Summary: Carl has an emergency, and he doesn't have anyone else he can ask to look after his tiny friend Sean except for his Aunt Lisa. Surely everything will be fine, right? Surely she wouldn't think to leave the tiny's well-being in the hands of another.
"Aunt Lisa, I really don't want to have to do this, but it's an emergency," Carl pleaded, his hands slowly lowering from where they'd been cupped to his chest.
Hunched over in his palm and looking a mixture of sheepish and exasperated, was a tiny. The boy looked to be around the same age as Carl, with dark hair and pale skin, and he was wearing a navy colored hoodie and a matching pair of jeans.
The only show of Aunt Lisa's surprise was a slight raising of her eyebrows.
"...And you can't leave him alone because..." she trailed off questioningly, tone not accusing and only faintly curious.
Carl sighed, shifting on his feet. "I've got a rat problem at my place still - it wouldn't be safe to leave him there without me. And I can't bring him back to his town 'cause that's an easy thirty minute drive that'll be in the opposite direction to where I gotta be. So..." he looked at her pleadingly, carefully extending his cupped hands.
Aunt Lisa eyed him and the tiny for a couple more seconds before relenting with a sigh, plucking the tiny up and setting him on her other palm.
Sean flinched at the abrupt series of actions, going fully tense as he landed in her palm and snapping his head over to Carl to stare at his friend with wide eyes.
Carl winced back at him, shrugging helplessly. He really did have to go, and there was no time for a second option for who to leave Sean with. Plus, even if Aunt Lisa was a little... lacking in courtesy right there, she hadn't hurt Sean or anything - she just wasn't around tinies that much to readily know better, was all. Plus, since she had two kids at home, Carl trusted she'd know how to supervise the new person put in her care.
Giving the two of them a wave, Carl farewelled with, "I'll be back by tonight - ten at the latest, alright?"
Aunt Lisa nodded, and Sean clutched her thumb to keep himself from shaking with the motion, feeling a little sick at being held up on only a single, smaller palm.
Without another word, Carl was gone.
"Alright, then," Lisa said briskly, and Sean flinched at her change in tone, twisting around to try and meet her gaze.
She stared back down at him, eyes half-lidded and almost... bored. Callous.
Her next words confirmed it. "I can't sit around watching you all day," she huffed, spinning on her heel and starting up a brisk walk. Sean yelped and held onto her thumb for dear life, trying to answer back (what, he had no idea. That she didn't have to constantly watch him - he just had to be somewhere in her sight so she knew some animal or something didn't get to him, maybe), but she talked right over him. "My girl Sarah's still at school, but Gabe can take care of you," she informed him dismissively.
She had kids? Carl forgot to tell him about that. Still, maybe being around this Gabe would be better than Lisa, who was very quickly showing her lack of regard for Sean - or maybe just tinies in general. How old would Gabe be, though? Sean and Carl were in college, which explained the odd hours, but would Gabe be too? That was the only thing that made sense to Sean, since the hours meant high school was still currently in session and Lisa looked too young to have had a kid much older than that.
Having lost himself so much in his reverie, Sean didn't come back to himself until Lisa had opened a door and - in a gratingly high-pitched voice that border-lined a coo - said, "Hi there little Gabie, how's my big boy doing?"
What the hell? Who talked to anyone like-
Sean twisted around, and he could swear his heart stopped.
That wasn't an adult. That wasn't a kid, even. That was a toddler.
A two, maybe three, year old sitting on the floor in what was quite apparently a play room, staring up at his mother with his bright blue eyes and pudgy cheeks, a line of drool following the toy block he'd just been gnawing at in his mouth. "Mama!" the boy exclaimed, raising his free arm to make a grabby hand at her
"Mrs. Lisa," Sean called loudly, his voice high-pitched and reedy.
He flinched as the toddler's gaze zeroed in on him, doubly so the way they seemed to light up. Behind him, Lisa responded with a short, annoyed sounding, "Yes?"
"I - you - you can't leave me here with him," he choked out, hating how his voice was already on the verge of pleading.
Gabe responded before she could, carelessly dropping his block to raise his other arm and make even more desperate grabby hands, breaking out into a milky-toothed smile. "Gimme mama, gimme!" he cried happily, scooching forwards and not taking his eyes off Sean for a second.
The tiny shrank back on Lisa's palm, only to yelp in shock as his entire station was lowered - as Lisa crouched down.
She ignored what Sean had said entirely to instead respond to her son, voice once more all gooey and sweet. "Now, Gabie, you have to be gentle with this one, alright?" she told him kindly, and Sean flinched as a rough finger stroked down his spine as if in demonstration.
This was not fucking happening. Abruptly, Sean's voice raised to a shout, "I am NOT GOING TO-"
He cut off with a yelp as fingers pinched around his waist, squeezing the breath out of him in what he doubted could be anything but a reprimand, and Lisa once again talked like he said nothing.
"It's very delicate, okay Gabie?" she cooed, extending her hand out towards the toddler's.
Sean writhed, limbs flailing as he finally let out a panicked scream, his mind filled with a litany of terror-filled nonononononoono's this couldn't be happening, why was this happpening - It only made the toddler reaching for him giggle, and suddenly a much smaller fist was wrapping around the tiny's torso, squeezing him tighter and tighter until it felt like his ribs were about to crack. He cried out.
"Gently, Gabie, remember?" Lisa fondly reprimanded, and the toddler eased his grip the barest fraction - just enough for Sean to suck in a half-breath.
"N-no-" he wheezed out, but he doubted either of them even heard this time. Not that they would care either way.
From behind him, he heard the sounds of Lisa rising back to a stand, and she gave her son a sweet goodbye of, "I'll be back later, lovie. Make sure to take good care of your knew playmate for mommy, kay?"
The toddler's head nodded up and down, the force jerking Sean in his pudgy fist that gave a little squeeze with the motion and expelled all the air from his lungs. "'kay mommy," Gabe promised with all the seriousness he could seem to muster. Then, his eyes were back on a panting Sean, excitement making them shine. The tiny let out a terrified whimper, frozen except for the shivers that'd started wracking his body. He was too afraid that a single move would end up with him finally being crushed, his bones snapping easily in a toddler's tight fist.
And as the door closed behind Lisa, Sean couldn't help but parallel it to the sealing of his fate as he stared up at the giant toddler's face in front of him with an overwhelmingly crippling sense of dread.
