Roman didn't know much about human technology. In fact, up until about a month ago, he was an outside living borrower. When the weather shifted to the worst it got in that area, he couldn’t find any suitable shelter barring the human house that resided in the midst of hundreds, maybe even thousands of trees.
Aka, Roman makes a dumb mistake because he doesn't know what cameras are
~~~~~~
Roman didn’t know much about human technology. In fact, up until about a month ago, he was an outside living borrower. When the weather shifted to the worst it got in that area, he couldn’t find any suitable shelter barring the human house that resided in the midst of hundreds, maybe even thousands of trees.
Reluctantly, he searched for a potential entrance, which he luckily found in under five minutes, before entering the walls. He loved the warmth of the house, and quickly started learning the layout of the tunnels, and silently thanking the air that borrowers had evidently lived here before.
He had learned some things from other borrowers, during his travels. Mostly families that were moving from one set of walls to another, and while adults were giving warnings about if he was to ever live in a house, Roman was entertaining children with stories, both of his life and those of dragons and princes. He would offer the families extra supplies and shelter from wherever he lived when he met them.
Nothing could beat the thrill of telling someone stories, or reading things aloud or giving your opinion, even if it was to no one, perhaps to yourself even. So when he heard the human start to talk when no one else was in the house, he couldn’t help but watch.
Perhaps the human was a storyteller and was practicing for when he would show other humans’? The borrower sat on a shelf that was out of the human’s sight, and listened to the human speak. The human was looking into a weird device, and seemingly just talking to it, as if it were multiple people, all but solidifying the idea that he were practicing for something.
The things the human were talking about confused him, however. Half of what was being said sounded like gibberish but Roman supposed that it must make sense to the human, even if he, himself, could not understand what he was talking about.
Roman actually found it all quite intriguing, in the four weeks of secretly living the human, he’d only been left alone in the house a total of twice, when the human left to buy food. So if the human rarely left the house, what was he practicing for? Roman didn’t know, honestly, but he really didn’t know much about humans.
After a while of watching the human, he retreated back into the walls
-
Virgil posted his new Youtube video, and sighed, preparing for random hate comments, or people trying to get famous by claiming they know him. He went to go make food whilst waiting for his subscribers to watch the video. He wasn’t expecting to see all the comments complimenting him on the editing of something he didn’t add.
He re-watched the video, this time focusing on the spot the comments were pointing out, aka the top shelf of his bookshelf, where apparently a tiny person would appear about five minutes in. His breath hitched in a gasp when he saw it, sat there just watching him. That was kind of weird, he thought
Why wasn’t he aware of the tiny person living in his house? He watched until the tiny person left, and Virgil noticed the tiny doorway that opened up. He walked towards the shelf in question, and finally noticed the small imprint of a doorway in the wood.
Over the next week, he noticed more things, like tiny footprints in dust, or some of his food disappearing, or just where he noticed door-like shapes in the walls. At least two were in the kitchen, which kinda made sense?
The little guy probably needed food.. He decided to try capture it, wanting to hopefully get answers, or maybe get it to be in the background of more videos. This was the video with the least amount of hate comments so far, just because of the tiny person sat on a bookshelf, swinging its legs
-
Roman entered the kitchen, and his eyes immediately fell upon the seemingly abandoned bag of popcorn. Roman supposed the human wouldn’t notice if just one piece went missing, right? He took a step forward, not bothering to look at the ground beneath him.
That was a mistake. He felt his steps stop and looked down at what he had assumed was the ground, only to see a glue trap like those to catch mice. He cursed himself for not using the other entrance, but a quick look towards that area showed that he would’ve gotten himself trapped there as well.
For them to have been placed so perfectly, the human must’ve known what he was doing, and what he was catching. Roman’s breathing got quicker, and he struggled, trying to pry his feet from the stickiness of the makeshift floor before the human would inevitably come for his food, and for Roman.
He both heard and felt the human’s footsteps, getting closer as he was failing to escape. The kitchen door opened and the human stepped inside, making his way towards where Roman was still trying to escape
“Holy shit, that actually worked.. I didn’t think that would work” The human’s booming voice startled him out of staring
“Let me go, Fiend!” He shouted, hoping his voice didn’t reflect the amount of pure fear he was experiencing. The human merely raised an eyebrow
“Jeez, little guy, I just want answers about why you’re in my house, no need to scream at me” The sentence was punctuated with an eye roll, and Roman glared
“How did you even know I existed? I have been really well hidden” Roman glared up at the human, and crossed his arms
A chuckle escaped from the human’s lips “Well hidden? Are you sure?” He pulled out the weird rectangle that humans always had and showed Roman a picture of the borrower sat on a shelf
“How-how did you get this?” His voice was shaky, and he tried to think of what he could’ve done to make his face appear on the human rectangle things. Maybe he should’ve stayed outside like he was taught, where he belonged.
Roman didn’t know much about human technology. In fact, up until about a month ago, he was an outside living borrower. When the weather shifted to the worst it got in that area, he couldn’t find any suitable shelter barring the human house that resided in the midst of hundreds, maybe even thousands of trees.
Reluctantly, he searched for a potential entrance, which he luckily found in under five minutes, before entering the walls. He loved the warmth of the house, and quickly started learning the layout of the tunnels, and silently thanking the air that borrowers had evidently lived here before.
He had learned some things from other borrowers, during his travels. Mostly families that were moving from one set of walls to another, and while adults were giving warnings about if he was to ever live in a house, Roman was entertaining children with stories, both of his life and those of dragons and princes. He would offer the families extra supplies and shelter from wherever he lived when he met them.
Nothing could beat the thrill of telling someone stories, or reading things aloud or giving your opinion, even if it was to no one, perhaps to yourself even. So when he heard the human start to talk when no one else was in the house, he couldn’t help but watch.
Perhaps the human was a storyteller and was practicing for when he would show other humans’? The borrower sat on a shelf that was out of the human’s sight, and listened to the human speak. The human was looking into a weird device, and seemingly just talking to it, as if it were multiple people, all but solidifying the idea that he were practicing for something.
The things the human were talking about confused him, however. Half of what was being said sounded like gibberish but Roman supposed that it must make sense to the human, even if he, himself, could not understand what he was talking about.
Roman actually found it all quite intriguing, in the four weeks of secretly living the human, he’d only been left alone in the house a total of twice, when the human left to buy food. So if the human rarely left the house, what was he practicing for? Roman didn’t know, honestly, but he really didn’t know much about humans.
After a while of watching the human, he retreated back into the walls
-
Virgil posted his new Youtube video, and sighed, preparing for random hate comments, or people trying to get famous by claiming they know him. He went to go make food whilst waiting for his subscribers to watch the video. He wasn’t expecting to see all the comments complimenting him on the editing of something he didn’t add.
He re-watched the video, this time focusing on the spot the comments were pointing out, aka the top shelf of his bookshelf, where apparently a tiny person would appear about five minutes in. His breath hitched in a gasp when he saw it, sat there just watching him. That was kind of weird, he thought
Why wasn’t he aware of the tiny person living in his house? He watched until the tiny person left, and Virgil noticed the tiny doorway that opened up. He walked towards the shelf in question, and finally noticed the small imprint of a doorway in the wood.
Over the next week, he noticed more things, like tiny footprints in dust, or some of his food disappearing, or just where he noticed door-like shapes in the walls. At least two were in the kitchen, which kinda made sense?
The little guy probably needed food.. He decided to try capture it, wanting to hopefully get answers, or maybe get it to be in the background of more videos. This was the video with the least amount of hate comments so far, just because of the tiny person sat on a bookshelf, swinging its legs
-
Roman entered the kitchen, and his eyes immediately fell upon the seemingly abandoned bag of popcorn. Roman supposed the human wouldn’t notice if just one piece went missing, right? He took a step forward, not bothering to look at the ground beneath him.
