was a good friend of mine. He’s been out of the country for a while, but he’s finally coming back.” He pushed his cereal back towards him.

“He was supposed to come back next week though. I guess he decided to come back a week early.” He shrugged and took a bite. Danny tilted his head in confusion.

“Why was he in another country?” Danny was always both jealous and impressed of the way humans could get to places, quick and easy. At least compared to people like him. Arin swallowed another bite and hummed to himself. He shrugged again.

“Not sure, never told me.” He had thought it strange at the time. His friend leaving the US all of a sudden. But he had just figured it was his business and all that. Now that it was brought back up though. Arin was interested to find out the reason.

“Guess we’ll find out. He’s coming over later today,” Danny faltered in his movements of grabbing another piece of food. He turned to look at the human in front of him. A small frown on his face.

“Oh,” Danny wasn’t sure how he felt about meeting another human. Arin was more than enough to handle. Arin smiled at him in a reassuring way.

“It’ll be fine man. Like I would make you meet somehow who would hurt you,” Danny let out a little laugh. That was true, and he trusted Arin. Whoever this other human was, they couldn’t be bad if they were Arin’s friend. They both continued to eat in comfortable silence.

***

Danny and Arin were in the living room watching Rick and Morty when the doorbell rang. The show was paused and Arin stood up, heading towards the door. Danny didn’t bother trying to see, knowing the front door was out of sight. Instead he settled for listening. The door creaked open.

“Barry!”

“Arin! Man, it’s been a while.” Arin laughed.

“You’re telling me. Come on inside, there’s someone I want you to meet.” Footsteps echoed through the small hallway and Danny turned to see Arin come out first. He gave him a smile before coming over and picking him up. He gave a little yelp of surprise, but it was muffled by Arin’s hand. Barry followed close behind, but seemed to have missed what Arin had just done. He looked around the living room, expecting to see another person and gave a confused look to Arin when no one presented themselves.

“Who am I supposed to be meeting?” Arin sat on the couch and motioned for Barry to do the same. He did and Arin set his hands down on the table in front of them. They opened and Danny stumbled onto the table.

“Barry, this is Danny. Danny, my friend Barry.” Danny waved up at them.

“Um, nice to meet you,” A look of surprise flashed across Barry’s face before he smiled.

“Nice to meet you. I have to say I never thought Arin would buy a tiny.” As Arin laughed and nudged his friend, Danny noticed movement coming from Barry’s chest pocket. Barry seemed to notice too, and looked down, placing a hand on top of it. A faint voice came from within and Barry blinked, eyes wide, at whatever it said. Meanwhile, Arin gave him a strange look.

“Uh, dude?” Barry glanced at Arin and then at Danny. He smiled.

“Wow, what a coincidence,” He said in awe, shaking his head. He then scooped out whatever was in his pocket.

“There’s someone I want you guys to meet too. Though I think Danny already knows him,” Danny was confused until Barry opened his hand to reveal a very familiar face. Danny’s mind went blank.

“Ross?” The tiny in question smirked.

“Long time no--“ he was cut off as Danny ran up and hugged him. The smirk dropped from his face and he smiled, hugging back. Danny pulled away just as Arin finally shook off the shock.

“Ross? Wait, are you telling me that this is your friend from the tinies shop?” Danny nodded and Arin smiled and turned to Barry.

“You weren’t kidding, that is probably the biggest coincidence ever to happen,” Danny turned back to Ross.

“I don’t understand. How?” Ross chuckled and pointed up at Barry.

“It’s obvious now, but Barry was the one who bought me that day in the tinies shop.” Barry nodded and Arin gave him a look.

“I never knew you bought a tiny,” Barry gave a sheepish smile.

“Trust me, I was planning on it, but then some stuff happened.” Arin raised an eyebrow.

“What kind of stuff?” Barry turned toward Ross and he Ross motioned for him to tell.

“You know that trip I was just on? We actually went to Australia,” Arin was confused, but Danny gasped, hands covering his mouth and turned to Ross.

“You went home?” He asked softly. Back when they shared a cage at the tinies shop, they would talk a lot. Ross especially loved talking about his home country and his family who lived there. Those conversations were always bittersweet for obvious reasons. A captured tiny was more likely to win the lottery than to go back home. But Ross nodded, defying those odds.

“Yeah, I can thank Barry for that. He was the one who decided to take me back home,” Ross then smirked, sending Barry a sideways glance. “Though I’m sure he wasn’t expecting for me to come back with him,” Barry gave out a little laugh.

“Can’t say I was.” Both Arin and Danny gave a look to their two friends. Ross answered their questioning gazes.

“When I said that Barry was taking me home, I meant that he was taking me home.” Barry jumped in.

“After talking to Ross for a bit, I realized how far from home he was and how bad he missed it. I couldn’t keep him with a clear conscience.” Ross nudged Danny.

“Turns out not all human are bad,” Danny caught Arin’s eyes and smiled.

“Well I could have told you that,” They continued their story.

“The reason we were there so long was because it took us a while to find where Ross used to live.” Barry said and Ross shrugged.

“I told you, tinies don’t have a good sense of direction.” Barry gave him a look.

“No, I think that’s just you.” Danny laughed and Ross glared up at the human.

“Anyway, we kind of bonded over that time until eventually we found them. It was a nice reunion and I was happy to see everyone was okay, but I don’t know. I just couldn’t stay.” Barry smiled.

“Imagine my surprise when Ross comes up to me saying he was ready to go back home,” Danny awed and laughed when Ross glared at him.

“Well seems like you guys went through a lot,” Arin said after listening in silence the entire time. Honestly their story got Arin thinking. About Danny’s home. It’s been several months and he hadn’t thought to ask about Danny’s family. Great friend he was. Barry nodded at his statement.

“Yeah, but it was fun,” Ross smirked up at Danny.

“So, what have you guys been up to,” he asked, glancing towards Arin as well.

“Well—“ Danny started before Arin cut him off.

“How about we order some pizza or something first. I don’t know about everyone else, but I am starving.” Everyone paused before nodding vigorously and telling their orders to Arin. Arin wrote them all down and went to the kitchen to order. He paused at the doorway, watching his friends, but especially Danny. This was the happiest he had ever seen him. His smile turned into a frown as his thoughts went back to Danny’s family.

He would have to do something about that.

Chapter Text

Nate blinked at the bright light in the shop, eyes adjusting. It was currently 11:00 at night, and for some reason he found himself here. At the tinies shop. He looked around the store, it was a small one and practically empty save for the worker at the front desk. As he passed by he gave a polite wave, but the worker didn’t even look up from his phone. Nate huffed and continued walking towards the back.

As he passed he glanced into the tanks and at the tinies. Most were asleep, though not surprising considering what time it was. Nothing in particular caught his eye and he found himself stood there in the middle of the aisle. He sighed, rubbing his tired eyes. He wasn’t even sure what he was doing here.

A soft voice caught his attention and he slowly turned towards one of the tanks at the far end. He started over there, the voice growing in volume. Of course, it was still quiet compared to a human’s, but Nate could now make out that the voice was, in fact, singing. Nate recognized the song as one from the musical Rent, called Seasons of Love.

He peered in and saw the tiny who was singing. He was pretty good. From what Nate could hear, it seemed like he had a voice perfect for the theatre, soft but projective, even if he was trying to be quiet. Unlike his own voice, which was rougher and made more for rock. He smiled as he listened.

The tiny turned around and stopped as soon as he saw Nate looking at him. A look of fear appeared on his face, replacing the relaxed expression he had on just a moment ago. A slight blush also settled on his cheeks and he backed away, doing his best not to make eye contact with the human. Nate put on his best comforting smile.

“Hey, you were pretty good.” He complimented. The tiny glanced at him and they locked eyes before the tiny turned away again. Nate glanced around the tank this tiny was in, seeing that it was empty except for him. His eyes focused back on the tiny.

“You know I sing too,” He said, trying to strike up a conversation.

“Though I’m more of a rock man myself, I do enjoy the occasional musical or Disney song here and there.” He noticed the tiny was shaking and starting to curl in on himself. Nate bit his lip and looked around the shop helplessly before turning back towards the tiny. He decided to keep talking.

“I actually teach people how to sing and play instruments and on the side, I release my own music. Actually, the reason I’m here is to…” He trailed off, the reason why he was here suddenly smacking him in the head. Making music was great, but he was currently living alone at the moment. Other than the few clients he had during some days and his few friends, he hardly saw anyone. He hadn’t planned to take a nightly walk and come here to buy a tiny, but apparently, that’s what his subconscious was getting at.

And the fact that he had walked in on this tiny singing just screamed fate.

He smiled at the tiny and walked away, towards the front desk. Nate grabbed the worker’s attention and explained that he wanted to buy a tiny. The worker rolled his eyes but got up to do his job. Nate followed and muttered under his breath about how rude the guy was being. He pointed to the tiny he wanted and the worker went to the back to get a small carrying case. He looked in to peek at the tiny and was sad to see the amount of fear the tiny held. He hoped that wouldn’t be there forever.

The guy came back and set the carrier in the tank for the tiny to walk into. The tiny stayed put, not moving until he saw the worker’s hand start to reach inside the tank. The carrier was then locked and handed off to Nate.

Nate gripped the carrier, not expecting it to be handed off to him so quickly. As he walked to the front he glanced inside, seeing the tiny within cowering. Ignoring that for now, he paid and signed all the papers.

“Hope you enjoy your purchase,” The worker said in the most monotone voice and waved him off with his hand. Nate glared at him before exiting the store. The nighttime air was cool, making Nate realize how warm it had been in there. Glancing once more at the carrier, he headed home.

Chapter Text

Ross stopped his stirring to sigh as the liquid turned a bright green. Pretty, but not what he wanted. According to the book, the potion was supposed to turn a fiery red. Maybe he had missed something?

He left the cauldron and grabbed one of the many books scattered around on his table. This one had a nice maroon cover and a gold lining to it. It was one of his newer books, one he had gotten as a gift from the Queen. It had so many different recipes for potions, Ross hadn’t even heard of most of them. He had started to work right away on trying them all out.

Of course, some proved to be more successful than others.

He had a hard time explaining to the king why half the guards had suddenly turned into cats.

Ross flipped the book open, going to the page he had bookmarked. He quickly scanned through the page again. Rereading the list of ingredients and steps. He groaned and his face fell into the open book. He had all the right ingredients, but the wrong order. He really hated when that happened and it happened more times than he was willing to admit. Potions were such fickle things. They needed absolute precision or else it could all go wrong. It drove him crazy sometimes.

He shut the book with a loud thud and threw it back onto the table in frustration. He would have to start over now. And starting over meant emptying out the failed potion and gathering more ingredients. He could tell it was going to be a long night. Ross figured he should probably send a hawk to Holly to explain as much.

A knock sounded from his door and Ross turned a questioning gaze towards it.

“Come in,” he called out and the door opened to reveal one of the castle servants. He entered the room meekly, keeping his head down. Though Ross could see the servant’s eyes looking around his room wildly, as well as the tension in his shoulders. He ignored it, too used to the reaction. Instead his gaze and mind focused on the little wooden box the servant had suddenly thrusted in his direction.

“A gift from the King, Warlock sir.” Ross frowned at the use of his title—if it could even be considered that—but took the box and dismissed the servant. The boy seemed relieved to be out of there so quickly. Again, this wasn’t a surprise to him. Even his friends were a little terrified of him. He’d grown to accept it and even enjoy it, just a little.

