Next prompt is "Rationalize". This one is also a little bit tenuous, but the word does appear in the text so it counts. Here at the height of summer I can't help but imagine some characters dealing with the heat. This time around I went with Colfax and Adrian of the Ruckus AU.
~~~
Adrian leaned back in his chair until the tilt felt almost dangerous. The drawing on the drafting table before him had been a slog all morning, and his laptop had gone to sleep after so long with no input. It was official—the heat wave had absolutely fried all of his will to exist as he normally did. The air conditioning in his apartment would be repaired by the early evening, according to his latest emails. Until then, he had to try to make it and pretend he wasn’t miserable.
After some time, he lifted his head again, sat up straighter. As he prepared to hunch over his drawing again, he flinched at the sight of a small figure stood on the shelf over his drafting table.
“Colfax!” He smiled cautiously. The little man, barely over six inches tall, always looked so serious and today was no exception. It was hard to tell if this was a social visit or something else. “Have you been there for long?”
“No.” At least Colfax didn’t beat around the bush when answering questions. Most of the time he got straight to the point. “You were resting so I waited.”
Adrian allowed himself a small laugh. Colfax could be so endearing in his no-nonsense way. That odd sense of courtesy combined with him just appearing in the apartment whenever he liked always amused. Adrian tilted his head. “Not resting so much as trying to rationalize how I can keep working in this heat.”
“It is hot,” Colfax agreed, glancing towards the window as if the sunlight just outside might slink away from his disapproval. “I came to ask about it.”
“Right.” Adrian brushed a hand back through his already-disheveled hair. “I guess you probably didn’t overhear my phone call earlier,” he mused, thinking about a few other times Colfax had come out and referenced something he’d overheard. The little guy had no qualms about eavesdropping whenever he felt like it. “I called maintenance. The AC is just not working right, but they’re coming later today. Apparently a few units are also having trouble with the heat being so harsh outside.”
Colfax paused for a while, pondering while he drummed his little fingers on the strap of the bag he always carried over a shoulder. Finally, he spoke. “And you are rationalizing working. Why not stop?”
Adrian raised his eyebrows. Colfax, of course, wouldn’t have anything like a job, he had no need for one. He probably didn’t understand the importance of it. “Well. I could take a break. Maybe rest until the worst of the heat passes. I think I have some ice cream in the freezer that might cool me down.”
Colfax glanced down at the lit drafting table, then the sleeping laptop, and then back at Adrian. “Ice cream should work. But not at your desk. The drawing.”
That odd little sense of courtesy was back again, and Adrian’s smile widened. “No, never near the drawings. Wanna meet me in the kitchen? You could probably use a cool down too, no way the walls are any better than out here in the open.”
“They’re worse,” Colfax confirmed, without a sense of complaint. “I’ll meet you there.”
The GT July prompt today is "friendship" and Oh My Gosh how do I pick just one friendship to write about??? I ended up writing about Colfax and Adrian, my characters from the Trust Multiverse (co-created with @creatorofuniverses). This is set in the A Little More Trust AU, or really any AU where both of them are viri (tiny, for those of you who haven't read any of the Trust stories).
This one ended up being a little bit longer than most of my GT July shorts; not by too much, but just a heads up!
~~~
Adrian traversed the walls without really thinking too hard about the route. He knew the way to different areas in the house by memory, down to how many steps he and the other viri had installed in various places to move from level to level among the support boards, pipes, and other bones of the house hidden behind paint and drywall. Much of it had been put in place by his family; mother, father, aunts, uncle. Adrian had added extra pulley systems farther away from their house near the pantry. Almost anywhere anyone wanted to go in the house, they could get there with ease and, in Adrian’s opinion, style.
The negative space within the walls of a human home provided a surprising amount of space to work with; viri could go far in there without once needing to venture into the actual house where they were at risk of being spotted by a human.
This house had enough such space that, less than half a year ago, a new family of viri had moved in and settled on the other side of the house. The Hammonds had needed to move from their previous home rather suddenly, and Adrian’s family, the Kennets, were happy to accept them in their midst. Two of the Hammond kids were even close to Adrian in age - sixteen to his fourteen - something he thought he’d never encounter growing up as the only kid around.