That was a mistake. He felt his steps stop and looked down at what he had assumed was the ground, only to see a glue trap like those to catch mice. He cursed himself for not using the other entrance, but a quick look towards that area showed that he would’ve gotten himself trapped there as well.
For them to have been placed so perfectly, the human must’ve known what he was doing, and what he was catching. Roman’s breathing got quicker, and he struggled, trying to pry his feet from the stickiness of the makeshift floor before the human would inevitably come for his food, and for Roman.
He both heard and felt the human’s footsteps, getting closer as he was failing to escape. The kitchen door opened and the human stepped inside, making his way towards where Roman was still trying to escape
“Holy shit, that actually worked.. I didn’t think that would work” The human’s booming voice startled him out of staring
“Let me go, Fiend!” He shouted, hoping his voice didn’t reflect the amount of pure fear he was experiencing. The human merely raised an eyebrow
“Jeez, little guy, I just want answers about why you’re in my house, no need to scream at me” The sentence was punctuated with an eye roll, and Roman glared
“How did you even know I existed? I have been really well hidden” Roman glared up at the human, and crossed his arms
A chuckle escaped from the human’s lips “Well hidden? Are you sure?” He pulled out the weird rectangle that humans always had and showed Roman a picture of the borrower sat on a shelf
“How-how did you get this?” His voice was shaky, and he tried to think of what he could’ve done to make his face appear on the human rectangle things. Maybe he should’ve stayed outside like he was taught, where he belonged.
“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared! I don’t want to hurt you!”
I’m going to mix this prompt with the prompt “be careful out there, the human might see you!”
The sides are a family of borrowers: Janus and Patton are parents, Logan is the oldest child, Roman and Remus are the middle children and Virgil is the youngest.
Thomas is the human.
(The twins will be close but do NOT tag as remrom, as they are siblings both in cannon and in my story)
———————————————————————
Roman wished he listened. But he had finally figured out the best way to watch those movies that the bean was so fond of. The bean had moved the tv to a different spot in the room. The perfect spot to watch from an open vent in the bottom corner of the room. And he could still keep an eye on the bean! (Because the vent was really close to the couch where the bean watches cartoons)
When he told the younger borrower what he was going to do, he started flipping out. “No! The human will see you! I won’t let you!” He eventually gave in. “I can’t stop you, can I? Fine but be careful up there,” he had said “the human might see you”
Roman thought back on this bitterly. Of course he didn’t listen to his brother! The one time that he didn’t, he got captured. He felt like it was forever ago, but it was less that two hours. He hadn’t even managed to finish the movie! It might as well of been forever, though, since that’s when Roman thinks he will see his family again. He was trapped in a jar with a human staring at him.
He was as good as dead. He was terrified when the human pulled out his phone, scared that he would call a scientist or an exterminator, someone that would murder his family and himself. He started pressing himself against one of the curved wall of the jar, trying his best to get as far away from the human as possible.
The bean did not seem to notice his obvious terror, just looking at his phone and carrying on dialling whoever he was dialling.
“Nico, I need you to come over here”
“Not that I’m complaining, but why?” the voice from the other end of the line said, and Roman could almost picture someone raising their eyebrows.
“I need a second opinion on whether I am or am not going crazy”
“... fine, but only for you”
Roman was just getting more and more nervous as the short conversation ended. He will be seen by another human. It was then that the bean finally looked over, noticing the visibly upset and panicked state the borrower was in.
“Shit. Um,” Roman flinched at the loud words that were directed at him. Thomas sofened his tone “don’t be scared, don’t be scared! I don’t want to hurt you!”
Roman yelped as Thomas moved his arms. Trying to keep his mind off of the terrifying situation at hand, his mind involuntarily wondered to his family. He and Remus, despite their fights, had never managed to be away from each other for more than 7 hours. Not even in a different room in their small house. They both would be tearing themselves apart from the inside if Roman couldn’t get free or if they didn’t rescue him.
Virgil would blame himself for not alerting his family earlier, despite Roman swearing him to secrecy.
Logan wouldn’t let his mask of calmness fall until alone, just himself or with Remus, Roman suspected. He knew that Logan felt that as the oldest, he had a responsibility to help look after the younger siblings, even if it wasn’t necessary. To Logan, this included not showing weakness.
His dad (Patton) would be a wreck. His papa (Janus) would try to reassure his family but everyone would know that it was near hopeless to try to free him.
Distantly, he could recognise the sound of knocking at the door.
Without realising it, the thoughts about Romans family had reduced him to tears. He didn’t notice until a sob escaped his body.
Still scared out of his mind, Roman let out another sob at the thought of what might happen when the second human catches sight of him. His mind helpfully supplied all the things that Remus had ever said about being captured.
He was snapped out of these thoughts by two pairs of large footsteps. Still crying, he nervously looked up at the two humans. Another sob escaped his body, as he thought about what would happen. Would he be crushed? Eaten? He didn’t know what was going to happen and it was unsettling. He pressed his back against the edge of the glass. He knew that the humans were talking, but he couldn’t hear them through the glass and the thumping of his heart.
———————————————————————
Thomas greeted his boyfriend at the door.
“Hi, there is a tiny person on my table, and I put him in a jar, but he’s terrified and I regret putting him in the jar but I can’t let him out because that means scaring him more by getting super duper close and my reassurances have gotten nowhere so I don’t know if he can understand me. Please help” Thomas rambled quickly.
Nico took a few seconds to process the, quite frankly, unbelievable news. “Okayyyy then? Can I see the ‘tiny person’ and possibly lower his fear levels then?”
Thomas nodded and led Nico to the living room, where there was indeed a tiny person crying to himself in a jar. The small boy looked up hesitantly and let out an audible sob, scrambling to get as far away from the two humans as possible, pressing his impossibly small body into the back of the jar.
“I swear he wasn’t crying when I got up to answer the door”
“I-I think he might be just a tad bit overwhelmed. I’d imagine getting captured by someone so big in comparison to you can’t be very good for mental health. I’m sure that he’ll trust you eventually, but you’ll have to move him to a larger space that isn’t a jar”
They looked at the tiny man, who stared straight back, eyes wide with fear as he obviously didn’t take in a single word being said. It made Thomas pity him, he obviously didn’t know English, so Thomas didn’t know how to communicate with him.
———————————————————————
It was about an hour after this little interaction when the rest of the borrowers got worried. They asked around the small family to see if anyone had seen Roman or knew where he was. When they got to Virgil, he just couldn’t bring himself to lie, and even if he did, his papa had always managed to tell when he was lying.
When he told them, everyone was freaking out, Remus, his dad and his papa mostly. Somehow Logan had stayed calm. At least on the outside.
Remus tried his best to not jump to conclusions, but movies don’t take this long. If they do something apart from each other they always hurry back. He couldn’t help the tears that managed to escape.
Patton broke down crying, one of his kiddos had probably been captured, or worse. He didn’t want to think of the worse option, but the best case scenario was still so bad. Why couldn’t he have protected his son? He was probably the worst dad in existence!
Janus went out to search the tunnels, just in case, but when he was going past the living room, he saw something that crushed the small glimmer of hope that he had. A cage, with two humans staring into it, at something that was so unmistakably a borrower. He would never admit it, but he cried. He had to leave quickly, so he didn’t have the same fate as his son, and so he could inform his family of the terrible news.
He managed to catch Romans eye before he left though, mouthing that they will find a way to get him back home.
After he ran out of sight, from both the borrower and humans, hearing as he collapsed “why do you think he was looking at the vent?”