He turned his attention back to the box. He had to wonder what on earth it was that the King would give him. He hadn’t asked for any new ingredients lately, and those usually came from the Queen anyway. Ross frowned. If this turned out to be another trick, King or not, Ross was going to turn him into a toad. His room smelt of skunk for weeks the last time he received a ‘gift’ from his highness.

He placed the box on his table, deciding to open it at a later time. Just in case it did turn out to be a gag. He really wasn’t in the mood to deal with something like that right now. He turned back to the cauldron, trying to decide if he should keep the potion or not. Though it wasn’t what he was going for, it could still be useful.

He turned back to the table to grab his book again, when he noticed the tiniest bits of movement. He zoned in on it, his gaze falling back on the small wooden box. The box was still and Ross figured he imagined it before it started moving again. Shaking just a bit. Ross gawked at it, wondering once again what on earth the King would give him. Especially if it was alive.

Curiosity peaked, Ross left the book where it was and moved back to the box. It was pretty small and if it was moving, the only thing that came to his mind was a mouse. Did the King give him a mouse to test on? Not finding any answers by just standing there and thinking, he promptly took the lid off the box.

He froze, shocked. He had been expecting a mouse not, what seems to be, a tiny person. His failed potion was now the furthest thing from his mind as he took in the tiny person, leaning down slightly to get a better look. The person—if he could call them that—was male, and had a head full of crazy brown curls. He seemed almost way to skinny for his own good, and was wearing clothes that made Ross think he made them himself.

It was then he noticed how bad the tiny guy was shaking and that he was being looked up at with fear filled eyes. He seemed to be trying his best at putting himself as far away from him as possible, though it proved fruitless with him trapped in the box.

“Well hello little guy,” Ross found himself saying. A neutral expression on his face. The tiny guy seemed to flinch at his voice and tried pushing himself more into the wall. With the shock of the tiny guy settling down, his thoughts moved towards the why.

“Now why would the King give you to me?” He stood up from his hunched position, giving the tiny person room to breathe. If it was a mouse he would have assumed the King wanted him to use it to experiment with. But there was no way that’s what the King wanted him to do with this tiny guy. The King could be a jerk sometimes, but Ross knew he had a big heart. So then, what?

Maybe it was a curse that he needed to lift? Ross shook the thought away. If it was that, the King would have told him personally instead of leaving him to figure it out. That and he didn’t feel an inkling of magic on the guy. Curses usually left a big imprint on the person, but he was clean.

“What am I supposed to do with you?” He said aloud, turning to look at the tiny guy still huddled in the corner of the box. The guy had barely moved, other than his shaking, but Ross noticed his eyes going back and forth between him and something behind him.

“What are you…?” He turned, trying to follow the tiny gaze and found himself staring at his cauldron. Bubbling with his earlier mistake. Something clicked in Ross’ mind. He was sure a good portion of the guy was scared of how big he was. But the other half seemed to be because he was a warlock. The servant who had given him the box had said as much. The little guy must have heard him and was now doubly scared of what was going to happen to him.

Ross couldn’t keep the smirk off his lips. He couldn’t help it. He was so used to people being scared of him that somewhere along the line he became amused by it more than anything else. Some people even called him a sadist, which he had to agree with, at least a little. Because he sure was about to prove all those people right with the idea he just had.

The warlock quickly and with no warning scooped the guy up and deposited him on the table. He made sure he was fairly gentle though. No matter the prank he was about to pull, he didn’t actually want him to get hurt. He wasn’t that much of a sadist.

He heard the tiny yelp and he stumbled as he was placed on the table. Ross loomed over him, the guy now in his shadow. The little guy started to back away, not taking his eyes off of the warlock. Ross placed a hand behind him, stopping him in his tracks and making the him tense up.

“We can’t have you running away now,” he said as he took his arm away. He reached the cauldron without taking his eyes off the little guy.

“Now don’t move, I have been dying to try this out on someone,” He saw tiny eyes widen and it seemed the guy was now frozen in fear. He grabbed the ladle and scooped up some of the green potion, filling it up to the brim. He then made his way back to the table. This seemed to jumpstart the little guy, as he started moving away. He was just about to break into a run (to where, Ross had no idea), but Ross quickly poured the potion on him. The guy stopped in his tracks as he was drenched in the green liquid and slipped, falling on his butt.

“No no no no no no!” Ross’ eyes widened as he heard the guy talk for the first time. He hadn’t even been sure if he could. He became even more surprised when the guy looked him in the eyes and spoke directly to him.

“What did you do!? What--?” Ross finally let out the laugh he had been holding in, startling the little guy and cutting him off. Ross sighed and leaned down so he was more level with him, and smiled.

“Relax, the potion was completely harmless. The most it’s going to do is make you smell good,” He watched as the tiny processed the new information. He examined himself and seemed to come to the realization that nothing was happening to him.

“See?” Ross said, still smiling. But the smile dropped from his face as the guy turned away from him, looking toward the ground and trembling. Ross caught the glint of tears rolling down his face and he bit his lip. He didn’t want to admit it, but he suddenly felt guilty for his little prank. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best thing to do considering the state the guy was already in. He sighed and stood up, catching the guys attention again. Ross grabbed a cloth and brought it back to the table. He set it down near the guy.

“I’m sorry,” he said and the tiny guy’s eyes widened. “I was just messing around. I’m not actually going to hurt you.” The guy blinked, then looked down toward the cloth. Ross watched and waited as he dragged the cloth over to himself and started drying himself off, slowly and cautiously, as though the cloth would be ripped from him at any minute. Ross couldn’t really blame him for feeling that way though.

“I’m Ross by the way,” He introduced himself. The tiny paused and looked up at him before turning away quickly and going back to drying himself off. Ross was surprised to hear a voice.

“I’m Danny,” Ross smiled and shifted so his head was being held up by his hand.

“Danny, huh? Well, nice to meet you.” They sat in silence as he watched Danny finish up. As soon as he became most of the way dry, he let the cloth drop from his fingers. Ross picked up the cloth and placed it somewhere else, to be cleaned later. He turned back to Danny.

“Now, I was wondering if you could explain to me why you’re here? And what are you?” A voice rung out, but it was not from Danny.

“I think I can do that,” Ross stood and turned to see the King in his doorway. He crossed his arms.

“Alright, Your Highness,” he said sarcastically. “Explain.” The King gave a small smile and walked over to the table. The door shut behind him. Ross noticed Danny giving the King a weary look, but it seemed to hold a lot less fear than it did for him.

“Well, first I should probably apologize. I should have explained things better to the both of you,” the King said sheepishly, taking a seat at the table. Ross followed suit, sitting at the opposite end, Danny stood between them.

“Arin, you didn’t explain anything to me. And the servant who came in here said you sent me a gift.” Arin looked even more sheepish.

“Yeah, that would be my fault as well. I didn’t want anyone else knowing about Danny, so I sent a servant to give him to you saying it was a gift. I think next time I’ll just bring him here myself.” A soft chuckle sounded out and they both turned to Danny. Danny looked up at the King, a relieved smile on his face.

“That’s a relief, I thought you were betraying me.” He said. “When I heard that I was a gift for a warlock, I just assumed the worst. The ‘prank’ didn’t exactly help.” Arin turned to Ross, who at least looked sheepish. He shrugged.

“I just wanted to mess with him a bit, besides I had no idea why he was here. Still don’t, are you going to explain that part or what?” Arin gave him one last look before nodding.

“Right. Well, Danny here is a type of fae called Alven. A wingless water fairy.” Ross raised an eyebrow and looked between Arin and Danny.

“Wait, he’s fae? But I don’t feel any magic coming from him,” Arin nodded.

“I’m getting to that part. Somehow, something took away Danny’s magic and without it, he’s pretty helpless. I happened to be out where he was at the time and he came to me for help. I promised we would do the best we could and I brought him here to be looked at by you.”

“You kind of left out that part.” Danny muttered. Arin apologized once again before turning back to Ross.

“Anyway, I want you to try and figure this out. Help Danny get his magic back,” Ross looked at him before a smirk crossed his face.

“Is that an order?” Arin smiled.

“Yep, now get to it. I also expect you to make Danny feel comfortable, because he’s staying with you.” Ross rolled his eyes, but nodded. Arin stood and turned to Danny.

“We’ll do the very best we can to help get your magic back.” Danny smiled, the fear from earlier seemed to be almost completely gone.

“Thank you, Arin.” Arin nodded and turned to leave. He stopped in the doorway and turned back to Ross one last time.

“And keep him safe. Don’t tell anyone about him, all right. The only ones who should know about this are you, me, and Suzy.” Ross nodded and bowed, though it was far from one of respect.

“As you wish, Your Highness,” Arin rolled his eyes before leaving the warlock’s quarters. Ross turned to Danny, who he noticed was fidgeting.

“So, can you really help me?” Danny asked, looking Ross in the eye. Ross bit his lip, before a small smirk landed on his face.

“Well, we can certainly try.”

Chapter Text

If you would have told Jack a year ago, that he would be captured and bought by a human. He wouldn’t have believed it. If you told him that he would end up calling the human family, he would have most definitely called you crazy.

But here he was. Currently sprawled out onto the hand of the human who had bought him so long ago. Mark was actually working, clicking things on the computer with his free hand that Jack didn’t quite understand. Jack himself was just relaxing. Mark’s hands were always warm, and incredibly comfortable. Not something he would have ever said a year ago. For a year ago, hands were nothing more than a danger, something that could snap you up in its fist and trap you, or worse, crush you. Now, Jack’s definition of hands, Mark’s hands anyways, was safety. Oh, how things have changed.

His eyes began to droop, but he caught it, blinking. He, however, couldn’t stop the yawn from escaping him.

“Someone sleepy?” Mark’s voice spoke softly overhead. One of his fingers nudged the side of his face and Jack pushed it away. The finger complied.

“Go to hell,” Jack said, no snark attached. Mark laughed, causing Jack to feel the vibrations and bounce slightly.

“Not sure why you’re so tired. I’m the one who’s been working all day.” Jack mumbled in response, waving a hand. Mark chuckled again, focusing back on his work. Jack lifted his face up, looking at the screen.

“Are ya almost done?” Mark’s eyes darted to Jack quickly, before turning back to the screen.

“Almost.” He said with a small smile. Jack hummed and flipped himself over so he was now laying on his back. He stared at the ceiling, listening to the clicks of the mouse. He closed his eyes, only to open them a second later when he felt a large presence over him. Sure enough, Mark was staring down at him, a smile on his face.

“Have a nice nap?” Jack rolled his eyes and sat up, rubbing away the tiredness in his eyes.

“I just closed them for a second.” He heard Mark hum and knew he didn’t quite believe him. Mark changed the subject.

“I’m all finished up for today. Feel like doing anything?” Jack plopped back onto his back.

“Something that doesn’t involve me getting up.” Another finger lowered itself and rubbed Jack’s side, but he allowed it this time. It had taken him a while to admit, but the petting and rubs were actually really nice.

“How about a movie?” Jack nodded and the finger lifted away. Mark stood and the hand Jack was in moved to his chest. Mark let Jack pick out a movie and they settled down on the couch. His other hand came upon Jack and started rubbing his back again. Jack smiled and leaned into the hand, relaxed and happy.

Chapter Text

Mark must have had a death wish. That was the only possible answer as to why he was doing this. That or he was just plain crazy, out of his mind. Maybe the loneliness was finally starting to get to him. Whatever the reason was, he found himself out in the open, in perfect view of the human. By choice.

He watched as the human slept on from his place on the nightstand. The steady rise and fall of the green haired man’s chest almost hypnotizing. The tiny wouldn’t deny that the human terrified him. He was big and loud and way too energized for Mark’s own good. Mark didn’t even want to think about what he would do with a tiny.