Adrian was on his way to visit them with a few things weighing down his bag, some gifts sent over by his mom. As he walked, he buzzed with nervous energy; the older two kids, a pair of twins, always carried themselves with a certain confidence and intensity. It was intimidating even just thinking about it. By contrast, their little sister was much cheerier and had happily taken to having even more people around her to give her attention.
At length, he reached where the Hammonds had chosen to build up their home. Most of the building was there, with a few spots that needed better sealing or more framing to be complete, but it was a working shelter that had distinct rooms and would become a home soon enough.
Adrian knocked on the door, a hinged metal lid, and it made a strange little clanging noise to announce his arrival. Someone inside told him to come in, and he peeked into the main room before entering.
“Adrian, it’s nice to see you.” The greeting came from Carla, the mother of the Hammond family. She sat at their table with little Brigid, only four years old, on her lap. Gwendolyn, one of the twins, sat opposite her, and she held up a hand in a casual wave. Sounds in one of the curtained-off side rooms suggested Mr. Hammond and Colfax, the other twin, were working on some building in there.
“Hi,” Adrian greeted, already opening his bag as he stepped over to the table. “Um. Sorry to interrupt anything. My mom wanted to send a few things over, and I thought I might come and, well, hang around, maybe help out if there’s something that needs to be put together.”
Brigid piped up before her mother or sister could get a word in. “That’s for me?” she asked, eyeing the bundles Adrian pulled from his bag.
With a grin, he set aside some of the wrapped parcels of sticky tack and insulation fluff for the house and offered a piece of folded cloth to the girl, who grabbed it eagerly. He glanced at the girl’s mom. “My mom made her a new jacket. I hope you don’t mind.”
As Brigid unfolded the jacket to observe the small, colorful patches sewn into the back, Carla smiled gratefully. “Oh, that’s lovely, isn’t it dear? What do you tell Adrian for bringing that to you?”
Brigid beamed up at Adrian, clutching her new jacket close. “Thaaaaank you, Adriaaan,” she drawled, ending with a giggle. “It’s pretty!”
“That’s really nice,” Gwendolyn agreed. Then, she sent Adrian a small smile. “Did you really come out here to run the risk of being asked to help build something for us? You know dad will probably take you up on that offer.”
Adrian laughed lightly. “I don’t mind helping out. I kinda like building things, and I’ve never had a reason to help build a whole house before, so …” he tapered off into a shrug before he could ramble on too much.
Gwendolyn didn’t tease him like she sometimes teased her brother for whatever opportunity she could find. Instead, she looked through the building supplies Adrian had brought before putting the sticky tack (wrapped securely in wax paper) back in his hands. “If you insist, Adrian. I think they’ll want this in there; today we’re finally getting an actual ceiling on our room.”
“No more tent for us,” Brigid said, sounding like she was trying her best to have a grown-up conversation. Her pigtails and her seat on her mother’s lap offset the appearance a bit, but as a Hammond she could look about as serious as she pleased.
Adrian nodded. “That sounds great, I’ll go see if I can help.” With that, he went to the curtained off room to see what he could do.
The sight that greeted him gave him pause just past the doorway. It still surprised him, sometimes, seeing just how tall any of the Hammonds were. The women in the other room were both seated so the effect wasn’t as strong, but Colfax and his dad, Arthur, stood at the far corners of the room reaching up to place wide popsicle sticks atop the walls to act as a sturdier ceiling. Colfax was nearly six inches tall and his dad had cleared that height; to Adrian, who hadn’t cleared five inches tall yet (and whose family tended to stand on the short side), the Hammonds cut intimidating figures by stature alone, to say nothing of the intense set of their brows or their dark eyes.
Even so, he recovered as quickly as he could to cough politely. “Hey, Colfax, hey Arthur. I came by to see if you needed help with anything.”
They looked over their shoulders in unison, and Adrian waved cheerfully. Colfax didn’t say anything, but his dad grinned in greeting. “Hey, Adrian. We won’t say no to any help with this - what’cha got there?”