“That’s where I found him, I think he might want to go back, but I don’t think it would be good for him to leave, it’s probably dangerous in the walls”
“More like you want a pet, or scientific discovery, and don’t care who it affects” Janus grumbled under his breath, hating to admit that that was the most likely reason that they wanted to have his son. They didn’t know the pain that they were causing the family, but Janus thought that they wouldn’t care either way. They were humans for goodness sake.
Humans have never cared about things smaller than them.
When Janus got back to his small house, his face was covered in tears and he could barely get the words out.
“Th-the hum-human— an-and- cage” he collapsed, sobbing into his husbands arms.
• "I AM THE DEMON WHO HAUNTS YOUR HOUSE IN THE NIGHT! AND I COMMAND THE TO NOT CHECK BEHIND THE TOASTER!" I’m thinking this is something Roman would say, but it’d be really cool if he *wasn’t* the one behind the toaster, he was in the cabinet or something, and trying to protect whoever actually is behind the toaster.
(I'm sorry, I don't know how this happened but it turned into Prinxiety(probably platonic))
TRIGGER WARNING: FEAR, MENTIONED ABANDONMENT
It had only been about three years ago when Roman, his twin Remus, and their little brother Patton had been abandoned behind some dumpsters. None of the young borrowers had known why, but they did know that they were going to have to survive without their parents. Luckily the dumpsters had been right outside of a college dorm apartment system, meaning plenty of food and supplies.
Roman had been quick to take charge when their parents left, as he and Remus took care of their baby brother and prepared a home in the walls. When they had been left there the twins had been 17 years old and their brother 10, now they were the respective ages of 20 and 13.
It's true that life was never easy for a borrower, especially one as young as Patton. Though that had never been more apparent than it did right now.
It had all started with a harmless question.
"Roman." Patton got his brother's attention. "When can I go borrowing?" He had asked.
"I've told you before Pat, when you're old enough." As Roman had done many times before, he dismissed Patton's question. Unfortunately for our protagonists, Patton had an ace up his sleeve.
"Ro. You know he is old enough now, right?" It was Remus. Then as Roman opened his mouth to argue, Remus cut him off. "We started learning at his age too, Ro."
"Yeah! I wanna help with getting supplies!" Patton pleaded with his brother. Roman hesitated, but seeing the look on Patton's face caused him to finally cave.
"Alright." He sighed in defeat, and both of his brothers began to celebrate. "But," he cut them off. "you're only learning, we won't be going anywhere near where a human is, and Remus and I both have to supervise."
"Okay!" Patton jumped into his brother's arms and hugged him. "Thank you thank you thank you!" Roman chuckled at his brothers antics, but couldn't help the dark feeling that something terrible was going to happen.
It was their very first lesson with Patton. Roman had been studying this human for a while and knew that they would be in classes for hours today, which was perfect for keeping his baby bro safe. Yet again, he couldn't fight off the pit in his stomach. Maybe they should do this another day? He wondered, but upon seeing the joy on Pat's face as Remus showed him how to use a hook, he couldn't say no to them. He shook his negative thoughts away as he went to help the two.
If only he'd listened to himself. Then maybe nothing would have happened.
As they were showing Patton how to hide from humans in case they cane in unexpectedly, theough an advanced game of hide and seek. That's when it happened.
Roman was in a cabinet when he heard the sound of a lock clicking, a handle turning, and the slow creaking of door hinges. His face paled as he knew what, or rather, who, was coming home. He didn't have much time to think as he peeked out from the cabinet enough to see what was happening. Remus was kn top of the fridge where he wouldn't be seen, and Patton... it took him longer to spot Patton but once he did his stomach dropped as he saw the young borrower cowering behind the toaster.
"Oh no..." Roman muttered to himself. He had no time to get Pat put of there, and he couldn't say anything in case the human could hear. So he stayed and watched, hoping the human would just stay in their room, on their phone, like they always did.
Roman played close attention as the ground shook with tremors and muffled pounds, as the human walked around. He shivered as they seemed to get closer... were they getting closer? He got his answer when the human walked around the corner and straight into the kitchen.
Roman watched as they approached the fridge and had to swallow down a scream as they opened it. They pulled out butter. Roman glanced at Patton with worry, but, they could be making anything, there was a multitude of uses for butter! There was no way that their luck would be so bad that human would make-
Roman jumped back when the human's face suddenly appeared right in front of him. Only, the human opened the cabinet next to his and pulled out... some... bread...
Oh no. No no no no NO!
The human simply yawned and turned towards the toaster. It was unplugged and all they had to do was plug it in from behind. Patton was behind the toaster. Roman had to think fast. What could stop a human? What was something he could do to stop them?
As the human began to reach behind the toaster, Roman screamed out, without thinking, "I AM THE DEMON WHO HAUNTS YOUR HOUSE IN THE NIGHT! AND I COMMAND THE TO NOT CHECK BEHIND THE TOASTER!!!" At his shout the human jumped back and Roman slapped a hand over his own mouth.
What has done?
●●●
When Virgil was sent home sick, he was not expecting to hear someone shout in his dorm about demons. Yet here he was, in his kitchen, seemingly alone, trying to calm his beating heart.
After he calmed down, he finally processed the words. The toaster? "What do you want with my toaster?" He wondered aloud.
At the humans words, Roman blanched. What would a demon want with a toaster? "Well, uhm, it's a nice toaster." His mind screamed what are you doing as he awkwardly spoke to a human.
Now it was Virgil's turn to be at a loss for words. What? "It's... just a toaster?" Virgil was now a little more intrested in his toaster as he glared at it, as if it were about to show him some portal to hell or something.
"But-" Roman chose his wordswisely, having noticed the humans new found interest in the toaster. "But it's a dangerous toaster!" He thought up a lie quick, he was a 'demon' after all, it shouldn't be too hard to scare then away. "Yes! It's probably best if you leave! So that I may handle it from here on forth!" His voice gained more vigor as he spoke.
"If you're a demon, wouldn't you want me to get hurt?" At the humans words Roman was at a loss.
"I mean-well-have you ever met a demon before Mr. I-know-everything-about-demons!?" Ro countered.
"No... but I've seen videos about them!" Vurgik tried to defend himself. He was not about to let his dorm get infested with demons.
"And that makes you an expert now!? Oh, honey, you don't even know the first thing about what we can do." Roman actually found it... quite enjoyable to mess with this human.
"Maybe. But at least I don't have some weird obsession with a toaster," Virgil hesitated but did not loose his energy as he spoke, "The Walking Bread!" The nickname almost got a chuckle out of Roman if he weren't in a life or death situation trying to save his brothers.
"What's that supposed to mean, Burned Vampire?" Roman tried for his own insult, witch did get a smile out of the human.
"I dunno, you tell me, Prince of Carbs." Virgil retorted. Roman huffed in annoyance.
"If you haven't forgotten, I am a demon. And if you don't want to get cursed into Febuary thirtyth, the. I suggest that you leave before things get ugly, Emo Nightmare." Roman git down to the point finally.
"Fine." Virgil shrugged. "But I'm bringing an Ouija board next time!" And with that, the human left to finally go rest his sick stomach.
Roman sagged with releif as the human finally disappeared from view. Finally, he got out his hook and climbed down to Patton as quick as possible, not even reaching the bottom yet before the youngest brother hugged him tight with tears in his eyes. Soon Remus joined them in the hug.
"Can-can we go home?" Patton whimpered out between hiccups as he cried.
"Of course Patton." He kissed his brother's forehead, glad that he was safe. The he turned to his twin. "Let's go home."
With that, they left through the walls, none of them planning on returning... except that Roman couldn't shake his conversation with the human from his mind.
Janus was completely fine. He loved being trapped in a bottle from human littering, in fact, it was one of his favourite hobbies. He especially loved when the currents and tide started dragging him towards shore, leaving him ready to be discovered by a human, or a bird or something similar. Either way, he was screwed.
You’re probably wanting context right now, huh?