But, like this, when the human was sleeping and calm, it was different. Mark almost felt safe with him like this. It was like his fear was pushed aside for a moment. Not to say he still wasn’t scared, the human could wake up at any time after all, but the calmness that Jack was feeling in his sleep washed over Mark as well. It was nice.

After watching Jack like this for the past week or so, Mark had found out that Jack was pretty still when he slept. A huge contrast to when he was awake. The tiny would have assumed he would be fidgety, always tossing and turning. But nope, he probably saved all of that for when he was awake.

Jack let out a heavier breath than the rest and his chest hiccuped slightly. Mark stood, taking that as his cue to leave. The human wasn’t awake yet, but the process had started. He walked over to the lamps cord and took it in his hands. He sent one last glance towards the human before climbing down. Out of sight once again.

Chapter Text

Dan had gone back home for spring break, taking Phil with him. It was Phil’s first time in a long time out of the university campus. But he had to admit he was excited, mostly to see where Dan had grown up. Dan was a little less enthused, but still excited nonetheless. During break Phil would be meeting Dan’s family, but they wouldn’t be there until two days into the break. Until then they would have the whole house to themselves.

Phil couldn’t help but look around the house in awe and wonder as Dan entered with him on his shoulder. It was lot different than anything in the university building, that was for sure. It felt more homely and nice. Not like the feeling of stress and regret at the university. Dan went straight to his room and dropped Phil off on his bed before going to get his other stuff and make a call for some pizza for the two of them. It was during this time that Phil decided to explore.

He climbed down the bed and went underneath it, he figured it was better to not be in the middle of the floor. Just in case. It was dark underneath the bed, but Phil quickly adapted to the dark. He looked around, but there wasn’t anything interesting. Only a few socks and a lot of dust bunnies. He exited into the open and started climbing onto Dan’s desk. He always kept his string and hook on him, even now that he had Dan to help him out. He never knew when he would need it.

He was up on top of the desk in five minutes, he could have been a lot faster, but he had been busy looking around the room as he climbed up. He rolled up his hook and turned to look and see what kinds of things were on Dan’s desk. A few stray pencils here and there and what appeared to be an old notebook first caught his attention. He kicked a pencil and watched it roll off the edge. His eyes then wandered towards the rest of the desk.

He froze.

In the middle of the desk, pushed back slightly, was a plastic prison. A cage. A cage that looked to be all set up with bark lining the bottom and a water container hanging off the side. A small bowl was also pushed into the corner near the water, probably a food bowl. Phil’s mind shut down and he backed away.

Had Dan planned this? Get Phil to trust him, to get him home and put him in the cage like nothing more than a pet? No, that couldn’t be it. Nothing in the last few months had told Phil that this was the kind of person Dan was. But the cage was here. Ready and waiting for someone to occupy it. Phil’s mind kicked into overdrive and his brain wouldn’t allow him to think about anything else.

Dan came back in, having just hung up his phone he set it inside his pocket. He looked around the room, spotting Phil on his desk. He smiled.

“Pizza should be here in about 20 minutes. So what do you…?” Dan trailed off as he got closer to Phil, who looked panicked and backed away. Dan’s eyebrows furrowed and he tilted his head.

“Phil? What’s wrong?” He saw Phil shake his head and back away even more. Dan was incredibly confused, until he saw Phil glance back towards Suki’s old cage. Dan’s eyes widened as he realized what the tiny was currently thinking.

“No! Phil is isn’t what it looks like, I swear!” Dan hesitated only slightly before scooping Phil up in his hand. He squirmed and Dan had to cup his other hand around the other to make sure Phil didn’t fall. Phil looked up at Dan.

“Then why do you have a cage?” Phil asked, trying to calm down. Dan sighed.

“I used to have a hamster when I was little. Suki. She ran away and I thought I put her cage in storage. My parents must have put it in my room.” Dan’s eyes widened as a thought entered his mind and he glared at the cage. “I swear if they brought the cage out for what I think they did, I am going to have a serious talk with them.” He sighed.

“But seriously Phil, I would never put you inside a cage. Or do anything else you didn’t want to do.” Phil listened to Dan and finally calmed down enough to relax. He laughed and rubbed his eyes.

“Right, yeah I know. I just kind of lost it when I saw it and all…” He trailed off, slightly embarrassed about having read the situation wrong. Dan gave him a soft smile and set him back down on his desk, he then picked up the cage in his hands.

“I’m gonna go throw this in the bin. Be back.” He winked and left the room. As soon as he was gone, Phil laughed and collapsed onto the desk. He smiled to himself, not regretting his choice in humans whatsoever. Dan really was something else.

Chapter Text

Mark excitedly set the package he had just received on top of the kitchen table. He had ordered this a few weeks ago, without Jack’s knowledge, as it was a surprise. He ripped the tape off the top and opened it wide. His hand delved into it, pushing the packing peanuts away and bringing out a medium sized box. His hand delved deep again and this time he brought out a very tiny box, almost identical to the other medium sized one. Mark smiled, but jumped when a voice from behind startled him.

“What ya got there?” Jack’s voice called out. Mark did his best not to drop the boxes and sighed in relief when he succeeded. He placed them on the table and turned around to see Jack, on top of the coffee table in the living room. He was trying to peek around Mark, to catch a glimpse of what was on the table. Mark moved in front of the packages, blocking Jack’s view and making him pout.

“Nothing,” Mark said, making it clear that it was, in fact, something. Jack’s interest was now peaked.

“Come on! I want to see!” He was practically jumping up and down and Mark saw him start to get out his hook. Mark laughed and walked over, stopping Jack from fully taking it out. He kneeled down.

“Alright, alright. No need to go climbing all over the place.” He placed his hand, palm up, in front of Jack. Jack smiled and climbed on, using Mark’s thumb to push himself up onto it. He stayed standing as Mark walked back over to the table. When he was close enough, Jack jumped off Mark’s hand, landing on the table. He ignored Mark’s horrified gasp and went right to see what the packages were.

“Vive?” Jack asked, confused. The picture showed what appeared to be some sort of headset. Mark smiled and took out his phone. Jack watched as the human typed something out on it before lowering it towards Jack. Jack looked at the screen, only to see a giant play button. He glanced at Mark before pressing it.

“Introducing the new and improved Vive!” The voice in the video said, it was dubbed over a picture of the so called Vive. Jack watched on, confused.

“With the Vive, gaming is more realistic than ever before!” The video showed someone playing, and Jack looked on amazed. “You’ll feel like you’re actually in the game and now, we even have ones made for tinies. That’s right folks, now you’re pets can play along with ya!” Jack frowned at that, but ignored it. He couldn’t exactly change how society thought of his kind. All that really mattered to him was that Mark wasn’t like that.

“Get yours now!” The video ended and Mark took the phone away with a grin. Jack matched his expression.

“Wait. You actually got us a pair?!” Jack yelled in excitement and surprise. Mark nodded, he was loving Jack’s reaction to his surprise. He wondered how he would take to the other one. Heck, he was wondering how he would take to the other one.

“Yep. Now how’s about we set it up and play a little game?” Jack nodded vigorously.

***

The two Vives were all set up and Jack could barely contain his excitement. Mark sat with him on the floor as he finished putting together the headset. Jack had already completed that and had them in his hands, eager and waiting for Mark to hurry and finish already. Mark finally finished the adjusting and turned to look at Jack.

“You ready?” Jack nodded.

“I’ve been ready! You’re the one who’s taking his sweet time!” Mark laughed.

“Well let’s jump into it then. Go ahead and put on the headset.” Jack did as told, but he couldn’t see anything.

“I can’t see anything.” He heard Mark chuckle. “That’s because I haven’t turned on the game yet, doofus.” Jack huffed and then yelped when he felt the ground underneath him leave. He was swept up into a careful grasp, which was a lot more disorienting without being able to see.

“Hey!” Mark laughed again, but this time it was all around him. Shaking his core.

“Sorry Jack, but I figured it would be better for you to play on top of the table. Don’t want to accidentally step on you, ya know?” Jack shivered and wholeheartedly agreed. Mark finally set him down and he slipped onto the table, where he waited for Mark to boot the game up.

“What game are we playing anyway?” There was silence for a moment.

“You’ll see. Alright, it’s starting!” Jack blinked as the darkness lit up. A logo appeared, one he didn’t recognize before he entered a loading screen. There was no title or much of anything to give him any assumption as to what kind of game this could be. Finally it loaded and he was placed in a normal looking room. What was strange about it, was that the room seemed to be his size. Or maybe he was human sized. It was a strange feeling regardless.

“Mark?” They were supposed to be playing together, so where was he?

“Look down,” Mark’s voice came from above and to his right and he automatically looked in that direction before remembering that they were in a game. So he listened to Mark and looked towards the floor. He stopped short. Was that--? It couldn’t be.

“Mark?” Jack got down on his hands and knees and looked at the tiny figure on the floor. Which was impossible all on it’s own since Jack’s species were the smallest ‘people’ in the world. And the tiny in front of him looked like Mark.

“What the hell is going on?” Mark laughed and it was strange to hear it come from somewhere else than from the man on the floor.
“They’ve created a simulation in order for humans and tinies to see from each others perspective. I thought it would be cool.” Jack blinked.

“Holy crap.” Mark laughed again, though this time more sheepishly and Jack saw him back away a few inches.

“Is this how I look to you? Big and imposing and all that?” Mark had to ask. He left out the word scary, but they both knew it was implied. Jack shrugged.

“I mean, yeah, basically. Is this how I look to you? Just, small and fascinating?” Jack could now understand Mark’s fascination with him at least. Jack kind of wished he could take Mark into his hands, but all they could do in this simulation was look. He saw Mark nod.

“Wow,” Jack breathed out.

“Wow is right.” Mark agreed. “I didn’t realize it would be this realistic when I got it.” Jack chuckled.

“This is really weird.” They stared at each other for a little longer before Mark’s eyes lit up.

“Oh! And this isn’t the only thing we can do in here.” Mark said and before Jack could react there was a sudden white light, followed by a quick loading screen. It stopped and Jack was now facing a Mark that was his size. Jack’s mind froze.

“Holy crap.” Jack said once again. Mark’s own grin soon changed into shock as well as he took in Jack’s features on a normal human level.

“You’re eyes are really blue.” Mark said. Now that he wasn’t focused on how big Jack was, like before, and could actually see him clearly, it was all he could focus on. Jack blinked.

“Really? That’s the first thing you comment on?” Mark glared at him. “Alright, fine. You’re eyes are crap. Better?” Mark gave Jack a cheeky grin and Jack pretended to pout before breaking and laughing. Mark soon followed.

“This is amazing.” Jack commented when they both calmed down. Mark nodded and once again stared at Jack, taking in all his features.

“I don’t even know how to explain it.” Jack nodded.

“Yeah, seeing ya like this. It’s…” Jack trailed off, trying to think. “Nice.” Mark gave a small smile.

“Yeah.” They both stayed in the game for a few more minutes before Mark took off his headset. Jack followed and they were once again back to normal. Mark towering over Jack as he set the headset down on the table next to him. Jack moved back a couple steps, though more to get out of the way than any fear he still had. Mark placed his head on the table and looked at Jack. He smiled and used a finger to mess with Jack’s hair. Jack yelled, trying to push his finger away.

“Hey!” Mark chuckled.

“So we learned one thing today.” Jack looked at him as he fixed his hair, confused.

“And what’s that?” Mark smiled.

“Even when we’re both human sized, I’m still taller than you.”

“By like, one inch!”