Adrian peeled back part of the wax paper to show off the light grey lump of sticky, rubbery clay. “Something to help keep those sticks in place better, I’d guess. Gwendolyn said you might want this. Brought it over with a few other things for the house. It’s starting to come together really nicely!”
“That’s perfect,” Arthur said, glancing at Colfax and nodding in Adrian’s direction. “Colfax, why don’t you help him divide some of that up into portions we need. I’ll get some more of these shingles in place.”
Colfax let go of the piece of the ceiling he was holding up, making sure his dad wouldn’t drop it, before beckoning Adrian over to take a seat on one of the beds in the room. He sat a respectful distance away on the bed and didn’t really meet Adrian’s gaze, but when Adrian settled to a seat Colfax finally said something in greeting. “Adrian. Hello.”
He always seemed so distant, and Adrian, used to friendlier personalities, felt like hitting a wall every time he started a conversation with the guy. Still, he didn’t want to let it stop him from making an effort; he could be friends with Colfax, same as with the other Hammonds. It might take a little bit of learning to get it right, but he’d do it, intimidation or not. “Hi, Colfax. Let me just -” he paused while trying to divide the lump of sticky tack into two. It was tougher than he’d thought. Once he had two pieces, he handed one off to Colfax. “How are you?”
Colfax hummed noncommittally as he set the tack on his lap and started pulling off smaller portions of it, rolling them into spheres ready to be put to use sealing up any holes in the new roof. “Tired. Didn’t sleep much.”
Adrian tilted his head, trying and mostly failing to catch Colfax’s eye. “That’s too bad,” he said, as gently as he could. They’d had similar conversations before in previous attempts at small talk. Colfax didn’t take well to someone feeling bad for him. “Wanna go on a walk later? After we get this stuff sorted out, maybe. Then you’ll probably be plenty tired and you’ll sleep like a rock.”
Colfax’s gaze flickered his way before returning to the task on his lap. “Where to?”
Adrian grinned. Coming from Colfax, that terse bit of curiosity might as well be a beaming endorsement of the idea. “Well, I know you guys have been sticking to the first floor for now, for the most part,” he mused. “We don’t go up there too often either, since the humans spend so much time in their rooms up there. But there’s some good spots to check out for stuff that gets dropped. And there’s a vent up there that I sometimes use to look at the backyard. You can see the park from there, and a bunch of neat stuff.”
Colfax was quiet for a time, and Adrian gave him the space to think about it. The two of them had a decent pile of sticky tack lumps between them before Colfax finally responded. “I’ll go. After this.”
Adrian smiled and nodded and did his best to school his expression and not look too excited over his progress towards friendship. “Sure. It’ll be fun.”
Today the prompt is "Comfort". I had such a tough time deciding who should receive the comfort in today's short, but I finally landed on vir Colfax. This is the youngest I've ever written Colfax, and it's a glimpse into the fact that he has been The Way He Is for quite some time.
~~~
Are you sure you’re ready to go on a supply run while the humans are home? Not gonna get scared again, are you?
Gwen’s words, somehow blending teasing and concern, echoed in Colfax’s thoughts as he followed after his father, both of them stooped low under the cover of a chest of drawers. She always had to point out how frightened he used to get when the humans, those towering beings that ruled the world, got loud out in the rooms of their house. The house in which one viri family kept hidden in the walls and floorboards. It wasn’t Colfax’s fault the place was rowdy and loud most days. It wasn’t his fault that viri were small and vulnerable.
Not that it mattered as much anymore. He was twelve now, well on his way to being grown. He could climb a string and much of the furniture decently well, when he got the chance to practice outside the safety of the walls. And, if his father’s height was any indication, Colfax could expect a significant growth spurt any day now.
They had come to what the humans called their “craft room” to look for supplies, and to help Colfax practice his eye for what they could and could not take.
He used to practice these things with his sister, but lately he and Gwen found themselves bickering a lot. They risked arguing too loudly and catching a human’s attention, or distracting themselves from danger. So, Colfax and his father were on their own for this supply run.