~~~~~
Janus was completely fine. He loved being trapped in a bottle from human littering, in fact, it was one of his favourite hobbies. He especially loved when the currents and tide started dragging him towards shore, leaving him ready to be discovered by a human, or a bird or something similar. Either way, he was screwed.
You’re probably wanting context right now, huh?
The first thing to say is that it was absolutely not Janus’ fault, no matter what may have been said. He did nothing wrong. Someone had insulted his tail, he had a right to attack them! The only problem was that this person happened to be about ten feet long, to Janus’ three inches. He didn’t even scratch them that much, just on the eye, and they had another one of those!
They didn’t seem to see his point of view, for some weird reason, and instead chased him closer to shore than he ever really wanted to go, and stuffed him into a plastic bottle that a human had thrown into the sea. He had been there for a few hours, and was starting to get hungry. If a predator didn’t kill him, hunger was sure to at some point.
His beautiful fanned out tail was uncomfortably scrunched in the bottle, and he was starting to get claustrophobic. The currents picked up, and the waves above got rougher in what Janus recognised as a storm. Just his luck, so many things tended to get thrown to shore during storms, and he would very likely join them. Just as he finished thinking that, the currents picked up and he was pushed up into the waves above. He could see the dark sky, covered in clouds, in between getting violently thrown around in the bottle.
Water was spilling out, and then filling back up from the waves. Janus wasn’t scared when he started thinking about how, if he got deposited onto the beach, the water could spill out and might never fill up again, leaving him to dry up.
Luckily, that’s not what happened. The tide left him in between a few rocks, and, while he passed out on impact, he didn’t die. The bottle stayed mostly upright, and he woke up to a human’s face staring down at him. He darted to the bottom of his plastic prison and stared up.
They said something, but he wasn’t listening. This could very well play out smoother for him if he pretended that he wasn’t sapient. He would rather be silently studied than interrogated any day. The human grabbed the bottle around the top, near the opening and Janus was lightly thrown into the plastic
The walk back to what was presumably the human’s house was tense, the human seemed nervous if the steady shaking of their hand was any indication. Janus sat in the bottom of the bottle and stared up. The human looked down at him as well, some sort of emotion on their face. He couldn’t decipher if it was concern, pity or curiosity.
None of the options really bode well for him, the first two would likely lead to them keeping him because of worrying that he could get hurt again out there in the world, and the third probably meant constant observation and studying, maybe dissection. He just let his fear show on his face. It wasn’t hard to pretend that he didn’t know what was going on and that he was just a simple animal, he just had to let instincts take over. They had to believe he was a dumb animal, they had to.
Their hands were shaking as they fumbled to put a small metal thing into their door, before going in. He immediately froze upon a sound that he had only ever heard described by other tiny mer. Large merfolk always seemed to roll their eyes at the fear of the creature, but based on the way the bottle was hastily raised in the air upon the predator’s arrival, the human knew the danger it posed
“No, bad kitty, down! This isn’t for you!” The beast jumped onto a countertop near him, taking a swipe at him with its paws. The human held him higher and yelled at the cat.
They put his bottle on a high up shelf, before going somewhere with the cat. The cat didn’t return with them, so he let himself relax just slightly. The bottle was picked up and set down on a lower surface whilst the human leant down to look at him
“Sorry about that, little guy, Sock gets a little excited around new things. My name’s Patton!” Janus just stared blankly, still letting his fear show.
The human- Patton- just frowned slightly “Can you understand me?”
He stared still, never taking his eyes off of them. They weren’t as big as some of the people he knew, but Gods, were they very large. Also, what sort of creature walked on two legs? Not even Crabs did that. It was mostly birds that did that, and he didn’t really think that humans were birds, to be quite honest.
They grabbed the bottle with an apologetic face, and Janus darted to the bottom. He was taken into another room, with a large tank full of water. Janus stared at it, floating lower in his own water. Was the human going to put him in there? He didn’t really know how to get out of his bottle, he had gotten slightly bruised just from getting stuffed in, and he had tried so many times to try squeeze himself out before the storm.
Patton set him down on a table, as they looked through something. They came back holding something sharp. Janus tried to figure out what that would be used for, a sense of dread welling up in his throat. They got closer, and Janus bared his teeth at them, crouching at the bottom of the bottle.
Patton frowned “I’m just going to use this to cut the top of the bottle away so you can get out, okay? No need to worry” Their voice was calming, but Janus wasn’t very reassured, all it would take was one wrong move...
He pushed himself into the ‘floor’ and hissed at the approaching object. Patton stopped for just a moment before carrying on with sawing at the plastic, occasionally pausing to check on him. Janus pretended not to notice, instead staring at the knife with a (mostly) faux fearful expression, though he still kept a watchful eye on the human in his peripheral vision
They eventually managed to saw it off, before picking up the bottle and going towards the tank
“I’m just going to pour this in here, and you can stay there a while, okay?” It wasn’t much okay to Janus, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. He was slowly poured into the larger tank and immediately hid from the giant in some plastic plants.
He could still hear the human, though slightly muffled through the glass. They were talking into something like they were having a conversation, and Janus made the startling revelation that they were somehow talking to another human and telling them to come and see him.
He stiffened. Getting out of this may be harder than he first anticipated. He could swear he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, in the room next to his tank, but when he looked out again, nothing was there. Another human soon arrived, immediately going to the tank
“Oh My Stars..” They were staring at him with excitement in their eyes. Janus went further into the fake plants, baring his teeth at the human. They leaned closer, nearly pressing their face into the side of the tank
“You really found a miniature humanoid creature, and it seems to have adapted to aquatic life, which would definitely explain how we’ve never found something like it before..” They carried on rambling, and Janus mentally cursed to himself
Of course the human called a scientist. Although, their ramblings did make Janus think. Did humans really only come in one size, no larger humans and no tinies? Now, that was strange. He had assumed that his fish half would be the only interesting part of him, but apparently not
Eventually, the humans left him alone and in the darkness of the night. The only light was coming from a lamp a few metres away, and that was rather dim compared to the lanterns under the sea
He heard a sound to the left of the tank and turned towards it quickly, scared that the cat could be back. What he saw confused him, as he had already concluded that such did not exist, or at the very least, regular-sized humans didn’t seem to know of it.
A him-sized human was getting closer to the glass prison. He watched them curiously as they climbed to shelf next to the top of the tank and looked down. He swam up there, and peaked his head above the water
“You know, you can stop the act now, the humans are gone” They were talking with a small grin on their face
Janus grinned back “Well, why would I do that? It’s so much more fun to pretend to be a mindless animal. Besides, you are human, are you not?” he leant his arms on the lip of the tank, displaying his sharp teeth in a smile
They smiled back, still looking exactly like a tiny human
“I’m not, actually. I’m a borrower! Humans don’t know we exist, but we have to stay in human houses to survive, and borrow food and stuff from them, hence the name”
Janus nodded “Speaking of names, what happens to be yours?” he asked, leaning a little closer.
“I am Roman” They stated, bowing from their shelf “And you?” They turned their attention back to Janus
Janus grinned “Such a nice name, bit of a shame that I won’t tell you mine” He watched them sputter for a moment, before carrying on
“I mean, if you keep visiting me, I might just consider it. I imagine it will get terribly boring, having no one to talk to until I manage to escape” He floated backwards lazily, looking up the few inches to where Roman was staring at him. Their face broke into a grin
“Well then, I might just have to carry on visiting. Until then, what can I call you?”