Chapter Text

Jack kicked a pile of dirt as he walked outside. His hands were shoved in his jacket pocket as he walked through his back woods. He sighed as he turned back around, his house still in sight. He wasn’t allowed to go out too far. As long as he could see the house, he was good. He continued walking, rubbing his eyes.

He just wanted someone to play with. All his siblings were busy doing whatever is was teenagers did. They didn’t have time for him. His parents, too, were busy with adult things, as they said countless times. And living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere and being home-schooled meant there were no kids his age to play with either.

All of this was reason for his question to his Ma earlier today. Can I have a tiny? He had seen them advertised on TV and had learned and read about them in multiple history books. He thought they were so cool. They were called the perfect companions, the best pets in the world. He figured if he had a tiny, he wouldn’t be as lonely anymore.

But of course, his Ma had said no. You’re too young Sean. Her voice echoed in his mind. He knew you had to be at least eighteen to own a tiny here in Ireland, that’s why he had come up with a plan for his parents to buy one and just give it to him without anyone knowing. They said no.

After a small argument he had run out of the house to get some air and to get away. He really hated being ten. He was too young to do anything. All he wanted was someone to play with him. He sat down at the base of a tree, picking at the grass below.

***

Mark had woken up earlier that morning with a sinking feeling in his gut. He couldn’t explain it, but it just felt bad. He pushed the layers of tissue off his body and got out of the old bundled up human shirt that he called a bed. He entered the main area of their little dirt hovel and found his mom and brother sitting at their carved out wooden table. His father had carved, built, and found most of the things in their home before he died around a year ago. He had gotten sick. He shook the sad thoughts away.

He sat at the table next to his brother just as his mom gave him a slice of blueberry. His brother got the same and his mom sat down with her own plate. She smiled at him.

“Morning Mark, sleep well?” He nodded as he picked at the fruit. He sighed. His mom picked up on his feeling.

“Something wrong?” Mark bit his lip and glanced at Thomas before his eyes went back to his mother.

“Have you ever gotten this feeling in your gut? And it feels really bad?” He tried explaining how he felt. He didn’t even feel like eating currently. His mom gave a soft frown and she glanced at Thomas. He swallowed his bite before speaking.

“Yeah, we have. It usually means something bad is going to happen.” His older brother said and took another bite. Mark’s eyes widened, but his mom just laughed lightly.

“But it can be wrong sometimes as well. Keep in mind the feeling, but don’t let it ruin your day. More often than not, nothing will happen.” She gave him a kind smile and Mark grinned. She always knew what to say to make him feel better. He began to eat, suddenly with an appetite. The bad feeling was starting to go away anyway. Maybe it had just been a slight stomach ache.

After breakfast, Mark had decided to go outside and explore. It was really the only thing to do, after all. His brother was busy carving out more tools and furniture, just like their dad. And his mom was busy making new clothes for the two of them. He climbed the slight incline and moved the leaf out of the way. The outside was buzzing with life. Birds singing, the wind blowing softly, caring a cool breeze. A bumblebee passed by, buzzing and looking for freshly open flowers. He smiled. With a day like today, he felt even more convinced that his bad feeling had been wrong.

He started on his walk, keeping his eyes open for anything interesting or useful as he did so.

***

Jack kicked his feet up, his limbs landing on the ground with a dull thud. He was bored. Sure, he could go inside and play some of the video games he had or even watch TV, but he didn’t feel like doing any of those things. He wanted to play, with someone. But of course, that wasn’t an option.

He glanced at the ground to his right, noticing movement. At first he thought nothing of it, it was probably just a bug or squirrel or something. He focused more on it anyway, having nothing better to do and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a tiny human before they hid behind a bush.

His eyes widened and he sat up straight. That had been a tiny, Jack was sure of it. Slowly, he crawled over to the bush, where the tiny thing had hidden itself away. He started rustling through the branches, trying to contain his excitement.

***

Mark barely had any time to think before he found himself diving into a nearby bush. His heartbeat sped up as he watched the human child, who couldn’t be much older than himself. He vaguely recognized him, as one of the occupants of the nearby house they sometimes borrowed from if they needed something that they couldn’t find in the woods.

But why was he just out here, doing nothing. Usually if he played outside he was active enough to create enough sound and shaking in the ground for them to know not to go out. Not this time though, and now Mark was gonna pay for not being careful.

The ground started shaking and Mark had to grab a nearby branch in order to keep him upright. From between the leaves he could see the human crawling closer. Mark’s eyes widened and he was frozen in fear. He watched helplessly as the human’s hand effortlessly moved the branches and leaves out of the way. In no time at all, brown eyes met giant blue ones.

Jack couldn’t stop the giant grin from overtaking his face. It really had been a tiny that he had seen. And one that seemed to be his age! Fate must have been looking after him, because this had been exactly what he wanted. He stuck his hand through the branches and reached for the tiny.

Mark finally snapped out of his frozen state of fear, but by then it was too late. The hand wrapped around his small frame, squeezing his midsection as the hand closed all the way and he found himself flying through the air. The bush zoomed passed him and he found himself in front of the child’s face. He squirmed and struggled with all his might, but the hand only twitched in response. He was completely at this human’s mercy.

Jack stared in awe at the tiny in his hands, taking in his appearance. Brown hair that was just a tad longer than his own and makeshift clothes that were well made, but Jack could tell they weren’t made in a factory. He felt the tiny squirming in his hand and tightened his grip a bit so he wouldn’t drop him. He gave him a friendly smile.

“Hi!” He said excitedly. Mark winced at the loud volume and close proximity, his trapped arms keeping him, from covering his ears. He swallowed a lump that was forming in his throat and didn’t speak. Mostly out of fear. Jack, for his part, didn’t seem to mind too much that he wasn’t talking yet.

“I can’t believe I found ya! I was just asking my ma for a pet tiny of my own!” Jack stood to his full height, leaving Mark’s stomach below. His heart stopped when he heard the word pet. He knew his kind were considered nothing more than mindless pets to most of the world’s population. He had heard horror stories from visiting tinies and his family. But actually hearing it? It sent shivers running down his spine. He didn’t want to become a pet.

Unfortunately for him, it seemed that the human had already made up his mind. Before he knew it, he was being taken far away from his home in the woods. The human’s steps shook his core, but he didn’t dare struggle anymore. The tightened grip around his middle when he did so before kept him from trying again.

Jack just about entered his house, hands and the tiny in plain sight before he stopped. His mom had already told him no, if he suddenly came in with a tiny then his parents might take him away. And then he would be right back where he started. He glanced down at the tiny in his hand and then looked toward his person. He didn’t have any pockets in his current outfit, so he settled for closing his hands completely around the tiny in order to hide him. With that done, he entered his house.

Mark couldn’t stop his trembling as the human’s hand completely covered him. The hand was no longer wrapped around his midsection, but this was somehow worse. He couldn’t see a thing and it was completely disorienting. The only thing he could do was stay still and listen.

Jack tried his best to be silent as he walked past the kitchen. It didn’t exactly work though, as his ma caught sight of him almost right away.

“Sean?” Jack froze in his tracks and slowly moved his hands behind him before turning to his ma with his best smile.

“Hey ma, I was just going up to my room.” His ma hummed and looked him over, for a second he thought she would call him out but he relaxed when she gave him a small smile.

“Look Sean, about earlier. It’s not that I don’t think you can handle it, but it is the law. I’m sure when you’re old enough you’ll be a great owner.” She rubbed the top of his head and Jack smiled, hoping it didn’t come across as nervous. He wanted to bolt up the stairs and to his room right then, but that might make her suspicious. So instead, he asked, “What’s for dinner?”

His ma smiled at him and went back over to the oven and stove. He noticed a pot sitting on top of the stove and he knew something was in the oven, though he couldn’t see past the grainy window. His ma opened the oven to check on the food and the wave of a familiar smell surrounded him.

“We’re having chicken and mashed potatoes. It’s not quite done yet though,” She closed the oven. “I’ll call you when it’s ready.” She gave him a smile and Jack smiled back before taking the cue and bounding up the stairs.

It wasn’t until he entered his room that he uncupped his hands. He stared in awe as the tiny stumbled in his hand. His movements were so small, yet familiar. Unlike anything he had ever seen. He brought his other hand over and poked the tiny’s middle.

Mark was having mixed feelings about being back in the open. On one hand, he was no longer confined by hands on all sides of him. On the other, he was still very much trapped and having the human, Sean, he heard his mother call him, staring at him in wonder was not a great feeling.

He noticed his other hand come toward him and he tried backing away, only to hit a wall of fingers behind him. A finger bigger than himself poked him not to gently in the stomach, knocking some air out of him. He rubbed his stomach, trying to keep his tears from falling. Not from the pain, but by how overwhelmed he was in the moment. If he started crying now, he would look even more vulnerable.

“I’m Sean by the way!” He said enthusiastically. “But you can call me Jack.” It was a nickname he had gained from his family when he was young that just sort of stuck. He looked to the tiny and titled his head in slight confusion.

“Does your kind have names? Do I need to give you one?” Mark’s heart dropped at the thought of this human changing his name. It would only drive home the fact that he was now a pet to this child. Instead of allowing that to happen, he gathered all the courage he had.

“W-we do have names! I’m Mark.” He said, stuttering over some of his words but stating his name clearly. Though, stating he had a name didn’t exactly mean Jack wouldn’t change it.

Jack’s eyes widened when he heard the tiny speak. It was soft and shaky, but Jack could still hear his voice fairly well. Jack replayed the tiny’s words in his head and grinned.

“Mark! I like it!” Jack exclaimed. Mark cowered back at the loudness of Jack’s voice. His words gave him relief that his name wouldn’t be changed, but it also gave the notion that if Jack hadn’t liked his name, it would have been changed. He didn’t say anything else though.

Jack walked over to his bed and knelt down beside it, setting Mark down on the bouncy ground. Not expecting it, Mark lost his balance and fell over. Jack giggled and reached over to help him up. Mark couldn’t stop the fingers from pinching his shirt and setting him upright. Jack hummed.

“I don’t have a terrarium for you or any other tiny thing. I won’t be able to get one either.” Jack admitted. His age would stop him from even going into the tiny shop by himself. Mark, for his part, froze at the mention of a terrarium, knowing it was just another word for cage. He was at least thankful for the lack of that.

“But don’t worry! You’ll always be with me, so you won’t need one!” Mark felt his stomach sink. He then let out a terrified yelp as Jack’s fingers wrapped around him. He was once again brought in front of his face.

“I’ll take good care of you! You’ll see!” Mark brought his head down, knowing there was no escape now. His bad feeling at been right, he should have been more careful.

He was now a pet to a human child.

He had to get out of there.

Chapter Text

Jack had heard the rumors. Everyone in his small town had. Some believed it, while others made fun of it, saying it was just a story made up to keep kids from going out in the woods. The rumor itself was relatively new. Jack had first heard about it the year before, in his junior year of high school. It blew up there because of how crazy it was.

The rumor was as follows. Don’t go too deep in the woods, for a giant, man-eating beast lives out there. And if it even catches one sight of you, you’re dead. Of course Jack never believed it, and neither did any of the other high schoolers. The rumor itself was made more for little kids to not wander off and get lost.

So, then, why did he find himself going deep into the woods this friday night? Well, multiple reason. The main one being his friend Felix had dared him to. He was childish like that, but he did offer Jack 50 dollars if he did it. All he had to do was take a picture of the road at the other end of the woods and he would get the money. Jack accepted the challenge, the only real challenging part being how far he had to walk. He wasn’t scared.

Well, not of a giant man-eating beast anyway.

