Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Faer grip was tight against the pole as the subway car clattered along the rails. Fluorescent light hit faer eyes harshly and fae settled for keeping faer head down and staring at the floor, ignoring the many patrons of the car. A rotten smell hit faer nose and fae figured that was a good enough excuse as any to explain away the collecting tears in faer eyes. The stiffness in faer muscles was purely do to the sprint fae had taken to catch the train on time and nothing to do with the crushing weight that had settled in faer chest. 

‘A Whole New World’ started playing and fae scrambled to pull out faer phone and turn the ringer down. Faer mouth went dry as fae read the caller. Fae wanted so badly to just mute the phone and pocket it again until fae got home, knowing just what conversation was bound to happen should fae answer it. There were consequences to such an action though and by the third ring fae was taking a deep breath and sliding the call button to the right. Fae forced a grin across faer face as fae greeted the caller, “Donna, darling, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Don’t BS me Roman, I know what happened today,” She snapped through the receiver.

Fae continued faer casual tone as fae felt the dam start to crack, “I know, I know, I didn’t follow the script to the T during the audition but-”

“You forgot the whole damn song, Roman,” She cut faem off,  “Did you even bother to learn it? This role was practically handed to you on a silver platter and you lost it to some twenty-something kid with a labret piercing.” 

“Of course I learned the song, I just blanked! it happens to everyone, truly. Look, today was just an off day, I’ll get the next role, I promise.”

“Oh yes, just like you promised to get this one, and the role before this, and the role before that. Face it, you’re not an actor, you’re a grown adult playing pretend and hoping everything will just work out cause you wish and dream like some damn Disney princess. I’m done.”

“You don’t mean that,” faer voice lowered as fae swallowed dryly, “Donna, come on, just get me one more audition. You won’t regret it. You can increase your fee, fifteen precent, how about that? I get the next role and you’ll get fifteen percent. Donna, please, one last chance.”

“No, Roman, this is it. Good luck,” She answered and hung up.

Fae barely dared to breathe as fae listened to the tone ring in faer ear. Tears were quickly starting to slip past faer lashes and fae pocketed faer phone to wipe them away before anyone could see them. Fae caught the eye of a girl sitting across from faem and she gave faem a sympathetic smile, but it did nothing to ease the pain of faer shattered career.

Two more stops passed before faer own was called above on the speakers and fae sighed in relief as fae was still wiping away stray tears every now and then. The doors opened and fae pushed faeself out before anyone had the chance to move. Fae was back in faer apartment within minutes, the door shutting with a deep thud.

Fae looked out around faer small apartment, the white walls covered in paintings of faer own and posters of various movies and tv series. The red couch still had faer favorite blanket thrown over the top and the tv sat silent and black by the window surrounded by shelves filled with Disney movies, musicals, and romcoms. The fridge in the kitchen to faer left erupted with noise as the ice maker went off. The familiarity and safety of it put the last nail in the coffin as fae slid down the door. Fae pulled faer knees to faer chest as a sob, and another after that, quickly followed by another, shook through faer entire body. Faer face was hot, soaked in tears and snot that left dark spots on faer jeans. 

Losing Donna as faer agent was a tragedy to faer career, her expertise in the business was the only thing that got faem quality auditions in the first place. No agent before her was willing to take faem seriously as anything more than a telenovelas side character. Now with her gone, and likely not willing to give a good recommendation to any potential agents fae may find in the future, fae wasn’t sure what to do now.

Perhaps she was right, maybe fae wasn't good enough of an actor to make a career. Fae had always believed it to be faer passion, but what was the point of pursuing said passion if you weren’t any good at it. Fae could sing. Fae could put emotion into faer voice. Fae could get into a character with ease. But all of that was for naught if fae couldn’t remember the lines or blanked on a song when put on the spot.

Fae wiped faer nose on faer sleeve and grimaced at the snot that was left. Deciding to ditch the shirt fae pulled it over faer head and used the front of it to wipe the rest of faer face off. Fae pried faer itchy and soiled jeans off as well as fae got up, and headed to faer bedroom. Fae tossed the two articles into faer hamper and with shaky hands grabbed sweat pants from faer dresser and slipped them over faer legs; fae didn’t bother with another shirt, settling for wrapping a soft Frozen blanket around faer shoulders. 