“You may call me-” He was cut off by the sound of human footsteps a few rooms across, getting closer. Roman immediately hid, and Janus went back under the waves and pretended to sleep. He kept his eyes open just enough that he would still know what was going on, but anyone watching him would think they were closed
It was the second human, he noted, not Patton, and they appeared to be writing something down, mumbling to themselves
“At least it’s not nocturnal, that would be a pain. It would be really annoying if we couldn’t observe it... it seems to have the lower half of a betta fish, and the top half appears sufficiently human, though it does have gills.. We may have to perform tests to find out what it can and cannot safely consume and how long it can stay out of water” They carried on rambling to themselves, and Janus was left wondering if they would ever leave.
A quick glance to Roman’s hiding spot showed that they were still as stone, barely even breathing whilst the human was in the room. Janus was very glad that there was more peace between small merfolk and the larger merfolk. He couldn’t imagine having to hide every time a larger-mer swam near him, but he was pitiful of Roman. He understood why they hid, however, humans were known for their hatred of the unknown.
Even if a human didn’t hate a non-human, that didn’t mean they were safe to be around. Not with their curiosity and want to know more. In a way, he was doing the same thing as Roman, hiding behind a disguise instead of behind a picture frame. After about ten more minutes of the human studying him, they left and Janus got back up and swam to the top of the tank
“I thought they’d never leave, now, what was I saying?” He leant back on the edge of the tank, staring up at Roman with a smile
They smiled back, though a little more nervous, eyes flickering to the door again. Suddenly, they got a mischievous glint in their eyes
“You were just about to tell me your name” They looked smug at their attempt of tricking him
“How about no. But you did remind me, I was gonna give you a nickname to call me by, but how about you think of one” He didn’t want Roman to figure out his name before he could dramatically reveal it
Roman turned from him in mock offence “Well, since you are so rudely withholding your name, I shall dub thee Deceit!” Janus rolled his eyes, leaning closer
“Why are you so dramatic?” They held a hand to their chest with a gasp
“Me? Dramatic? Never!” They were failing to conceal a grin and Janus pushed himself backwards into the water, feeling himself about to yawn
“Alright, I’m gonna go to sleep for real now. Remember to visit if you ever want to know my name” He said, as they opened a hole in the wall and walked through it.
For the second time, he woke up to a human face staring at him. He hid in the plastic plants again. He didn’t even like the plastic plants, they felt like a mockery to him
First humans pollute the ocean with chemicals and plastic, and then, when they had fish, they refused to even use real plants, only the same things that were killing aquatic life. The human was Patton this time, looking at him with concern
“Hey there, lil’ guy, don’t be scared, it’s just me. I brought food! I don’t really know what you eat, so it’s just fish food, but I hope you like it! I know you probably don’t understand me but I do want you to be safe”
Janus held back a scoff, still staring at the human as they sprinkled something vaguely food-smelling into the water and gently encouraged him to eat up. He hesitantly grabbed one of the flakes and took a bite, only to drop it in disgust
How could anyone ever eat that? He swam away from the foul attempt at food and crouched in the plants, hiding again. His brain started wandering to his underwater friends.
Remus was a ‘regular-sized’ octopus mer, and absolutely loved grabbing him from behind to freak him out, either with his tentacles or hands
Virgil was a shadow mer, meaning he had magic. He could conjure storms sometimes, only in highly emotional moments and when doing spells, and he could change his size. He couldn’t really get smaller than Remus, but he could get bigger, about 60 ft tall. When he was that large, Janus was barely noticeable against him, and could rest on the very tip of his finger, although Virgil always proclaimed that was ‘too dangerous’ because he was too small to be noticed and could get hurt
In such cases, Remus would hold him and tell Virgil what he was saying, the size difference making him too quiet to be heard by the giant mer. Janus definitely preferred him at normal size, and he was pretty sure that Virgil preferred it as well.
Janus was pretty sure that, if Virgil found out who stuffed him in the bottle, the mer who condemned him to this fate of glass walls and fake food would get what was coming to them. Remus would likely try to strangle them and Virgil would likely strike them with lightning or such.
Patton sighed at his lack of co-operation as the food-flakes sank to the bottom of the water. They went to the other room, where human no.2 was sat down. Janus could only hope their notes would never spread
--
Roman didn’t expect to see a merperson in real life. He thought such only existed in the movies Patton and Logan would watch together, and even then, those mermaids were human-sized. He was both upset and overjoyed when Patton walked into the house with a borrower-sized fish person
On one hand, the mystical creature he was so fascinated by was *his size*, but on the other, they had been captured by a human; a fate worse than death. They were pulling the same trick that he was taught, playing dumb, faking that they weren’t sentient
He could admire that they could keep up the act even with the humans staring at them all afternoon. It was nightfall, and after he had checked that the humans were either sleeping or otherwise preoccupied, he ran towards the mer
They talked for a while, Deceit (very rudely) refusing to give over their name, before they both went to get some sleep. Roman borrowed some bread crumbs before that, though, and watched his new friend float in the water from a small hole in the wall
It had been so long since he had had anyone to talk to, and now there was someone trapped behind glass, but still seeming to want to be his friend. They had actively told him to come back to see them. Sure it was more ‘I’m gonna withhold information if you don’t talk to me’ but it still counted
Patton, immediately upon waking, went to Deceit again, giving them fish flakes. Roman grimaced in sympathy, he had tried those before, they didn’t taste that nice. Logan was in the other room writing notes and Roman turned his attention to him
There were pages upon pages of notes, which Roman didn’t think was a particularly good thing, especially given Deceit’s obvious reluctance to give important information to the humans. Both humans would be leaving to go to ‘work’ soon enough, leaving Roman and Deceit in the house alone.
With the cat, unfortunately, but that beast was being kept in Patton’s room as long as Deceit was in the house. That was another good thing that came from their arrival; he could borrow without getting attacked. About an hour later, both humans had left the house, and Roman set out on a quest to Logan’s room, where the notebook was being stored.
There were a few things he could do to destroy the notes if he wanted, but he eyed the inkpots on the shelf that his exit lead out to and grinned to himself. The notebook was in perfect range to get ‘lightly splattered’ with a full pot of dark blue ink
The notebook was closed, so if he was to do it right at that moment, the ink would spread over all the pages and dry them permanently closed before Logan got home. And, the best part was, that it would look like an accident. It would seem like Logan’s fault for leaving such valuable notes under a shelf full of ink. He pried the inkpot open and tipped it over, watching it cover the galaxy patterned notebook, before running back into the tunnel system he lived in, and navigating to the living room, back to the shelf where he had talked to Deceit the night before
They immediately swam to the surface to greet him, leaning on the edge of the tank
“Hello, Roman. Could you just not get enough of me? You saw me just last night” They had a teasing grin on their face as their tail swished through the water
“No, I just thought you should know that Logan no longer has any of his notes on you, courtesy of yours truly” He bowed, before looking back up and grinning. Deceit looked shocked, which was quite a change from the relaxed, calm façade they usually wore
“Really? How’d you manage it? I assume the humans might have a hard time figuring out what happened if you were too over-the-top, but I somehow doubt you were, as dramatic as you appear to be” They tapped their chin in thought, tail swishing in the water behind them
“I just staged a small ‘accident’ involving an entire pot of ink and his notebook” He grinned back, sitting down
“Weren’t you worried about the humans coming back and finding you before the ‘accident’ was done?” They were seeming concerned for him, as they leaned closer
“No, they’re gonna be gone for a few hours yet, and we have the house to ourselves. Now, do you want some better food than those fish flakes?” Deceit nodded, looking down at the fallen flakes distastefully
“Oh, absolutely, but first, why don’t we just talk for a while?” They started floating lazily, looking like they were checking their nails
“Sure! But what should we talk about?” he wasn’t very used to being able to talk to people, he had moved out from his parents home ten years prior and hadn’t met any borrowers since. Deceit was a surprise he had ever seen one, even if they weren’t exactly a borrower
“Anything, say… what do you do in your day to day life?”