Jack continued his walk, looking at the map on his phone. He was about halfway through the woods now, where everyone considered it the deep part. He picked up his pace. He wanted out of this forest and back in his bed as soon as possible. The wind picked up and he wrapped his arms around himself. Maybe the 50 dollars wasn’t worth it.

But Jack wasn’t a quitter, especially when it came to Felix’s dares, so he pushed on. It was a few more minutes of walking when he heard it. He froze in his tracks at the unfamiliar sound. Not at all fitting in with the rest of the nighttime forest sounds.

It was this deep, almost growl of sorts. Jack couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it sent shivers running down his spine. His thoughts immediately went to the rumors.

Don’t be crazy Jack, Jack told himself. You’re just being paranoid, giant man-eating beasts don’t exist. Jack shook the thoughts away and continued on, only to stop again as the same sound filled the air. It seems to be coming from, Jack looked to his right, that way.

He doesn’t know why, but he started walking toward the sound. Maybe to prove himself on how stupid he was being. For being scared of some silly rumor meant to scare little kids.

He pushed through some low hanging branches and some bushes and suddenly found himself in a clearing. One with a giant hill.

Jack froze.

That wasn’t a hill.

Jack backed away a step as he took in what it actually was. A giant man. One with floofy black hair and wearing a red flannel from what he could see. His eyes were closed–which was good because Jack was literally right in front of his face–and he was letting off the same deep growl that Jack had been hearing.

Jack now recognized the sound as snoring, just magnified. Meaning the giant was asleep.

Jack should probably have run, but he was frozen in fear. The rumors were actually true, there really was a giant beast living deep in the woods. And if that was true, did that mean the part about it being man-eating was true? Jack really hoped not.

He needed to leave, to warn everyone about this. But would they even believe him? The only ones who believed this rumor in the first place were little kids, so he seriously doubted it.

But maybe if he had proof? He could take a picture using his phone. People would have to believe him then! He took out his phone and snapped a picture. A bright light flashed out of nowhere and Jack blinked. Oh no, he had left the flash on.

The giant started shifting, the snoring replaced by an even deeper sounding groan. Jack, petrified, quickly duck inside the bushes. He watched as the giant sat up, already taller than most of the trees and he wasn’t even standing. The giant rubbed his eyes and let out a yawn, his arms then stretched overhead. The impressive set of muscles on the arms left Jack in both fear and awe.

He saw the giant blink, and a look Jack recognized as confusion crossed his face. Jack could only guess he was wondering what on earth woke him up. As the giant looked around in confusion, Jack couldn’t help but notice how human he looked. And not to mention how young he seemed. He couldn’t be much older than Jack himself.

The giant eyes wandered over his hiding spot and Jack tensed up. When the eyes glossed over him, he relaxed, only to tense up again when the eyes found their way back. It was hard to miss the moment their eyes locked. They stared at each other, one in fear and the other still in confusion. That is, until the giant’s eyes lit up with recognition and the next thing Jack knew, a giant hand was reaching for him.

Panicking, Jack tried to get away, but it was useless. The giant was much quicker and stronger. Jack’s flailing as the hand wrapped around him did nothing. Fingers longer and thicker than his entire person curled around his body. Sealing him and trapping him inside his hand. Only to his shoulders and up was he free.

The hand then moved up, towards the direction of the giant’s face. Jack’s eyes closed for two reasons. One for his fear of heights and the other so he didn’t see his doom as he was most likely going inside the giant mouth. He braced himself for the feeling of his insides being crushed by sharp teeth. The 50 dollars definitely wasn’t worth it.

A breeze of warm air hit his face and he shuttered. A strong scent of pine filled the air around him. Jack’s eyes stayed closed and he waited with a rabid beating heart for his end. After several minutes with nothing happening, Jack got the nerve to open his eyes.

The giant’s face was incredible close, far too close for Jack’s liking. The giant himself was staring at Jack wide eyed, almost as if he was in awe. The giant apparently noticed his eyes open, because he gave Jack a smile.

“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” Jack’s brain stopped for a moment. The giant could speak. He not only looked human, but could also talk like one. Jack wasn’t quite sure if this was a good or bad thing. The reassurance didn’t exactly help sedate his fears.

From the corner of his eyes Jack saw the giant’s other hand come up near him and he yelped in fear as a finger stroked the top of his head. The giant noticed this and took his hand away, but the smile remained on his face.

“You’re so small. I haven’t actually ever seen a human up close like this before.” Mark chuckled and Jack just felt uneasy. He was still trapped in the giant’s fist after all.

“I’m Mark by the way. Do you have a name little guy?” Jack didn’t speak, in fear of it coming out as a whimper. Mark frowned and for a moment, Jack thought he made him angry. To his surprise, however, a look of guilt crossed the giant’s features. The hand he was trapped in was suddenly opened and Jack found himself sprawled out on it. He very quickly sat up, glad to be out of the hold at least.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you, I wasn’t thinking. I just saw you there and grabbed you out of instinct!” Mark continued to babble on, apologizing all over. It was very humanizing for Jack, and he finally spoke up.

“I-it’s okay?” He said it more as a question and winced. Mark had stopped talking at the sound of his voice and was once again looking at him with awe. Jack squirmed under the intense gaze. When the giant didn’t speak again, Jack decided to do it for him.

“Y-you’re not gonna e-eat me? Right?” He saw Mark’s eyes widen.

“What!?” Mark practically yelled out and Jack put his hands over his ears at the sheer volume. When he looked back up at Mark, he looked guilty. “Sorry, but I would never eat one of you. Not only is that disgusting, but it would also be considered murder.” The honest tone in Mark’s voice made Jack relax a little. At least he wouldn’t be eaten. Jack fidgeted with his hands.

“Then, what are you gonna do with me?” Thoughts of being kept in a cage like some pet crossed his mind. But when he looked back up at Mark, he almost looked sad.

“I’m not gonna do anything to you. I-I was just curious. No one ever comes this deep into the woods. You’re the first person I’ve seen in a long time.” Mark rubbed the back of his neck. The implications behind Jack’s words just continued to make him feel bad.

Jack blinked in surprise at Mark’s words and looked down. He had to be crazy, but nothing told him to not believe what Mark said. He may be a giant of a person, but from there short conversation he seemed just as human as anyone Jack had ever met.

“I’m Jack.” He called up and this time Mark looked at him in surprise. Jack managed to smile up at the giant, causing Mark to smile back at him. The giant seemed to think for a moment before moving his hands to the ground and sliding Jack off them. Jack stood up in confusion at Mark’s actions.

“You should probably head home. It’s pretty late. I, uh, gotta get back to sleep.” As if on cue, he let out a yawn. Jack flinched back slightly at the sight of the huge open mouth, which Mark unfortunately caught.

Something stopped Jack from leaving.

“Wait!” Jack called up and was once again the focus of Mark’s gaze, he shivered. “Um, I mean, we can talk some more, i-if you want?” Jack may still be scared of the giant, but something about him also made him want to stay. Mark blinked.

“Really?” Jack nodded and Mark let out a light laugh. His face lighting up. That alone made Jack not regret his decision. They both sat crisscrossed in front of each other. Jack happy that Mark didn’t decide to make a grab for him again. Mark smiled.

“I assume you have a lot of questions?” Jack smiled back.

“Maybe just a few.” And so, they talked.

Chapter Text

“Thanks again for letting me stay with ya Mark.” Jack said as he placed his suitcase down on the guest bed. Mark was leaning against the doorway, a smile on his face.

 “Course, it’s not a problem. It’s just stupid how the hotel gave your room away because you were ten minutes late.” Mark scowled and Jack sighed.

 “Yeah, that was a bunch of bull, wasn’t it?” Mark hummed in agreement. “Next time, just stay here. I’ve got plenty of room.” Jack smiled.

 “Well, maybe I’ll take you up on that offer, depending on how this visit goes.” Jack chuckled. He was joking of course. He was very grateful towards Mark’s offer. Mark chuckled along with him and started stepping away from the door.

 “I’m gonna go order us some lunch while you settle in, okay?” Jack gave Mark a thumbs up and Mark left towards the living room to make the call. They would most likely get pizza, though Jack doubted Mark would get it with pineapple. He chuckled at the little inside joke and went about putting his things away.

 As he bent over to place a couple of shirts in the bottom drawer of the dresser, his head was suddenly spinning. His eyes widened and he was forced to place a hand against the dresser to steady himself. Oh no, Jack knew what this was. But it shouldn’t be happening, not now of all times! He had planned the trip for this week because he thought he was in the clear. That apparently wasn’t the case.

 He dropped down to his knees and looked at his hands, but he was so dizzy already that they blurred together. It usually wasn’t this bad, but then again, he usually didn’t fight it. Not anymore. But he couldn’t change here! Not with Mark around!

 Jack groaned and knew he couldn’t stop it. He was suddenly exhausted and gently guided himself to the floor before he fell over. He then felt a familiar wave wash over him before slipping into darkness.

***

 Jack woke up, still on the floor of Mark’s guest bedroom. He groaned as he stood, but the pain from earlier was nonexistent now. He looked around the room, everything was towering over him. Larger than skyscrapers. Jack sighed, after two years this part wasn’t all that shocking anymore.

 Jack was worried about Mark though. He knew Mark was his friend and that he was a kind, trustworthy guy. But the instinct that had come with his new size was telling him to run away and hide. Mark was a big person and big people only wanted to harm people like him. Jack had to physically shake his head to get rid of those thoughts. Though they helped with some things, they could be a pain in the butt at other times.

 He was gonna be stuck like this for at least a day, if he was lucky. He knew he had to go find Mark to help him out and to let him know that he didn’t just up and disappear on him. Taking a few deep breaths and pushing his instinct far into the corner of his mind, he started the journey toward the living room.

 Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately Jack’s brain couldn’t decide, he didn’t have to walk far since as soon as he passed the doorway he saw Mark bounding down the hall. His insides froze as he felt himself shake with every step Mark took. Again, he felt the urge to go run and hide away, but he pushed it down. Before the feeling came back and he lost his nerve, Jack cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted.

 “Mark! Down here!” He was glad scientists got the whole shrinking thing wrong and that his vocal chords were more or less normal. He guesses he should also be glad the part about not being able to function was wrong as well.

 Mark suddenly froze, causing the shaking to stop. Mark looked confused as he looked down. Jack knows Mark saw him right away, but he didn’t seem to register what he was looking at until several moments later. His eyes widened with recognition and shock and he knelt down. Jack backed away, biting his lip and just barely resisting the urge to run away as he watched the giant he knew as Mark bend down towards him.

 “Jack?” Mark whispered his name, which Jack was thankful for. His sensitive ears didn’t need Mark’s yelling.

 “Hi.” He waved. Mark blinked and Jack suddenly felt another feeling go through him. A warning in his mind to watch out. He looked away from Mark’s face and was just barely in time to dodge Mark’s incoming hand. Like he said, his new instincts were good for some things.

 “Hey! Watch it!” He drowned the fears and warnings to not yell at a freaking giant, because he needed this giant to slow his roll before he did something they would both regret. He knows he can’t exactly blame Mark, though.

  Mark blinked and his shocked face contorted into one of guilt, Jack’s yelling seeming to have gotten through to him. “Ah! Sorry, I just, um, I–what happened!?” Jack winced at Mark’s louder tone, but he wasn’t exactly yelling so it was bearable at least. Mark seemed to have replaced shock with panic. Jack had to wave his arms to get back Mark’s attention.

 “Mark, I’m fine. I just shrunk, it happens.” he said plainly. As expected, Mark wasn’t just gonna take that for an answer.

 “I can see that! What do you mean ‘it happens?’” Jack took a deep breath.