They’d already confirmed that the humans who were home were all busy in other rooms of the house. The “craft room” stood still and empty, with two work desks, some rolling carts with plastic drawers on them, and the heavy chest of drawers the two viri hid beneath. Once they neared the front, where the protective shadows ended, they paused to listen and observe.
Colfax had never needed much practice staying quiet. He didn’t say much even when it felt safe to do so. His father, Arthur, could be more talkative and even jovial when they were at home. Here, though, he was as serious as Colfax had ever seen him. That kind of focus kept viri safe. Colfax tried to emulate that focus as much as he could. He took comfort in controlling as much of a given situation as he was able to.
Arthur glanced his way. Colfax tensed, watching his father’s face for the verdict on their next step.
“TV’s still on downstairs,” Arthur murmured, his voice barely audible even to Colfax. Colfax nodded once; the humans were occupied. Arthur glanced out over the well-worn wood floor, a vast expanse before them. They’d have to step out into the open soon enough. “Where do you think we should start?”
Colfax was startled; he hadn’t expected to have much say in the progress of their supply run. He was still learning, observing from his parents like any smart viri kid should do. Having that trust from his father gave him some confidence.
“The closer work desk?” he asked, glancing aside at the nearest desk. Only two feet of floor separated them, with a cheaper plastic chest of drawers tucked in between the desk and the larger wooden one they sheltered beneath. “We can climb the plastic thing.”
Arthur judged the distance thoughtfully. Colfax watched him steadily as if he might glean some kind of assessment before it came. Finally, Arthur looked back at him and nodded once. “Alright. Let’s go.”
~~~
Their journey up to the top of the work desk wasn’t as simple as Colfax had hoped. While his father could climb the front of the plastic drawers easily, Colfax found that he struggled to reach some levels. He wasn’t quite tall enough yet, so he didn’t move nearly as gracefully as his father did up ahead. Still, he wasn’t going to back down, not when he’d come up with this plan. There wasn’t that much of a delay to them reaching the top of the work desk.
From there, they had plenty to choose from. Aside from the bulky sewing machine and the project in progress, a number of pins and scraps of fabric littered the desk. Some cuts of paper, leftover from a sewing pattern, also lay crumpled to the side. More plastic storage stood at the back of the desk, sporting a grid of plastic drawers more suited to viri size.
“I’ll see what’s in those,” Arthur decided. “Colfax, you should pick out a few pins and some fabric that looks like it won’t be missed. You know what to pick?”
Colfax nodded. He had gone over this a lot growing up. He used to ask question after question to clarify what was best to take and what they should leave behind lest the humans find out. Sometimes, he could have sworn his parents were absolutely exhausted by his endless questioning.
The two viri set to their respective tasks, with Arthur checking the smaller storage and Colfax stepping carefully among the scraps next to the sewing machine. He picked out a few good-sized pieces, something they’d definitely be able to use without having to cut them into shape too much. He was proud; even with the wide-open room around him, he focused on the task and found something good they’d be able to bring home.
Finally, he could put an end to Gwen’s teasing.
Somewhere downstairs, the front door opened and the loud, commanding voice of the woman of the house flowed in from outside. She was louder than the TV as she greeted her family, and Colfax couldn’t help but stare at the door of the craft room. The front door closed with a careless slam, a habit Colfax hated but could of course offer no reprimand for it. A conversation started up, the words unclear but the voices unmistakable.
Soon after, far sooner than Colfax would have liked, the stairs creaked. The third one always squealed loudly when a human stepped on it, so they couldn’t mistake it for stomping footsteps on the main floor.
The human was coming upstairs.
Colfax turned to see his father already striding towards him, his bag clasped closed and his face serious. Colfax held out his hand and let his father take it, leading him towards the back of the desk. Colfax stumbled after his father’s longer stride, his heart already pounding in spite of himself.
“Should we-” he started, only to shut his mouth when Arthur shook his head sharply. The pair of them ducked behind the plastic storage, barely more than an inch of space between it and the wall. They crouched down and Colfax watched his father’s face with growing unease.