Roman proceeded to explain the life of a borrower, and explaining how risky it could be and times he had nearly gotten caught. He started explaining how the cat made it doubly dangerous, to which Deceit winced in sympathy, before the sound of the door cut him off and he had to run and hide.
He forced his breathing to shallow out for the second time as Deceit dropped back into the tank with an audible splash. Roman’s heart dropped. The human had probably heard that and would probably start investigating why Deceit was trying to get out of their tank, leading to Romans’ discovery
Luckily, that’s not what happened, instead Patton, as he was the one who walked in, just walked over to the fish tank and sat down, leaving Roman to fret about the possibility that the human may be able to see him. This wasn’t like the night before, when it was dark and his own silhouette would be nearly indiscernible from the picture frame he was hidden behind
Patton may very well notice him if he stayed there any longer. But... he could also get noticed if he moved. He felt tears well up in his eyes and blinked them back. He hesitantly peaked over to Deceit’s tank, seeing them hiding again. At least they had that in common.
The human sat there for too long, forcing Roman to stay still as the figurines on the shelves. It was maybe half an hour later when Roman was able to move again, immediately dropping to his knees and crying. Deceit swam up to the top of the water again
“Roman, are you okay?” they whispered, eyes flickering to the open door that the human had gone through. Roman shook his head, trying to steady his breathing out as it was getting harder to do so. Suddenly he felt himself get splashed with cold water, and snapped out of his dilemma. Deceit was staring at him, looking concerned
“Roman, get a hold of yourself. I can’t have you dying of stress on me, okay? I-I think you may have to leave for now, just until tonight, it’s too dangerous” They quickly went back to their relaxed, ‘don’t care’ attitude “And, I can’t loose my one source of entertainment whilst I’m stuck here, of course. That’s the only reason,”
Roman nodded emptily, waving slightly before opening the entrance to the wall. Once he was out of the open, he slumped against the wall, and started crying again. He could hear the human walk back in a few minutes later, muttering something about a storm outside and sounding confused
Roman didn’t know why he was talking about a storm, their little device in the kitchen was saying that it was supposed to be sunny that day, and for the rest of the week. Storms weren’t mentioned. Just as he thought that, a clap of thunder sounded. Roman wondered what that was about, the humans’ device was almost never wrong.
He walked back to his home, finding it was the same lonely, depressing place he had left it. He had tried to make it homey, but he didn’t have many materials at his disposal. He had borrowed some lost fairy lights, and strung them up in his home, and the sections of the wall surrounding it, but they didn’t do much other than adding a dim glow to the dark walls. He had borrowed some paper and coloured pencil lead, and hung some drawings up next to his bed for a splash of colour, but they got irritating after a while
He sighed, listening through the wall to see if the humans were close. Patton was probably still with Deceit, and he couldn’t really imagine how they must be feeling, getting so closely observed by a human.
He slumped down on his bed, a single small blanket he had managed to sneak into his home, and started thinking. Would the humans start looking for tiny non-mers? Would they try and find him? What if Deceit finally cracked and told them everything, including Roman’s existence?
He shook his head, Deceit wouldn’t do that to him. He started drawing, first a snake, then a mer-person that looked suspiciously like Deceit. The picture was hung above his bed, and he laid down and stared up at it
--
Virgil was Furious. Janus had not come back from his swim around the reef all night, which, naturally, made him worry. Then, a mid-size mer came back into the reef, clutching at their eye. Virgil recognised them as having only moved nearby a week before, so they were immediately a suspect
Everyone else already knew not to mess with Remus or Janus. He swam over to them, feigning concern for their injured eye
“What happened? Are you okay?” Remus was trailing after him, looking ready to strangle them if necessary
“Some stupid little betta-mer tried scratching my eye out. Got ‘em back though”
They seemed way too smug for having done something to someone not even a tenth of their size
“Oh, and how, pray tell, did you do that exactly?” He subtly started growing his body about an inch every few seconds, pretending to be interested and supportive of whatever they had done
“Stuffed ‘em into a bottle and let ‘em float to shore. Probably got washed onto the beach with last night’s storm, eh?” They were laughing. They were laughing about hurting Janus. He felt a low growl build in his throat as Remus snuck behind them and restrained them. Virgil grew to full size, voice distorting
“You shouldn’t have admitted to that. You hurt my friend, and now I’m gonna hurt you,” He grabbed them as Remus let go of them.
They left with a few bruises and possible broken bones, and Virgil was confident that they wouldn’t have the audacity to come back. He cried for a while, before surfacing slightly at nightfall. There were no humans on the beach, luckily, but there also weren’t any signs of Janus.
A quick spell showed that he was there for a few hours at least, earlier that morning. Luckily in a rather deserted portion of the beach, but he wasn’t there anymore, which meant that he had been found. Virgil reported back to Remus, who was looking around underwater
“Nothing?” they both shook their heads, and Virgil went back down to normal size, sitting on the sand
“What if we never find him? What if- what if humans are torturing him right now and we won’t be able to help because they’re on land and we’re too big to be transported unnoticed-” Remus cut him off, wrapping a tentacle around his mouth
“It’s only been a few hours, he can’t be too far” Virgil pried the tentacle from his mouth
“Humans have him, Re, what are we meant to do?”
Remus thought for a moment “Do you know any spells that can show if someone has been near someone and how recently? Would that work?”
Virgil thought on that “yeah… yeah that might work”
The next morning, a giant Virgil went close to the surface, but far away from the beach itself. He started muttering the spell, Remus perched on his shoulder, and there was a small purple glow as a storm started above him, travelling to where dozens of humans were previously enjoying the sun and warm weather. He blacked out for most of the next hour, whilst the storm was still going on, but Remus filled him in on the fact that there was a lot of lightning and that his eyes were glowing a neon purple.
And that he looked powerful, but that was practically a given for a shadow mer. Once the storm was done, humans started flooding the beach again, and Virgil discreetly watched from a distance, at normal size. He helplessly scanned the beach and all the people on it, but none of them were glowing.
He stayed there for a few more hours, him and Remus looking around. A flash of light caught his eye in a mostly empty portion of the beach. He turned towards it to see one singular human looking around where Janus was presumably found. Based on how they were glowing, they were likely looking for more tiny mers.
They had been close to Janus sometime in the past three hours, and here they were snooping around to try find more tiny mer. Virgil, after pointing the specific human out to Remus, grew to full size and swam closer to them, staying carefully under the waves, before he was sure that this human was the only one that could see him
Once he was sure, he started rising, baring his teeth at the human, who was attempting to back away and instead tripped on a couple of rocks on those stupid two legs they walked on
“Where. Is. He?!” He demanded, slamming his hands down on the beach next to the fallen human as Remus crawled on the beach in a similar fashion, scowling
The human stared and stammered a few moments before speaking “I- who?”
Virgil growled, leaning closer “I think you know exactly who I mean, human. I know you have him”
They paled, starting to sit up “He- I don’t know what you are talking about” Remus crawled to behind them and restrained them, starting to drag them into the ocean
They struggled, eyes going wide and panicked. Virgil followed the two under the waves and seized hold of the human, concentrating his magic into their body. Their body accepted the magic, desperate to not drown, which meant the human was now Virgil’s and would have to do everything told of them. Virgil wasn’t very comfortable using such types of magic, but he would use any means necessary to bring Janus back
“I shall ask you one more time, where is he?”
They held their mouth closed with one hand and used the other to hold wire frames on their face. Remus used a tentacle to try and pry away the hand, but failed. He turned to Virgil
“Why don’t we take their breathing for a few seconds, get them really scared?”
“That could work, but if they drown then what are we gonna do? They’re our only lead on him, Re”
Remus grinned “That’s the thing, they have absolutely no reason to withhold this information from us unless they’re protecting another human. We have someone else to threaten if this one doesn’t co-operate”
The human’s eyes widened at that “Okay- I’ll talk. My roommate found your friend on the beach in a bottle and brought him back to help get him out, but I requested that we keep him in our home as I wished to study him”
Virgil growled “What is your name, human?”