Disney had been in faer life since faer mother had sung the songs to her stomach while she carried faem and faer twin and fae had been obsessed with the movies and content ever since fae could comprehend the sounds and colors on the tv. The movies are what made faem want to become an entertainer in the first place. They were why fae sang and took theater and learned the chivalric code at age seven. Fae dreamed of being someone’s prince charming some day. That dream was crashing around faem today.

Fae shuffled into the kitchen and pulled the blanket tighter around faeself as fae went through the motions of making faeself tea. Fae filled the kettle with water and set it on the stove to boil before pulling the sweetened almond milk and honey out of the fridge and grabbing faer favorite Wicked mug out of the cupboard. Fae took to scrolling Instagram as fae waited, liking posts of acquaintances and celebrities without really taking them in.

Most of faer friends fae hadn’t seen since leaving college. Finding time to hang out had been easy for faem but none of faer friends could ever find time for faem. After a while fae had given up on the whole friend thing. Fae contacted them occasionally, asked them how they were doing, commented on their posts and pictures if fae felt it was necessary, but nothing ever left the phone, much to faer dismay. fae had tried a few dating apps as well but, again, nothing got past the messages, let alone the first date.

The kettle blew and fae set faer phone down just long enough to pour the steaming water into the mug and drop in the tea bag. Fae went back to scrolling for another few minutes to let it steep. 

Selfie. Pic of pet. Pic of kids. Selfie. Political opinion. Political opinion. Political opinion. Selfie. Bad movie review. Pic of Kids. Insurance ad. Pic of Mini-

Well that was different. Fae glanced over the image before taking another minute to finish making faer tea, adding a bit of milk and a generous amount of honey. The picture was of Kai, an old acquaintance from high school, his teal dyed hair shoved underneath a black snapback, he wore graphic tank top over top his chest binder, and his tongue sticking out at the camera; next to him was his girlfriend, who’s name was escaping faem at the moment, with her dark hair pulled behind her shoulders, and wearing a black letterman over a green shirt. In Kai’s hand was a Mini, they were waving at the camera shyly as they gripped the fabric of their black skirt with the other hand, their cropped black hair falling into their eyes and their skin even paler than Kai’s, which fae thought was quite a feat. Fae liked the picture as fae moved to sit in the living room, reading the caption as fae sipped faer tea. 

“Picked up this little dude up from MiniMe today. The process took ages but we’re super excited to be adding Elliot to our dumb little family. They‘re pretty cool and it’s gonna be fun getting to know them and having them around while Lauren is at work.”

So Lauren was her name, fae would have to remember. Fae did keep faer eye on the Mini, an idea forming. MiniMe had popped up quite suddenly in the past few years. Their advertisements played before the Youtube videos fae watched and during faer Hulu shows and fae had looked at their website once or twince in interest. MiniMe advertised tiny Companions, occasionally refered to as Minies, they were little people that you could adopt to live with you and take care of and befriend. Minies were people who volunteered to MiniMe who would then shrink them down to a handheld size and be adopted by others. Many of these volunteers, from what fae could tell, were retired adults and elderly that had finished working and saw the merit of someone else taking care of them till the end of their life. Then there were those like Elliot, young adults that, for any number of personal reasons, decided that working and taking care of themselves was not for them, whether those reasons were due to physical, mental and/or emotional inability, or just a dislike for doing so. 

Fae had considered adopting faer own Mini a while ago, it sounded like a great way to keep faem company when friends were scarce to come by, but with an inconsistent schedule and not being able to bring one along with faem to auditions it had seemed cruel to adopt someone just to leave them home alone for hours on end. Now though, the opposite option was peaking faer interest. With apparently no future in acting, fae would have to find something else to do with faer life, why not this? Fae sipped faer tea as fae pulled faer laptop up from the coffee table and searched the MiniMe website.