They hadn’t expected this. They couldn’t have planned for the human to return and come straight upstairs -
The craft room’s door burst open with the same vigor that that woman always had. Her volume, her exuberance, her loud joy for being alive seemed to infect every human in the house. By contrast, it filled Colfax with cold dread.
She wasn’t even in the room for long. She set down some bags of shopping near her desk, coming within a few feet of the viri hidden there. Then, she was back at the door, already shouting down the stairs about something. The door slammed, and Colfax flinched.
He didn’t even realize right away that he was shaking.
His father listened for several seconds more, all focus and no fear at all. Colfax didn’t understand how he did it. He watched his father’s face and found none of his own fear reflected there.
When Arthur finally looked back at Colfax, he frowned. “Hey,” he muttered, drawing Colfax into a strong, steady hug without needing to ask. “It’s okay, Colfax. This happens all the time. That’s why we pick places with nearby hiding spots, just in case.”
Colfax shuddered in that safe, comforting embrace. “I-I didn’t know she’d come up,” he explained weakly. His carefully chosen plan had gone wrong. They were safe, and no suspicion had been aroused, but still. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.
“No one knows for sure with that one,” Arthur said, a weak laugh coloring his voice. “You did great, staying quiet and getting out of sight fast.”
Colfax wasn’t so sure. If he couldn’t predict something so simple this time, what would stop him from making an even worse mistake? He needed to do better. He needed to be better. For his own sake and for everyone else’s.
Putting that thought aside, he finally hugged his father back and buried his face in his chest. “Can we go home for now?”
Can't go wrong with viri!Colfax/hoomin!Adrian shenanigans (or vice versa, honestly they're both so fun lol)
You’re right! We can’t go wrong with those two! So here’s how they met!
We've seen a similar dynamic in A Little Bit of Magic, though of course that's a much more fantastical AU. This one is back in the slice of life sort of setting, with a small and distrusting Colfax meeting a human who has a touch aversion; probably the best person to discover a viri, honestly.
( DA Link )
~~~
It couldn’t be the worst situation Colfax had found himself in, but it definitely wasn’t the best. He stood rigid behind a tall water bottle and listened. The bottle was the tallest thing on the shelf arranged over his human’s broad desk, and judging by the dust on it, it would remain at least a while longer. Once the human got into his drawing on that strange desk he could light up from beneath, he tended to focus closely on it for quite some time.
Therein lay the problem. Colfax didn’t have a good route back to the floor, let alone into the walls to hide. He didn’t trust that focus to hold up when a viri was in view.
At most, he could lean to the side just enough to peek around the edge of the water bottle. Adrian sat in a familiar pose. One hand combed partially through his pale blond hair while the other guided a drafting pencil along a huge piece of paper. Powder blue eyes focused on the task at hand.
From what Colfax knew, the resident human earned his living through those drawings, most of them showing the layout of buildings or their exteriors. He hadn’t seen many places other than the houses he grew up in and his current apartment complex, but by his knowledge, the drawings captured real life quite well.
That attention to detail might deter a viri from taking up residence near Adrian’s apartment. Colfax remained out of convenience more than anything. Adrian had moved in at the start of summer, and now with fall approaching Colfax had no further desire to move. He’d been careful to learn Adrian’s routine, more or less.
Getting caught out without a route home was embarrassing, but at least no one would ever know. Normally he’d be in the kitchen or the hall closet, not up on the desk or its shelf. No viri would spend too much time in the areas their humans occupied most often.
He had just resigned himself to standing around for at least another hour when Adrian’s chair creaked. A clatter broke the silence, followed by the steady rolling of a pencil down the slanted desk. Adrian blurted out in surprise and Colfax winced.
As the human fumbled after his lost pencil, Colfax tensed and all but refused to breathe.
Then, he drew in a sharp gasp as something hit the desk below, bumping it harshly into the wall. Colfax flinched against the water bottle as the whole shelf rattled. Unfortunately, the water bottle turned out to be much lighter than it looked; it tilted, and Colfax tilted with it.