The name fell out without the human meaning for it to it seemed “Logan. I am Logan”
Virgil put on a sickly-sweet smile “Well, Logan, I have a question for you”
Logan nodded, albeit hesitantly
“What made you think you were allowed to do that?”
“Wh-what?”
“You heard me, what made you think that you could ‘keep’ someone, simply for your own curiosity? What made you think that was an okay thing to do?”
The human struggled to keep their mouth closed, but Virgil glared and barked out an order to speak, squeezing their torso slightly.
They shook and explained that they were simply too curious and how they ‘had never seen a tiny person before, let alone one that was half fish’ and how Janus was ‘an important discovery for the scientific community’
Remus looked seconds away from wrapping his tentacles around their neck and squeezing until the life left their body. Virgil was doing the same
“Do you really think that justifies keeping someone captive, or are you just spouting any excuses you think may save you?” He released his grip on them, letting them float in the water. They, smartly, didn’t attempt to swim away, though Virgil did catch them looking upwards a few times
They stammered for a few moments before staying silent. Virgil could feel a small section of their emotions and rage bubbled inside him again. Guilt was on the forefront, but fear was still present. Virgil didn’t think they had the right to feel guilty, simply because someone had called them out
Virgil doubted that they would feel as guilty as they did had he not threatened them. Virgil was snapped out of his silent anger by thunder overhead and realised that he may not have regulated his anger very well
Remus had perched himself on Virgil’s shoulder at some point and the human was staring at him. Virgil glared back, baring his teeth at them. They flinched, and Virgil made sure that he didn’t feel guilty; this was the person who had taken his friend, after all
He grabbed the human once again, going up towards the surface, and depositing them on the now-empty beach. He didn’t really understand why humans didn’t enjoy storms, but he was certainly thankful for that little oddity. Virgil smirked down at them
“Here is how this is gonna work, okay? I will make me and Remus here look human, and you will take us to your home, we will collect Janus and you will tell no one that you saw us, or of our existence, you understand? If you are cooperative, I might consider relinquishing control of your soul. If not, then, well, pray you’ll never have to find out what I can do” He left the threat open to interpretation, hiding the fact that he didn’t actually have a threat in mind
They shuddered nonetheless, although did ask a question
“Am I allowed to tell my roommate? This would be rather hard to explain otherwise” They smoothed out the fabric dangling from their neck, which was now extremely soaked, just like the rest of them
Virgil and Remus looked at each other, before turning their attention back to the human
“You may tell your roommate and no one else. I suggest you start getting your explanation ready in your mind” He added a bit of command to his order of only telling the roommate. He didn’t need his secrets exposed to the whole world.
As an afterthought, he added “And I strongly suggest you don’t let your roommate share what you tell them. I wouldn’t take very kindly to that, as you might possibly guess. And, I don’t think that would be very good for you. If I relinquish control, I can seize it right back if you do the wrong thing, you know” He added force into his words, emphasizing his point
Logan nodded, not making eye contact.
Virgil put his hand to his shoulder and let Remus climb onto it, before channelling magic into his friend and changing his tentacles into a pair of human legs. He then did the same to himself, shrinking down and scowling at the feeling of two legs and the fleshy, soft texture of them.
Once Virgil gave the word, Logan started leading them towards their house
--
Logan didn’t enjoy the merfolk's company very much. First, they threaten him, and then they drag him underwater. He could admit that it was partially his fault for not giving them the information they wanted, but he didn’t want them to hurt Patton.
When he got dragged underwater, his body and mind went into a state of panic, which he was pretty sure was their plan because then he had no choice but to accept the magic that was offered if he wanted to survive. Even though he could breathe after that, his chest was tight and it was extremely difficult to disobey the giant mer. He had to physically restrain himself from answering their questions right away, but that seemed to just annoy them.
The octopus mer tried ripping his hand away from his mouth, but Logan remained stubborn. They suggested taking away his ability to breathe underwater, and Logan tensed slightly, until the giant mer denied that idea. That was good, they hadn’t figured out that he wasn’t the only human involved.
Until they did. Logan would like it to be clear that he did not forfeit information because he feared they would realise that he was disposable to them, but because he was scared that they would hurt Patton. They clearly had some way of finding out who had seen their friend, if the way they singled him out was any indication.
He stuttered out an explanation, making it clear that he was to blame, not Patton. Patton had only wanted to help, after all. They growled at him, forcing him to share his name against his will. He really didn’t like the feeling of his body obeying to an outside force instead of his own mind. He stared up at them, as they now showed a terrifying sharp-toothed, very obviously fake, grin
“Well, Logan” They said his name in a sort of mockery, and the feeling in his chest tightened, almost suffocating. He had a feeling it was their magic keeping him in check. “I have a question for you”
He nodded, swallowing thickly
“What made you think you were allowed to do that?”
“Wh-what?” He didn’t expect that, more on the lines of ‘how would you like to die?’ but, then again, they probably wouldn’t be able to find their friend without him alive, unless they waited for Patton to show up, and they already had control over Logan.
“You heard me, what made you think that you could ‘keep’ someone, simply for your own curiosity? What made you think that was an okay thing to do?” He tried to keep his mouth closed, without a direct order to answer, it was a lot easier, until the giant ordered him with a quick squeeze of his torso
Logan started nervously rambling, not really listening to what he was saying, but needing to make an excuse. No matter what he said, the mers seemed to get angrier. The octopus mer seemed quiet in a way that made Logan think that they may have been planning a murder
The giant mer let go of him, but he didn’t swim away. He doubted that they would very much like him escaping
“Do you really think that justifies keeping someone captive, or are you just spouting any excuses you think may save you?” Logan looked down and the mers stared at him for a few seconds
The giant one was looking extremely furious, eyes glowing and mouth twisted into a snarl. The octopus mer floated up and latched onto their shoulder as thunder boomed overhead, above the waves. The giant snapped out of their seeming trance, and glared at him. Logan flinched, trying not to think about all the things they could do to him
They grabbed him, taking him to shore and ordering him to take them to his and Patton’s home. He made sure he was allowed to tell his friend, but he was rather unsettled by the threats they used against him. While his main goal was to make sure Patton was safe from them, he would very much also enjoy getting rid of the magic swirling around his soul and forcing him to do things
Once they told him to start walking, he could not stop until they commanded him to, which they did just about halfway through the journey.
“Tell me, human” They spat the word, but it was better than the tight, suffocating feeling in his chest when they used his name. He shuddered “Do you regret your actions. Before you get any ideas, I now command that you can’t lie to me”
Logan looked at them, finding them only marginally less intimidating now that they were a reasonable height
“I- I really do..” he stuttered, not looking at them. The octopus mer seemed quiet, which for some reason seemed weird.
Logan got close to the house and started unlocking the door, hearing Sock’s insistent meowing from Patton’s bedroom window. He tuned that out in his mind, not regarding it as important until the octopus mer grabbed his arm
“Don’t tell me that’s what I think it is” They warned, and Logan stayed silent for a few moments
“It’s a cat...”
They both stared at him with varying degrees of anger
“You have a cat, and you have been keeping a tiny mer in the same house?! Just when I thought you couldn’t get any worse” The, previously giant, mer glared at him and then at the white-footed cat in the window, baring sharp teeth at the creature
Logan just lead them into his house, immediately getting greeted by Patton, who seemed worried about his absolutely soaking wet clothes and self, before noticing the two behind him
“Oh, who are they?”