The first thing, as fae expected, was the synopsis with a direct link to the adoption info. It was about the same thing fae heard from the ads as fae skimmed over it. Faer gaze shifted to the top of the page at the tabs and clicked on the one labeled ‘Volunteer’.

An hour of reading all the information they provided and a phone call to the number available later fae had an appointment with one of the doctor’s at the nearby MiniMe lab. Dr. Magenta apparently could squeeze faem in two days from now after he listened to Roman’s plight. He told faem that he’d be glad to help faem become a MiniMe Companion and that he would have all the paperwork prepped for faem when fae arrived.

Roman spent those two days doing a little prepping faeself, cancelling faer online subscriptions and starting packing much of faer apartment away into boxes. It made the time pass by much quicker than it had in a long while, unlike waiting for auditions and friends to text back. Fae was very grateful for the distraction of not having to think about what fae had lost and it gave faem something to look towards. By the time the day had arrived fae was giddy to begin. Fae picked out faer outfit, a white and red floral jacket, with matching pants over a black button up, before heading out to catch the Uber fae had called. 

The MiniLab was a little over a twenty minute drive from faer apartment and fae spent the entire trip nervously humming along to the Disney music playing through faer headphones. Faer heart quickened at the sight of the modern building as faer driver pulled around front. It was big, a few stories high with curved walls that twisted and climbed, sections popping out like flower buds ready to sprout. The car stopped and, after thanking and tipping the driver, fae climbed out and walked up to the high glass panels of a front entrance.

Fae took a deep breath before pushing open the doors. The lobby was just as modern as the exterior, with white walls and glass dividers, sleek gray couches and armchairs and the occasional potted plant shoved into the corner. A few people were sitting around, a young woman with her legs scrunched up in an armchair as her hair fell into her face as she stared intently at her phone, an old gentleman with a fedora who held tightly to his cane as he waited patiently, and two ladies who were no older than sixty that flipped through the magazines and gossiped with each other like they were old friends. The front desk was wide and tall with only one receptionist typing away at her computer, her black braids pulled back with a purple hairband and large golden hoops dangling from her ears. She wore a slim grey dress and she looked up at faem and smiled with her lips painted a lovely dark purple that matched well with her skin tone.

“How can I help you?” She asked as fae came up to the counter. Her name tag said Andrea and her pronouns.

“Yes- I made an appointment with Dr. Magenta about volunteering. My name is Roman King,” fae answered.

She nodded and pulled out a clipboard, holding it up for faem to take, “I’ll tell him you’re here. Can you fill this out while you wait?”

“Of course.” fae took the clipboard and a pen before finding a seat.

The clipboard asked for faer basic information, a lot of it fae had already discussed with Dr. Magenta. Fae recalled a little of what the doctor had told faem the other day, apparently there was a lot of paperwork and preparation that went into becoming a Mini. They needed multiple forms of consent, liability waivers, financial records, current debts and loans that would need to be paid off. fae was essentially giving up faer entire life for a completely new one and fae was just a little worried about figuring everything out by faeself. Usually when things like this happened in fiction it was as simple as walking through a magic doorway or just skipping over the boring bit and heading straight to the adventure. Fae didn’t have the luxury of skipping to the next page. Fae had to fill out the paperwork. 

“Mx. King? Dr. Magenta will see you now,” Andrea called after a few minutes. The young woman curled in the armchair grumbled under her breath and she readjusted herself as fae got up. Fae handed Andrea the clipboard and she pointed towards the elevator, “Fourth floor. Office four twenty.”

“Thank you,” fae replied, walking to the elevator and pressing the number four. 

The elevator was small with granite walls and a tile floor, it was just a few seconds up to the fourth floor with no stops and the elevator opened again with a ding. The hall was pristinely white, with large glass walls that separate the offices and let faem see into each. Fae took a right towards the twenties, peaking into each office as fae passed. 

Finally, four twenty. Fae knocked on the glass door before entering.

"Mx. King I presume," Dr. Magenta asked, "Come on and have a seat, I'm Dr. Percy Magenta."