The next couple of seconds blurred together as fear shot through him like a bolt of lightning. The brief, panicked notion that he’d be seen flitted across his awareness even as the bottle tipped over the edge of the shelf and he stumbled right after it.
He found himself clinging to the edge of the shelf with one hand and didn’t fully remember actually grabbing it. Below, the water bottle landed on Adrian’s outstretched hand. Colfax blinked at it in surprise before his gaze slowly rose to the human’s face.
Adrian stared back in quiet shock with Colfax exactly eye level with him.
The human spared them an awkward silence, if only barely. “Um. What?” He distractedly set the water bottle aside without taking his eyes off of Colfax and his plight. Colfax couldn’t pull his attention away either, though his reasons were different.
Humans didn’t fascinate him all that much. He’d never admit it out loud, but they filled him with more fear than anything else did. No animal represented a loss of control over his life quite like the giant being staring at him.
The hand gripping the edge of the shelf threatened to cramp. With a wince, Colfax took his gaze off Adrian’s awed expression to turn and grab the edge with his other hand. Kicking his legs and straining his arms, he hauled himself back up onto mostly-solid ground. He scrambled back from the edge enough to avoid the risk of falling again, and only then did he return his focus (and a distrusting frown) to Adrian. Any moment now, he suspected, the human would grab for him.
To his surprise, Adrian sighed and rubbed at his eyes instead. “I gotta be hallucinating,” he mumbled.
That was promising. Colfax could work with that. He sought something to say to convince Adrian that he was indeed dreaming up the whole encounter.
Then, Adrian stared at him and went on. “But why would I imagine a … tiny clumsy person? Where’d this even come from?”
Clumsy?!
“I’m not the clumsy one here. You’re making a ruckus,” Colfax snipped, the words spilling out before he could reconsider.
“I--” Adrian stammered, before shutting his mouth and blinking with surprise. The faintest pink hue colored his cheeks, though Colfax couldn’t fathom what would embarrass him. “I guess I did, um, make a bunch of noise just now. Um. Sorry about that, I guess. It probably startled you pretty good and all. Have you, um, been up there the whole time?”
It was Colfax’s turn to not know what to say right away. Adrian had said a lot all at once, and the best part to actually respond to wasn’t clear. He took the easy route. “Since you sat down, yes.”
Adrian’s brow pinched. “I’ve been drawing for two hours,” he realized. “You were hiding up there for two hours? Why?”
“Really?” Colfax asked, skeptical. “You can’t think of a reason?” Inwardly, he kicked himself for snarking at someone who could trap him with absolutely no effort.
Adrian sighed, and then a smile ghosted across his face. Even as he stared openly at Colfax, he seemed less and less likely to respond badly to any snark. He hadn’t once brought a hand close to Colfax’s place on the shelf. “I trapped you up there, didn’t I?” he asked quietly. After Colfax’s hesitant nod, Adrian sighed again. “I guess I get it. S’pose I owe you an apology.”
Colfax frowned, as confused as ever and not wanting to show it. “Why? It’s your house.”
That drew a quiet, raspy laugh out of Adrian. “Okay. Sure. Maybe I should backtrack here. Seeing as I almost knocked you over after making you wait around while I drafted. My name’s Adrian.”
Colfax knew that, but opted not to say so. No need to give away too much at once. Even so, Adrian’s introduction expected a response. Did he dare?
Featuring Colfax and Adrian a few months after the events of A Little More Trust! They've kept their skills sharp, for the most part, but, well, their luck is about as varied as it usually is.
For the original story with these versions of Colfax and Adrian, start with A Little More Trust Cpt. 1
For more stories with these characters in their various forms, check out A Reader's Guide to the Trust Multiverse , shared with the wonderful @creatorofuniverses
Colfax and Adrian are mine, and Charlie and Sawyer (mentioned) belong to my cowriter!
I said earlier that I hadn't crossposted this AU here, but it turns out I had posted part one. On my other blog. Oops. In any case, now the trust blog will be caught up.