 “I’ll tell ya, but ya gotta calm down first.” With how Mark was acting, it was getting increasingly more difficult to push down his instincts. Thankfully, Mark listened to him and took a few deep breaths of his own. Eventually, he looked a lot calmer than when he first saw Jack.

 “Okay, I’m calm. Now can you explain?” Jack nodded.

 “It’s a bit hard to explain, considering I don’t even know exactly how it happened. I guess the short story is, one day about two years ago I woke up with no memory of the day before and I was small.” He shrugged. “Took me a while to figure how things worked, but I only shrink for short amount of times and then turn back to normal. I thought it had a schedule, but apparently I was wrong, considering I’m small right now.” Mark seemed to be taking this all in.

 “So this has just been happening to you for the last two years?” Jack nodded.

 “You have no idea how many videos I’ve had to backlog for this.” Mark couldn’t help but chuckle at that. He became silent.

 “So… What now?” Mark asked and Jack shrugged.

 “We go and have that pizza you ordered and I lecture you on the dos and don’ts for handling a small jackaboy. Lesson 1, hold your hand flat, palm up so I can climb on.” Mark looked confused as he did what Jack said.

 “Aren’t you scared of heights?” Jack stepped on the hand, using Mark’s thumb as support. The hand twitched underneath him and Jack’s mind once again told him to get away. And once again, Jack ignored it and finished climbing on. Settling into the center of Mark’s palm. He nodded at Mark’s question.

 “Yeah, but not when I’m like this.” It was hard to explain all the new feelings he got when he was small. The little voices in his head telling him not to do things or to warn him. And some things, like his fear of heights, were nonexistent in this form. He honestly didn’t know if he could even try and explain it. It’s not like he understood any better than Mark did.

 Mark gave him another confused look, but didn’t push the topic. Instead, he focused on lifting his hand and making sure Jack didn’t fall. Once Jack was at chest level, Jack smiled.

 “Lesson 1 complete. Lesson 2, always remember to feed your jackaboy. In other words, let’s go eat that pizza already, I’m starving.”

Chapter Text

Jack grumbled sleepily as he started to wake. He twisted around, feeling the heavy cover on top of him. He paused and blinked his eyes open, noticing how his whole body still fit on his pillow. He sighed.

 He was still small.

 It wouldn’t even necessarily be a bad thing, if not for the fact that vidcon was today. He turned his face into the pillow and groaned. Of all the times to be stuck tiny, it had to be during an event with thousands of people. There was no way he could go out like this.

 But he didn’t want to disappoint his fans either.

 His thoughts were interrupted by a faint shaking. Jack sat up just as the door swung open, revealing Mark. His smile dropped when he saw Jack, still tiny, sitting in bed and looking at him.

 “Morning.” Jack grumbled, giving a little wave. Mark blinked and waved back awkwardly. Jack couldn’t help but smile at that. Mark had only found out about Jack’s shrinking thing the other day. He was still far from used to it, even if they had spent the whole day like this. Mark hesitated before walking over and sat on the bed to keep himself from looming too much. Jack felt the dip in the bed, but it wasn’t enough for him to slide off the pillow.

 “I thought you said it would only last a day?” Jack shifted, slightly uncomfortable with Mark’s eyes on him. But after spending a day with his friend like this, his instincts had, thankfully, died down. As if Mark had proven himself by being kind and gentle. Not that Jack himself had any doubts about that, though it was still unnerving seeing his friend as a giant.

 “I said it usually did. There have been times when it’s lasted longer. Just my luck, right?” Jack huffed and Mark bit the inside of his cheek.

 “Well, you can’t exactly go to vidcon like this. Right?” He asked and Jack shivered just thinking about all those people.

 “I really want to say yeah, but I can’t disappoint my fans! I have a panel today and everything, I can’t just cancel!” Mark bit his lip in thought.

 “Isn’t there a chance you could turn back before you have the panel?” Jack shrugged.

 “I mean, yeah, but that’s just as likely as me not turning back. I can’t exactly predict these thing, Mark. The only warning I get is five seconds before it happens.” He wished he could control this, it would make this whole situation avoidable. Not to mention it would be pretty cool to change size at will. Mark continued to look in deep thought and then he was suddenly smiling. Jack could practically see the light bulb over his head.

 “I got it! If you really don’t want to disappoint anyone and you don’t end up growing back, I might be able to make it so we could do a live stream for the panel. We can just say you were sick or something, but still wanted to be there.” Jack paused and thought about Mark’s idea.

 “That…could work.” Mark grinned and took out his phone to set it up with the people who put vidcon together. Jack couldn’t help but sink lower, though, as Mark did this. That took care of not disappointing his fans, which he was happy about. But he would still need to go to vidcon. A convention with, like he said earlier, had over thousands of people in it. All giants in comparison to him.

 His instincts were going to be working over time.

 ***

 That was an understatement.

 He was currently sat in Mark’s pocket, surrounded by just pure noise. On one side of him was a deep thudding. It was Mark’s heartbeat and it was probably the most comforting thing in this whole situation.

 The other side, however, were the sounds of thousands of giants, talking, walking, laughing, screaming. It was all so loud and though it was loud when he was normal sized, being tiny he feared he might actually go deaf. If it wasn’t for Mark’s heartbeat, he would have gone into an all out panic already.

 That being said, he was still panicking. Thanks to the voices, his instincts, telling him that he was in danger and he had to get away. And maybe the worst thing, Mark’s fault, he betrayed you, humans can’t be trusted. It was all ridiculous, especially since he himself was a human.

 Or was he?

 He shook the thoughts away. Now was not the time to question his identity.

 He jumped when a voice cut through his thoughts. It wasn’t any voice he recognized. It sounded female though, and if Jack had to guess, he would say it was a fan. Jack tried to burrow himself deeper into Mark’s pocket, not wanting to take any chance that the girl might see him somehow.

 “Hi Mark!” Jack heard the girl greet enthusiastically. He was always one for meeting fans, they were the reason he was here after all, but now was not the time. He knew there was no avoiding it, but Mark had promised to try his best and avoid fans. Oh well.

 “Hey!” Mark’s deep voice resonated all around him. Jack’s instincts were suddenly torn between the sound being comforting or terrifying. The girl talked a little longer and Jack did his best to ignore the loud voice, until he heard his own name.

 “Have you seen Jack around?” The girl asked . Jack’s eyes widened and for some reason he feared Mark would show him off. The fear was unfounded, of course.

 “He wasn’t feeling well, but he’s hoping to make it in time for his panel.” The girl accepted the answer and gave Mark a quick hug before leaving. Jack was thankful for Mark shifting around the hug to make sure he wasn’t squished.

 Mark picked back up his walking and slowly the sounds of the crowd started to fade. Jack didn’t fully relax until he heard a door close and everything became silent. He sighed in relief at the silence and leaned back.

 Only to tense up again when fingers, bigger than he was, came forth from the sky. Jack’s instincts reared up again and he was too emotionally exhausted to fight it. He thrashed against the fingers, kicking them with all his might. The fingers flinched back and retreated and Jack was left panting at the bottom of the pocket, now physically exhausted.

 Light flooded the pocket and Jack looked up to see Mark’s face hovering overhead, looking down at him with concern. Jack realized what he did and his face turned a light red.

 “Jack? Are you okay?” Jack nodded and crossed his arms over himself.

 “Sorry. Just a bit overwhelmed is all.” Jack said and Mark nodded in understanding. Mark bit his lip, his fingers twitching in anticipation to reach in again and pick Jack up, but he seemed to be waiting for an okay from Jack.

 “You can pick me up.” Jack said simply and Mark nodded. His friend’s face suddenly disappeared and was replaced by his fingers coming down on him once again. This time Jack fought against his instincts and stayed still as Mark wrapped his fingers around him. Jack was lifted into the open air and he found himself sitting in Mark’s open palm. Mark gave him a soft smile.

 “I’ll try giving you more warning next time.” He said and Jack nodded, thankful for Mark’s consideration. Mark paused for a moment and looked back at the door he had just gone through.

 “Was it bad?” He asked. Jack laughed.

 “It was awful. So many loud sounds, so many giants. My instincts were really beating me down for agreeing to this.” Mark’s eyebrows furrowed in concern.

 “Are your new instincts really that bad?” Jack bit his lip.

 “Sometimes. I know they’re just trying to help, but it tends to go too far. Heck, I’m still trying to fight off my instincts regarding you.” Mark blinked.

 “Me?” Jack nodded.

 “Yeah, like, I trust you and you are arguably one of my best friends. But, my new instincts seem to not know that. They just focus on how big you are and the potential danger you are to me. Though, they have gone down a bit since yesterday.” Jack added as an afterthought. Mark blinked.

 “Oh. Guess I am pretty dangerous to you like this, huh?” Jack looked up at Mark, who was looking guilty for something he couldn’t control.

 “No! Well, I mean, in theory yes. I am literally in the palm of your hand and it would take no effort on your end to crush me or whatever.” Mark looked horrified and Jack was quick to continue. “But, I know I don’t have to worry, because you’re my friend and just a kind person overall. Again, even my new instincts have begun to trust you.” Mark nodded, a small smile appearing on his face.

 “What about with what just happened?” Mark asked, referring to Jack’s struggles in his pocket a few minutes earlier. Jack sighed.

 “I told ya, I was overwhelmed. Being around all these people who are so much bigger than me…” Jack trailed off. Mark’s eyes softened and before Jack realized what was happening, he found himself pressed against Mark’s chest.

 “Uh, Mark?” Mark shushed him.

 “Just let it happen.” He whispered. Jack blinked and then let out a small laugh, giving into the makeshift hug. A few minutes later Mark pulled away.

 “Feeling better?” Jack smiled. He had to admit, he definitely felt more calm than before. And his instincts even seemed to relax a bit!

 “Yeah.” Mark grinned.

 “Great! Alright, so everything is set up for you in this room.” Jack took this chance to finally look around the room. It was a simple room, with a table and two couches. On the table was a camera and computer.

 “I’ll just need to set it up so it looks like you’re normal sized.” Jack looked up at Mark and smiled.

 “Thanks Mark.” Mark winked at him and then went to look at the computer. Jack stayed in Mark’s left hand and watched as Mark did his best to set the shot up. He was just about to suggest that Mark set him down when he suddenly felt dizzy.

 His eyes widened.

 “Mark! Put me down!” Jack yelled and Mark jumped. He looked down in surprise.

 “What?” But it was already too late. Before either of them knew it, they were both on the ground. Jack, human sized, and right on top of Mark. Jack groaned and pushed himself off of his friend, giving him a sheepish smile. Mark blinked.

 “Well, guess we won’t be needing the setup anymore.” Jack chuckled and helped Mark up. Mark brushed himself off and looked Jack up and down.

 “Gotta admit, it’s kind of weird seeing you like this again.” Jack rolled his eyes and pushed Mark playfully.

 “Shut up and help me get ready for my panel.”

Chapter Text

Cathy shook as the giant pair of blue eyes focused on her. She had been caught out in the open and was now cornered between the human and the tissue box she had been trying to take from. She shouldn’t have even been out here in the first place, she was too young to be borrowing out on her own. But both her parents had come down with a cold and she–along with the rest of her siblings–had wanted to help them out.

 The three of them had snuck out late at night, taking all the necessary cautions they saw their dad take before he ever went out to borrow. Mainly making sure the human was asleep. And he had been asleep, just, no one had thought of the chance of him waking up.

 Now Cathy was trapped, the human’s intense gaze making her legs feel like jelly. The human would catch her now, at any moment. She would be killed, or eaten, just like all the stories she’s heard. She noticed the human move closer and she turned her head away, curling in on herself.