"It's lovely to meet you," Roman replied and leaned over the desk with faer hand out to shake hands.

Dr. Magenta smiled and took faer hand and shook it back, his grip firm. Dr. Magenta wore a black button up with a neon striped tie, his black hair was short and straight, pinned back with a pink hair clip, his smile crinkled his black eyes that stood out against his sand colored skin. His desk was mostly sparse, he kept only his computer, printer and a singular stress ball on it. Behind him were binders of files and paperwork, many with names on them. There was a small wire basket filled with more stress balls and other stress toys.

Fae sat and Dr. Magenta pulled out a recorder from a drawer of his desk and set it down, "Is it alright if I record this meeting?"

"I don't see why not," fae answered.

"Good. Well Mx. King, I wanted to start by asking why you wanted to volunteer and become a part of MiniMe's services?" Dr. Magenta started.

"I've have recently fallen out of work, I'm an actor and you can imagine how much harder it is to find roles without an agent; and my dear agent, Miss Donna, dropped me after a few bad auditions. I don't really have many other options for employment, especially ones that will keep me happy. Not to mention the idea of being doted on has always had it's merit," fae explained, chuckling at the end. 

Dr. Magenta laughed, "I'm sure it does. Is there any family you want us to contact when your application is approved?"

"Ah, No," fae answered softly, "My mother passed when I was in college and I haven't spoken to my sibling or the rest of my family since then. It’s a bit of a sore subject if you don’t mind me avoiding it."

"That’s understandable, Mx. King, I get many people in here that have had their fair share of loss. How about any friends or acquaintances, is there anyone that would like to know your whereabouts once the process is through?"

"None that I can think of. It's just been me for a long time now, perhaps Donna at one point but she made it clear she wants nothing to do with me anymore. It's sort of pathetic isn't it? I'm a grown man without any friends," Roman said jokingly, faer grin tapering down to a simple tilt of faer lips.

Dr. Magenta gave faem a smile, "Not at all, you were focused on your career, friends hardly last when you're putting your livelihood first."

"Is it rude to ask if you have any friends yourself?" fae asked.

The doctor chuckled, “Let's remember that this is about you; but I guess you can say I'm not as popular as I was in high school after all these years in research. Though I make friends when I can. You’ll get the chance to be someone's best friend when this is over though. That's really why you're applying, isn't it? I bet it's been a lonely couple of years going to many auditions getting roles with no one to share the excitement and disappointment with.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Roman replied, smiling weakly, “MiniMe’s program has always interested me for that reason. Loneliness is one of man’s greater demons, is it not?”

“It is,” Dr. Magenta agreed with a short nod.

Roman continued, “Having a Companion had always been an idea I fantasized since the day I had first heard of this place, something- someone to combat the worst of my down days; but I never felt I had the time to keep up with them. Now, well, I have all the time in the world it seems and nothing to do with it, not even a friend to console me. If I were to try and find another job, something very hard to do for a, well, I hate to say it, but as a failed actor, I still would have no company. It would be very much the same as before except I would be doing something I would not enjoy as much as I do acting. I think I may just fall into a depression if I were to apply myself into the workforce once again, Dr. Magenta.”

“And we certainly can’t have that,” Dr. Magenta added, “We’ll make quick work of your process then Mx. King, set you up as a Companion as fast as we can.”

“Really? Oh, that would be wonderful. It seems the more I go home without company the worse my mood becomes.” Roman’s grin returned as fae sat up in faer chair. 

“I couldn’t tell,” Dr. Magenta replied with an amused smirk, “You have a lot of enthusiasm. It is going to be an absolute delight working with you as we run these papers. So, are you ready to begin?”

“Indubiously so,” Roman said as the doctor pulled out a stack of forms from his filing cabinet.

He set them on the desk and started flipping through them, “It may seem tedious at first, but with me walking you through the process we’ll get you through in no time.”

“I look forward to finishing them quickly then,” Roman chuckled. 