Reading Time: ~5 minutes
It's Colfax's turn to cause a scene, and of course he has to be the biggest drama baby about it. He just can't help himself sometimes. However, it seems the viri is starting to accept that maybe he can get along with this human. Maybe.
~~~
The faintest frown adorned Colfax's face while he observed the room and the human in it. His vantage point, a crack in the drywall where two pieces of the baseboard didn't quite seam together, gave him a low angle on the furniture. A strange, slanted desk flanked by tall bookshelves dominated one wall, and Colfax focused there
Adrian, the resident human, sat hunched over another of his drawings. He spent much of his time like that. This wasn't new to Colfax. What stood out was the fact that Adrian's schedule hadn't changed at all after he'd discovered Colfax's existence days ago
They'd had a polite enough conversation (as polite as Colfax got, anyway), and then Colfax had made his exit without a single protest by the human. In fact, Adrian had never even tried to touch Colfax.
Not a single grab. Not even a nudge.
At the time, it all felt like a ruse to get Colfax's guard down. Something to convince him he'd be safe in this apartment only to fall into a trap. Perhaps, he'd thought, Adrian wanted to see if more viri lived nearby. Humans didn't just let viri go free
And this human had gone back to his routine like nothing happened. Colfax didn't understand.
He hated not understanding.
He huffed out a sigh and turned away. He'd find out more. It was practically his obligation to his species. Then, he would have the information he needed to decide his next step.
The familiar path through the living room wall led him only a few feet away. There, another seam in the baseboard hid a real door. He placed his hands on it and listened to the room beyond. No change. Adrian remained at his desk, drawing away, so Colfax was safe to step out.
He scanned the room even as he exited the safety of the walls. One could never be too careful, he reasoned, even around a human as deeply focused as Adrian.
Most of the living room stayed neat. The couch and TV stand occasionally hosted books or bags of shopping, but for the most part Adrian saved his clutter for the desk and the shelves on either side. Colfax had learned all of these tendencies early in his secret cohabitation with Adrian. He knew the schedule, such as it was, and the habits Adrian kept. All that he'd learned didn't explain why the human was so blasé about discovering a viri.
His goal was the TV stand. From there, he'd be able to see onto the desk a bit better without walking right onto it. If anything suspicious waited up there, he wasn't about to walk right into a human's trap.
If he could make it that far. Partway towards the new hiding spot, Colfax noticed something under the edge of the couch. He couldn't discern what it was before, mid-jog, something caught his foot and he tripped.
Colfax sucked a gasp and his arms flailed, but he couldn't prevent his topple to the floor. He hit the carpet with a huff, only a bit winded but surprised all the same.
He propped himself up with an accusing glare behind. A cable, perhaps a charger for something, snaked across the floor and up onto a side table. Colfax hadn’t noticed or expected such a thing, not right in the middle of the floor.
Before he could berate himself or get back to his feet, the chair at the desk creaked.
Right, he recalled. Adrian is here.
His gaze whipped up to the human just as Adrian turned to see what had caused the noise.
As that gaze, so high up, landed on him, Colfax felt a strange lurch in his stomach. This encounter, so different from their last, somehow frightened him more. This time, rather than hanging level with the human, Colfax had to look up from the lowest perspective he could. Even seated, Adrian towered over him, and Colfax felt his size, his lack of control.
Adrian was not a large or intimidating human by most standards. He was thin and rather pale and not at all bulky. Colfax had seen him next to other humans for comparison. As far as humans went, he was petite.
Knowing all that didn’t bring Colfax much comfort now. He was still toppled on the floor, several feet away from anywhere he could hide. He was still small enough to be dwarfed by a single hand. A few steps and one grab and Adrian could trap Colfax for good. By tripping over one stupid cable, Colfax had handed that power over to the human in an instant.
“Oh,” Adrian said, drawing Colfax out of his concerned spiral if only a bit. “Hello, Colfax. Um. What are you up to?”
Such an odd question. So mundane and casual and friendly. One would think they’d passed each other in the hall. Colfax, already in a post-panic daze, didn’t have an answer. His brow pinched and he shifted so he sat up, knees bent and hands propped behind him.