 At least Ladle and Toby were okay.

 A warm breeze ruffled her blond locks and she shivered. She looked up, regretting doing so when she saw the human’s face only a few feet away. She shrieked and tried scooting back more, but was blocked by the box of tissues behind her. The blue eyes widened and she was surprised when the face moved away.

 “Ahh! I’m sorry, did I get too close?” The human spoke and Cathy trembled at his loud voice. The voice itself was familiar. She heard it all the time through the walls of the house. And she knew the human was loud, but being this close, it was a whole new kind of loud. The kind that shook her core and pounded against her ears. She felt something wet hit her cheek and came to the slow realization that she was crying.

 “No! No, no, no don’t cry. It’s okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare ya.” He lowered his voice down to a soft whisper, something Cathy was grateful for. Her tears wouldn’t stop, though, still terrified by the human in front of her. The human that seemed to be beginning to panic.

 “Oh gosh, what am I going to do?” He ran a hand through his green hair, something Cathy found quite funny the first time she saw it. She watched through blurry eyes as the human looked around the kitchen, finally his eyes settled on something in the corner. He moved out of her line of sight and Cathy noticed her chance to leave. She stood on shaky knees and started to sneak away.

 “Hey! Wait!” She froze as the human’s voice rang from behind her. She took off running suddenly, towards the entrance they had on the kitchen counter but was forced to stop in her tracks when she remembered that the entrance had been blocked off for several weeks now. A metal rectangular her dad had called a toaster was now in front of the door. Allowing no one to get in or out of it.

 That had been her only chance of escape. Going back the way she came was not an option. The human would catch her before she could even grip the rope properly.

 A shadow fell over her and she froze. She kept her head down, not wanting to see her doom. It was after a few minutes of agonizing silence that Cathy felt something poke her side. She yelped and flew back. Her breathing was fast, but she was confused when she saw what had poke her. Not the human’s hand, but a cookie, almost as big as her.

 She looked at it for a long moment and then looked up at the human’s face. Their eyes met and the human smiled gently. She doesn’t know why, but she felt herself relax a little.

 “Please don’t be scared.” He said. “Are you hungry? How about a cookie? I know these always make me feel better.” Her stomach growled against her will and the cookie was moved closer to her. She hesitated, before reaching out her hands and grabbing the cooking from in between the human’s fingers.

 It was a lot heavier than she thought and she almost dropped it. She adjusted her grip on it and sat down with it on her lap. Glancing again at the human, she broke a small piece off and took a bite. Her eyes widened and she very quickly started scoffing it down. She heard the human laugh from above and she paused to look up at him.

 “I guess you were hungry, huh?” She blushed and nodded. Quickly going back to her cookie. She only lasted a few more bites before she started feeling full. There was still more than half the cookie left, though. She wondered if she would be able to fit some in her pouch to take home for Ladle and Toby to try.

 That is, if she would be going home.

 She set the cookie aside and stood up. The human had been silent the whole time she had been eating. Just watching her with kind and curious eyes. Feeling brave, she wiped away the remaining tears and looked up at him.

 “Are you going to let me go home?” She asked plainly. The human’s eyes widened.

 “Of course!” Cathy couldn’t help but smile.

 “So, you aren’t going to eat me or keep me then?” She asked almost excitedly. The human’s expression turned to one of disgust.

 “No! Why would ya think that?” Cathy shrugged and kicked her feet.

 “All the stories I’ve heard are about humans doing bad things to borrowers.” The human’s eyebrows furrowed and he frowned.

 “Well, I can assure you I’m not one of the types of human’s in your stories.” He gave her a kind smile and Cathy returned it. She felt a lot safer now that she knew the human meant her no harm. His tone and eyes said it all for her. Her mother had taught her how to read people, to make sure they were kind. Most borrowers were, but some were, what they called, takers. It had taken a while for her to read the human, because of his size and her fear but now that she could, she could tell he really was nice!

 That and he had fed her a cookie.

 “In that case, I’m Cathy!” The human seemed surprised by her turnaround, but chuckled.

 “I’m Jack.” She smiled and glanced back at the cookie.

 “Oh! Can I take some of that back? I want to share some with my family.” Jack glanced at the cookie and nodded.

 “Go for it! It’s all yours. Do, uh, do you need help getting back home? Where do you live?” Cathy pointed toward the toaster.

 “I live in the walls, but that toaster thing is blocking one of the entrances.” Jack looked over and reached a hand towards the toaster. It flew above Cathy’s head and she yelped slightly at the sight. She continued to watch the hand as it moved the toaster out of the way with no effort. Looking back toward Jack, he looked confused.

 “I don’t see anything.” Cathy laughed and walked over, pushing the door in a bit. Jack’s eyes went wide.

 “We made it that way so human’s wouldn’t see it.” She looked down. “We aren’t actually supposed to be seen…” She trailed off. She wondered what would happen if anyone found out that Jack had found her. Would they have to move? She didn’t want to move. She got an idea.

 “I know! We just won’t tell anyone!” She smiled to herself at her great idea. Jack chuckled.

 “Secrets safe with me. I don’t want you getting in trouble or anything.” He bit his lip. “Would you mind…coming back?” Cathy tilted her head before her eyes went wide.

 “You mean, like to play?!” She yelled excitedly. There was hardly anyone back home to play with her. She only had her siblings, who she loved, but sometimes they didn’t want to play her types of games. Gaining another playmate would be awesome. Jack grinned.

 “Yeah, exactly!” She nodded rapidly.

 “Tomorrow then?” Jack asked and Cathy nodded. She made to leave but was stopped by another poke to her side. Looking up, she saw Jack holding out a tissue. She gasped and took it.

 “I saw you were trying to get this before I walked in, so here ya go! If you ever need anything else, just ask.” Cathy grinned and nodded.

 “Thank you Jack! See ya tomorrow!” She went through the door, it closing behind her. She smiled as she packed away the tissue paper. Who would have thought she would ever make friends with a human?

 As she got closer to home, she heard footsteps coming from the other end of the passageway. Two figures emerged. Figures she recognized as her siblings.

 “Hey Cathy! Did you get the tissue.” Ladle asked and Cathy nodded up to him, taking out the folded piece of cloth. Ladle nodded.

 “Great! Toby and I managed to get our stuff as well, including the water.” They looked down at Toby, who was carrying a small bucket of water.

 “Now let’s help mom and dad to feel better!” After that, Ladle led the way. Cathy and Toby following close behind. Vaguely, she could hear Jack shuffling around outside and smiled.

Chapter Text

“Mark?” Mark stood up straight and turned to the general that had called his name. He saluted, the general mirroring his actions. Only after that was done did Mark answer.

 “Yes sir?” The general motioned toward his office and Mark followed him inside. They both took a seat and Mark began fidgeting with his hands. Nervous as to why he had been called in here. The general noticed.

 “You can calm down Mark, you’re not in any trouble. Quite the opposite in fact.” Mark stopped and laughed, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

 “Sorry general, just, uh, never been called to the office like this before, ya know?” The general chuckled lightly.

 “Yes, I understand. I remember a similar situation I had gotten into when I was your age and rank.” He shook his head. “But, we’re not talking about that right now. I called you in here today because we want you to test out a new piece of technology that our military has just finished creating.” Mark blinked before his eyes went wide.

 “I’m sorry sir, but do you mean for me to test a weapon?!” While Mark was in the military, he was more behind the scenes than anything. He’s never even held a gun before. How could they expect him to test out this brand new weapon.

 “Not quite.” The general said, making Mark confused. “While it does have weapons built into it, it can be used for a number of purposes. We want you to test all these features out and though that will include the weapons part, I can assure you it is simple and we will not be putting you out on the field.” Mark sighed in relief, though he was still a bit nervous on the weapons part. He was more intrigued than anything right now.

 “So, how will this work exactly?” Mark asked. The general brought out a piece of paper from his desk and gave Mark a pen. Mark’s eyes scanned over the paper.

 “You just need to sign this and we will be sending you one of the models we have. Along with the model you will receive a manual and some instruction on what kinds of things you need to test and write down.” Mark signed his name once he was finished reading it over. The general took back the pen and rolled the paper up. He nodded.

 “Alright, I’ll send this off and the model should be delivered to your home in a few days.”

 ***

 Mark looked up from his laptop when he heard a knock at the door. Confused as to who would be at his house at 7pm, he stood and walked over. Opening it, he saw the mailman. In his hands was a package.

 “Delivery for Mark Fischbach?” Mark signed the paper, still confused, and took the package. It wasn’t until after he had closed the door and looked at the package that he remembered the model he was supposed to be testing. This must be it.

 Mark set it down on the table and started to open the package excitedly. When he managed to open the top, he paused at what he saw inside. It looked to be some sort of hyper realistic doll, with green hair of all things. And unlike an actual doll, this one was way shorter, maybe only about 4 inches.

 The doll’s eyes were closed and Mark reached out a hand to pick it up. He held the doll gently between his hand and was surprised by how human it felt. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. How was this supposed to be the new technology he was supposed to test.

 Before he could do anything more, the doll’s eyes opened and Mark suddenly found himself locked in a staring contest. And then, something Mark wasn’t expecting at all happened.

 The doll screamed.

 Mark dropped the doll in shock and it fell to the table with a dull thud. It groaned before standing and backing away from him. Mark could only stare in awe at the tiny, realistic movements. If Mark didn’t know any better, he would have thought this was an actual person.

 “S-stop staring at me! Where am I?” And the doll could talk too, apparently. Mark could hear the Irish accent, thinking it was an interesting choice for something that was going to be used for the American military.

 “I’m Mark and you’re at my house. I was assigned to test you out.” He shrugged, not really knowing how to explain it to this thing. He hadn’t been expected to explain himself at all to the technology he was supposed to test. The model looked confused and maybe even a little scared.

 “Test me out? What does that even mean?!” Mark shrugged and then remembered that it was supposed to come with a manual. Looking inside the box, he found what he was looking for. Flipping it open, he laid it down on the table.

 “Type Model: Jack?” He looked at the tiny thing in front of him with a raised eyebrow. The model blinked.

 “Um, yeah. I think so?” Mark tilted his head.

 “You think?” Jack shrugged.

 “I don’t know!” He was getting fired up, Mark could tell. He reached over and grabbed Jack’s arm between two fingers. Jack gasped and started to try and pull away.

 “Hey! Let go!” Mark only stared in awe once again, at the tiny movements that just seemed so human. Jack continued to pull and Mark unconsciously pulled a little himself.

 There was a loud pop.

 Both Mark and Jack’s eyes were wide as they stared at the detached arm. Jack looked from Mark’s hand to his now empty socket. Panic and anger started boiling inside him.

 “Give my hand back!” Mark himself was panicking as well. He just got the thing and he already broke it.

 “Ahh, sorry, sorry.” He scooped Jack up, earning a yelp from Jack, and tried putting the arm back to the socket, hoping it would miraculously fix itself.

 Surprisingly, it did. Mark saw wires come from within the socket, reaching out as if they had a mind of their own. They gripped the arm and pulled it out of Mark’s grasp. There was a steady green glow before it died down. Jack, who had also been watching all this with surprise, rolled his arm around. It was good as new.

 “What the heck.” Mark heard Jack mutter. Mark flipped through a few pages in the manual.

 “Okay, so apparently, you’re self fixing.” That would have been nice to know before. Maybe he should have read the manual before touching the model. He looked to Jack, who was fidgeting in his hand, glancing between the book below and his hands.

 “I should probably read this before anything else. Okay, now where’s your of switch.” As Mark flipped through the book, Jack tensed. As Mark found the page, he reached over towards Jack, only for the small robot to try and push and shove his fingers away.