“Patton, may I talk to you in private?” He cast a nervous glance to the mers, who were both glaring at the humans with malice
The octopus mer was the one who gave permission
“Oh, go ahead, just show us where he is, and then knock yourself out. Preferably not metaphorically” Logan pointed them to where the tiny mer’s tank was located, shaking slightly and trying to smooth out his wet clothes
“Logan, who are they?” Patton sounded a little more forceful, and Logan cast a nervous glance to the doorway
“Patton- their friend- we- we took their friend, Patton- they want revenge and they- they did something to me, Pat, I’m scared” He was whispering and he wrapped his arms around himself like a frightened child. Patton put a hand on his arm and looked at him with a concerned expression
“What did they do to you?” Patton’s voice was soft and full of concern, a nice contrast to the harsh words and tone used by the mers. Logan shook his head, he didn’t even know where to begin. The fact that they gained possession of his soul? The fact that they were threatening to kill him? The fact that they could make him do anything and he couldn’t do anything about it
His roommate pulled him in for a hug, and Logan, for once, didn’t pull away. They could hear the mers in the other room conversing, sounding different, not threatening at all. Just sounding like worried friends. He couldn’t hear their words. He looked down.
In the mers minds, he had probably deserved everything they did to him; he had stolen their friend away from them, and had tried to keep information on his wrongdoings away from them
-
Janus had been floating for a while after Roman left. It was terribly boring with no borrower to talk to. Patton had been in and out of the room holding his tank, and in between human visits, he would catch glimpses of a figure wearing a red cloak, running along ceiling beams and going in and out of tunnels in the walls.
Janus didn’t call attention to that, he understood Roman’s need for secrecy. When the second human, ‘Logan’, finally arrived back at the house, there were other people with them. Janus froze, until he heard a familiar voice and two familiar faces walked through the door
They immediately ran over to him and fretting
“Oh, thank the stars you’re okay, I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t” Virgil leant down to look at him in the tank
Janus smiled, before frowning
“You both have legs”
Remus grinned “Don’t worry Jan, my beautiful tentacles will be back the minute we get back to the sea”
“How did you guys even find me?”
“We used a sort-of tracking spell, to see which had been near you and how recently, and we used some... persuasion to get Logan to bring us here” Virgil explained, wringing his hands anxiously. Janus raised an eyebrow
“What exactly do you mean by persuasion? Last I checked, you could barely talk to a person to help you with something, let alone persuading anyone of anything” He teased, splashing him
Virgil winced “...You know that dark magic I was researching the other week?”
“You didn’t”
“He did!” Remus nodded enthusiastically
Virgil put his hands up, face going red “I know, and I’m not proud of it but I did what I had to do to get you home. They wouldn’t give us any information, and what was I gonna do? Politely reason with a human for however long it would take, whilst you could’ve been, I don’t know, tortured or something?”
Janus nodded, he could agree with that. If he had the power to help one of the other two whilst they were in trouble, he would use any means necessary to get them back
Patton walked in with an obviously forced smile “Well, I think it’s time you should leave. I’m sure you’ll want to go back to your homes, and, uh, stuff” They seemed in a hurry to get the mers out, likely nervous that what horrible thing happened to Logan would happen to them too
Virgil gathered some the water surrounding Janus into an orb and hovered him above his hand. Janus floated idly, as his friends and him walked out towards the ocean
Janus’ thoughts started to wander to the borrower who still didn’t, and never would, know his name. His mood got a little more sombre at that. The miniature human would still have to scavenge for food in a human house. Janus had achieved his own happy ending, but would Roman?
They got under the water and Janus allowed himself to swim freely through the reef with his family.
A few months later, a human woke up without the tight feeling he had grown used to being in his chest, and felt free for the first time since that day, whilst a borrower looked mournfully at the ocean through a window.
If you still don’t get it, it is not remrom. Do not tag as remrom.
———————————————————————
Nico didn’t miss the emotion that flashed across the tiny persons face. To him it looked like anger, but as he was going to double check, the face went blank again. He narrowed his eyes, this little guy was hiding something.
“Thomas, can I sleep here tonight? I’m just asking because I know that you’re a heavy sleeper, and wouldn’t be able to help our little guy if he gets into trouble, but I’m a relatively light sleeper”
If he watched closely, he would’ve seen the panic that flashed across the crying boy’s face. But he didn’t, he only saw the scared look that the child has given way too many times. He had no doubt that it was real fear, but he was still sure that he was hiding something.
“Yeah sure, you can sleep in the guest bedroom, do you want me to move the cage in there with you so that you can keep an eye on him?”
“Yeah that’d work” he smirked internally, he could figure out what the little guy was hiding. He can’t help someone if they keep important information away from him. That wasn’t the only reason that he wanted to stay at Thomas’s though, his writers block always disappeared near his boyfriend.
———————————————————————
Roman saw the bean watch him with narrowed eyes. He tried to keep himself from revealing himself, but a human being suspicious made him nervous. He had never been quiet for this long, usually him and Remus were causing chaos in the walls together.
The bean asked a question that chilled him to his core. “Thomas, can I sleep here tonight? I’m just asking because I know that you’re a heavy sleeper, and wouldn’t be able to help our little guy if he gets into trouble, but I’m a relatively light sleeper”
Roman heard the other bean respond. “Yeah sure, you can sleep in the guest bedroom, do you want me to move the cage in there with you so that you can keep an eye on him?”
The thoughts running through his mind were scrambled but all had the same message ‘danger! Kill, hurt. Accident. Torture. He’s gonna kill you and pass it off as an accident’ he managed to get one coherent thought in there, and he was dreading the night. It wasn’t even as if he could be killed when sleeping, not that close to a bean and not without Remus.
He would be wide awake as this bean did whatever he wanted to him and the other one would be fast asleep in another room.
————-two hours later-———————————
Roman would not stop sobbing, he needed Remus. He needed to go back home, he needed his bed, he needed his papa and his dad, he needed his brothers. He needed to escape. He heard them say that they would give him food, before moving him to the room where he was certain that he would meet his end.
Everything he saw that was green made him cry harder, that was Remus’s favourite colour. He flinched when the giant hand of Thomas came to give him food, but the human didn’t notice, or if he did he didn’t seem to care.
He was given a strawberry, his dads favourite food he remembered. The humans were unknowingly torturing him, before the inevitable physical torture. He gently nibbled on his food, no appetite making an appearance.
He barely noticed the humans getting closer again through his tears until Thomas had picked the cage up so quickly that, had Roman been standing, he would’ve fallen down. He carried on sobbing, knowing that it would be fruitless to even try to stop. He felt the cage be set down after a disorienting walk upstairs.
He was still curled up and crying, wanting someone his size to comfort him, but knowing that it would never happen. Not in this room and not when the second human, Nico if he remembered correctly, was watching him.
Thomas was still in the room at the moment, so that was something, Thomas hated seeing anything in pain. Still, being with two humans wasn’t good. He hadn’t had enough time near this second bean to determine whether he would get hurt, but he remembered what his papa said. ‘If you’re not sure about a human, assume the worst. Humans will take advantage of anytime you let your guard down, so it would hurt more when the inevitable happens’
Thomas unlocked the door to put a bottle cap of water, and pet Roman on the head, causing him to flinch.
After Thomas left the room, Roman was left with a blessing and a curse, the blessing being that there were less humans, the curse being that the bean that had stayed was the one he was least sure about. And the one that he had to spend the entire night in the same room as.
A murmur escaped the humans lips as he got closer. “I know you’re hiding something”
Between sobs Roman managed to get some words out “ple-please don-don’t hurt me”
-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-
Part three has now ended. Sorry that it’s so short but I wanted to end on that line.
So I'm bored, I wanna write, and I found this picture so let's try something! Request your prompts(ideas) for different g/t Sander Sides stories and I'll try to write them, there's a list to choose from but if you have other ideas I won't stop you from requesting them. So let's give this idea a whirl, shall we?