Offering no reply had been the wrong choice. Adrian’s expression shifted into concern, and he rose from his seat before Colfax could blink. For an instant he stood tall over the room, ice blue eyes fixed on Colfax all the way down on the floor. It was enough to send a jolt through Colfax’s stomach.
One step and then a kneel brought the human much closer, his worried look growing in the sudden shift of perspective. Colfax balked, but he had no time at all to scramble back.
“Are you hurt?” Adrian asked, resting a hand on the floor to brace himself. He didn’t seem to notice how much he loomed, or perhaps didn’t mind it in his worry.
Colfax finally found it in himself to answer. “No,” he said, the word accompanied by a quick shake of his head. “Just surprised.”
Adrian looked him over, and Colfax, caught in that gaze, didn’t move. At length, Adrian noticed the charging cable and how close Colfax had fallen by it. “Guess you’re the one to make a ruckus this time, then,” he teased, a light spark of mischief in his eyes now that the worry had passed. “Now we’re even.”
Colfax huffed and found his nerves waning as the opportunity for orneriness arose. “I’d say you still caused it, leaving stuff lying around.” He relaxed a hair, but stayed planted, watching the human carefully.
His sass earned a snicker from Adrian. “Right,” Adrian mused. “Charging something on my own end table. Very disorganized.” He sat back a bit as he spoke, apparently no longer needing to loom now that the urgency was gone.
“Glad we agree,” Colfax snipped.
Adrian snickered again. “My bad cleaning skills aside, what brings you out in the open today? Haven’t heard anything from you in a few days, I wondered if you took off.”
I’m supposed to, Colfax thought. The Code was clear on that. Then again, it was also clear that he should not be doing what he was doing in the first place. He shouldn’t tell a human anything.
“Just taking a stroll,” he said, a wry tone in his voice.
“Is that so,” Adrian replied, clearly not believing it if his smirk meant anything. “If my living room is gonna be a new route for you, I might have to do some rearranging.”
Colfax’s brow pinched again. There was nothing for it. Before he allowed the human to confuse him as thoroughly as he’d done last time, he asked “Why are you …” he gestured a hand vaguely in the air, “like this. You talk to me like I’m any other neighbor.”
Adrian tilted his head. “Well, you … you kind of are, aren’t you?”
Colfax had never thought of it that way, not with any human he’d lived hear. Neighbors were more than just people who lived nearby. They shared space, yes, but also stories, lives. “... Ah,” he muttered, understanding at least a part of it. “Maybe, in a sense.”
“It works for me,” Adrian said, his smile reappearing. “But … really, what are you up to? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you out and about. And not that you shouldn’t or anything, it just doesn’t seem normal, I guess. Are you looking for anything?”
Colfax pursed his lips and his focus slid away from Adrian’s face. For a moment he didn’t know what else to focus on, until he found what had distracted him in the first place; an art eraser had fallen under the couch at some point. He stared at that for a beat before shrugging and finally looking back up at Adrian. “I was looking to see if you’d done anything to tell someone,” he admitted. “About me.”
Adrian’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “Oh, no! Of course not, Colfax. I mean, for one, no one would really believe me, and for another thing, it wouldn’t seem … I guess I was right, thinking you wouldn’t want the secret out. Considering you hid from me for hours and all.”
Colfax huffed out a sigh that could also be a laugh if he really pushed the definition. “Some humans would have gone right for the traps,” he pointed out. “But thank you.”
Adrian smiled faintly, though some of his worry had yet to disappear. “Yeah,” he said. His voice was thoughtful, subdued. “I guess maybe they would … you don’t have to worry about anything like that from me, I promise.”
Colfax’s shoulders relaxed. He hadn’t even realized they were tensed up. He found himself sitting awkwardly on the middle of the floor, less and less worried about the human sitting so close. At the first sign of trouble, he was ready to bolt, but he believed more and more that he wouldn’t see any signs at all. Adrian’s hands didn’t even twitch his way.
“I’ll hold you to it,” he replied, earning a snicker from the human.