 “No! Don’t!” Mark looked over to Jack and froze. Finally seeing the fear and panic in his features.

 That was real emotion coming from the little model. Not simulated like he first thought. He was definitely a robot, the whole arm thing proved that, but there was definitely something human like going on as well. He briefly wondered if this was intentional or not and decided to ask about it later. For now, he turned his focus back on Jack.

 “I-I’m sorry.” He takes his hand away and Jack looks at him in surprise. Mark realizes something else.

 “You…you don’t know what’s going on, do you?” Though Jack was still scared, he scoffed.

 “I already told ya that, remember?” Mark hummed and let Jack off his hand. Jack slid off gratefully, taking a few steps away from him for good measure.

 “Well…” How was he supposed to explain to Jack that he was a robot designed for the military?! “It’s complicated.”

Chapter Text

 Jack was drunk.

 Mark could tell with how much he had struggled to open the door. The human giggled, letting out little hiccups, telling Mark that Jack was really drunk. The door was slammed shut, causing Mark to wince before ducking behind the leg of the couch as Jack passed by. The steps were definitely not straight and stomped hard and loud with every step.

 He waited until he heard Jack’s bedroom door shut before moving away from his cover. Jack was most likely completely passed out by now, which gave Mark more than enough time to borrow what he needed. All without the fear of the human waking. Mark had learned that when Jack was drunk, which wasn’t often mind you but still, he was more of a pass out drunk. Sleeping the next twelve or so hours away. It basically gave Mark free reign of the house.

 Taking out his hook, he ran to the kitchen and threw it towards the top of the counter as soon as he was close enough. With practiced ease, he climbed the rope in under a minute. He debated on whether or not to keep the rope where it was, but decided against it, seeing as how he might need it later on. So, he rolled the hook up and placed it back in his bag.

 He wandered across the counter, allowing himself to take his time. Moments like these were few and far between, he always felt like he was rushing. Being a borrower was definitely not relaxing in the slightest, so these times were cherished.

 Mark caught a glance of the cookie jar and smiled when he saw it had just recently been refilled. The cookies were pressed against the lid and it would take Mark hardly any effort at all to grab a piece for himself. With his first target in mind, he jogged over to it, pulling out his hook once again.

 He climbed to the top of the jar and pushed the lid open with his feet, just enough for him to reach a hand in. He broke off a chunk of the cookie, making sure he got a little chocolate as well. Grinning at his accomplishment, Mark shimmied back down to the counter and started eating.

 He ate a few bites before putting the rest in his pack. There was still enough there to last another meal at least. He then got to busying himself with winding his hook back up.

 Maybe it was because Mark wasn’t expecting it, or maybe Jack really had been that quiet. But whatever the case had been, Mark hadn’t heard the approaching footsteps.

 He did, however, notice the light turn on.

 He froze.

 With his hook still half wound, he slowly turned around and was suddenly faced with his worst nightmare. Large blue eyes looked at him, but it was clear they were working hard to focus. They both stood in silence for a long moment. Mark’s thoughts only filled with worst case scenarios and self-deprecating thoughts for having been caught. Finally, Jack broke the silence.

 “You’re a tiny, aren’t ya!” Jack slurred out because he was still very clearly drunk, which just spiked Mark’s fears. He also winced at the volume. Jack was normally loud, but the alcohol just seemed to make him louder.

 Mark looked back and forth, trying to find someway to escape. He didn’t notice the hand until it was too late. It wrapped around him so suddenly, Mark didn’t even have a chance to struggle before the grip solidified.

 The grip itself was much too tight. His arms were caught within and were painfully and awkwardly being crushed against his torso and bag. Mark couldn’t help the groan of pain. And then Mark felt himself being lifted and in front of Jack’s face.

 Mark shook, wondering what was gonna happen to him. Thoughts of being crushed, or dropped, or put in some sort of cage crossed his mind and he desperately hoped none of those would come true.

 He was so focused on his thoughts, he didn’t notice Jack’s other hand coming toward him until he felt something ruffle his hair. Mark flinched back, but he couldn’t exactly go anywhere in Jack grip and so the petting continued. Much to Mark’s panic.

 “You’re so cute!” Jack said in a way that made it seem like he was trying to whisper and be quiet but was still being really loud. Mark winced again, but didn’t have his arms to cover his ears and so was forced to deal with the ringing that now pierced through them.

 “Oh! Let’s-” He hiccuped. “Let’s play a game!” Jack giggled and started walking toward the living room. Mark’s eyes widened and he tried his best to struggle, but the grip was still too tight. He watched helplessly as Jack got some seemingly random items and started setting them up on the floor. Mark could barely see and so had no clue what to expect as he was placed on the ground.

 As soon as his feet hit the floor he tried to run, but was blocked by a large book behind him. Looking in front of him, he saw a narrow path created by other objects acting as the walls.

 “Come on little guy! Finish the maze!” Jack grinned, wobbling slightly from what Mark could see.

 A maze? So basically Jack was treating him like some sort of mouse. Great, that made Mark feel so much better. Seeing no other option and not wanting to upset the human, Mark started on his way. He took turn after turn, going left and right and left again. A while ago he thought he had heard somewhere that there was some sort of trick to these. But for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what it was. He figured that information wouldn’t help much here anyway, he highly doubted those rules would apply to something an out-of-it drunk made.

 After about ten minutes, though Mark couldn’t be for sure, he found the exit. Straight ahead of him was a clear escape to the couch. Without hesitation, he started running in that direction.

 Unfortunately, he didn’t get far. Before he could even make it halfway he was back in the relentless grip of the human.

 “Way to go little buddy!” Somehow the words seemed even more slurred. Mark’s hair was then attacked by another finger, Mark helpless against the motion.

 “Let’s…Let’s watch a movie!” Jack grinned down at him and Mark could see that his eyes were half-lidded. Mark bit his lip and didn’t say anything. He figured any words spoken would go over the drunk’s head anyway.

 Jack plopped down on the couch, remote in one hand as Mark was set down on his inclined chest. Jack pressed some buttons and a movie started playing, but Mark couldn’t focus much on that. No, he was too busy thinking about the fact he was on Jack’s chest, a giant heartbeat thudding underneath him.

 Gulping down his fears, Mark was forced to sit there and wait.

 Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long.

 The heartbeat below him slowed and Mark risked the glance behind him. He sighed in relief when he saw that Jack had fallen asleep. Being as careful as he could, Mark managed to make his way down the human, onto the couch, and back onto the floor. After that he wasted no time in running back to the kitchen.

 He wanted nothing more than to go back into the walls, but he needed his hook. He couldn’t just leave it out. If his theory was correct, he couldn’t afford to leave it out.

 It was a lot harder climbing up to the counter without a hook, but Mark had managed. He finished unwinding it and then ran to his hidden entrance, not stopping to breathe until he was safely back inside. He walked back to his room slowly, his mind working a thousand miles a minute.

 Needless to say he didn’t get any sleep that night.

***

 Jack woke with a groan, a hand going to his head as a pang of pain shot through it. He blinked his blurry eyes, trying to focus on the things around him. He was met with his living room.

 “Ugh, that is the last time I drink that much. Stupid Felix…” He muttered, he stood, wobbling slightly. His hangover was really bad, he must have been really drunk. So much in fact, he was having a hard time remembering what had happened last night after he got home.

 He noticed the TV was on, the title screen of a random movie being shown. He also noticed the random objects on the floor, in the shape of some sort of messy maze?

 “What the hell?” He shook his head. Whatever drunk him had been thinking, he was clearly not in his right mind. He stretched and started the walk to the bathroom and his medicine cabinet. He would pick everything up later.

 Mark sighed as he watched Jack leave the living room from the vent. He sighed in relief, thankful his theory had been correct. Jack didn’t remember anything, which meant he didn’t remember him. Mark didn’t have to move after all.

 Though sometimes he wonders why he even stays in the first place.

Chapter Text

 Arin was scrolling through his phone, aimlessly walking around the house. He was thinking about ordering a pizza for him and Danny for dinner. He would cook something, but he really didn’t feel like it tonight.

 As he continued scrolling through the pizza menu to see what looked good, he passed by his bedroom door. It was open slightly and Arin might not have even noticed it if he didn’t hear the soft voice.

 Arin paused outside the door and glanced in that direction. It was really faint, but definitely there. Curious, he opened the door a little more and peeked his head in. His eyes widened when he saw Danny, sitting on the edge of the nightstand. His eyes were closed as he sang a sweet tune.

 “... And it seems like all is dying and would leave the world to mourn, in the distance hear the laughter of the last unicorn .” Danny’s gentle voice fills the air and Arin is stunned. Not only at the tiny’s voice-which is smooth and gentle and just really nice -but at the lyrics as well. Whatever the song was, Arin had never heard it before.

 Before he knew it, Arin had moved more into the room and was now seated on the bed. Danny didn’t notice, still too caught up in his singing. Arin watched in silent awe and wonder as the song seemed to be coming to an end.

 “ ...I’m alive, I’m alive. ” Danny finished singing, taking a deep breath as he did so. A small, calm smile made its way onto his face.

 “Dude, that was awesome.” Danny was taken out of his serene atmosphere by a sudden loud voice coming from his right. He jumped up, startled, and looked to see Arin seated on the bed. The tiny felt some blood rush to his cheeks.

 Arin noticed his reaction and laughed sheepishly. “Sorry dude, didn’t mean to startle you.” Danny blinked and coughed, a little embarrassed by being caught like this.

 “How...How long have you been there?” Danny asked and Arin smiled.

 “Since basically the beginning.” Danny was sure his face only got redder. He had never sung in front of anyone, except his family, before. He wasn’t used to the idea of people listening in on him.

 “Hey, no need to be all embarrassed. We’re all friends here.” Arin said, nudging him slightly with a finger. “Besides, you’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about . You sing like an angel.” Danny blinked.

 “What?” Arin smiled wide.

 “Yeah dude, your singing is, like, magical.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck, smiling shyly. His family had said he had a good voice, but that was his family. They were supposed to tell him that crap. But Arin telling him he sang good was entirely different. The tiny realized it was because he felt like it actually meant something.

 See, Danny knew Arin. If he didn’t like something he was very vocal about it. Same if it was the opposite. Arin was blunt, but Danny liked that about him. So, the human saying his singing was amazing, must mean he really thought it was.

 “Thanks.” He said simply, not knowing how else to portray the buzz of emotions flying inside of him at the moment. Arin chuckled, before he tilted his head in slight confusion.

 “So, what song were you singing exactly? I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before.” A sort of sad look crossed Danny’s face and he looked away, rubbing the back of his neck.

 “Oh, ah...It’s a song my mom would sing to me when I was little. I’m not sure where it originated from, but that’s how I heard it.” He shrugged, eyes distant as memories began to play. Arin himself was a little startled at the mention of Danny’s mom. This was the first time he had brought anything up about his family.

 “...Well, it was a really great song. I can see why your mom sang it to you.” Danny looked at Arin with a small smile.

 “Yeah, it always helps me to relax and calm down.” Danny explained and the two sat in a comfortable silence for a moment.

 “Hey…?” Arin started off and Danny raised an eyebrow at him.

 “Yeah?” Arin smiled and crossed his arms on top of the nightstand, placing his head in them. This way he was more level with Danny.

 “Do you mind singing it again? I kind of missed the the beginning.” Danny blinked in shock for a moment before smiling wide.

 “Yeah, I think I can do that.” Danny started the song again and Arin listened on, eyes closed, both human and tiny taking in the song and the peaceful air around them.