“So do I,” he replied, and though it sounded light there was something that made Roman drop faer smile, an itch of something different in the atmosphere, but then Dr. Magenta looked back up and he smiled at Roman and fae brushed away the slow growing anxiety in the pit of faer stomach.

Fae was handed a pen and Dr. Magenta went through each paper, telling faem what to sign or write with basic summaries of each document; over the next few days, Dr. Magenta led faem through each part of the process. Fae had been worried, as the little extra research fae had done had shown that many people had to do much of the process of removing themselves from their old lives by themselves. Some people even dropped out of the process halfway through, but it seemed Dr. Magenta was eager to help get faem through to the end. 

Fae was very grateful for the speedy process, it was only a week since fae had met Dr. Magenta that fae was heading to the MiniMe Companion facility. A nurse walked faem through the entire final stages, and before the end fae was given one last waiver to sign.

“This is just to be sure you recognize that this is a permanent change. Once we get you changed and through those doors you will not be able to return to your original height and you will be residing in the MiniMe facility until you are homed as a Companion,” She said as she handed faem the pen. “Does this all sound agreeable?”

“I wouldn’t have gotten this far if it didn’t,” Roman joked, easily writing faer name along the line.

She rolled her eyes playfully, “You’d be amazed how many people get cold feet at the last second.”

“Change can be scary, but I think this will be a good one,” fae replied. 

“Of course,” She said, though it sounded somewhat patronizing. She grabbed the papers as she stood, “Well Mx. King, I’ll just take these for your file and you go ahead and change into the gown, someone will be here shortly to escort you through.”

Roman nodded in understanding before thinking of a question, speaking before she was out the room, “Ms. Wilson, how long do you think it’ll take for them to home me? I heard it could take awhile, Dr. Magenta said it wouldn’t be long but I feel he was sugar coating it.”

“Mx. King, with your charming personality you’ll be homed in a matter of days,” She answered, “You don’t have to worry about that one bit.”

With that she was out the door. It did make faem wonder if there was anything that fae should be worried about. Dr. Magenta had made this option feel like the answer to all faer problems, but, while it seemed good enough to draw faem in, fae was questioning it now. There had to be problems to come, but Roman couldn’t think of any. The system they used to home Companions was based on personality matches and in depth interviews with potential caregivers, so there was no way he’d end up hating whoever adopted faem. As well, it wasn’t like fae would have to struggle with anything, as fae would be handed everything from now on. Really, there wasn’t a problem in sight. Fae hoped it stayed as such.

Fae stripped off faer clothes, knowing that fae was now giving up the last of faer own personal possessions. Everything fae owned was dumped or given away to charities or mailed to old friends; fae even sent a few things to Remus, mostly some of faer old childhood things. Remus would probably toss it as soon as squish read the name on the box but Roman couldn’t bear to do it faeself, especially faer dear stuffed rabbit, Mrs. Fluffybottom. 

Once fae had pulled the hospital gown on, the attendant entered, pushing in a wheelchair, “Take a seat, Mx. King, you’re almost done.” Roman smiled at him  and sat back in the chair, letting the attendant push faem out. Sometime after that they gave faem an anesthetic to put faem under for the process, the whole rest of the thing was blurry or completely non-existent in faer mind.

It would be hours later before fae became concious again.

Fae was laying on a giant towel that was bunched up and as fae sat up, fae was wearing matching red sweatpants and sweatshirt, remembering vaguely that fae had told the attendant it was faer favorite color when asked. Fae looked up and fae could feel faer entire body tense as fae caught faer first glimpse of another person. They were towering over faem, close enough that Roman had to crane faer neck up to in an attempt to see their face, but blocking faer vision was an orange roof, making faem aware of the clear plastic walls around faem for the first time. Fae was level with the person’s stomach, their shirt a bright orange with the MiniMe logo in white across the front. They were reading from a clipboard that Roman was looking up at the bottom of. 

The container fae was in was like one of those reptile transporters you would get at the petstore, with air holes along the top and the roof being a removable lid with clips around the sides. Behind faem were three other containers with another person in each. The two others closest to faem were still unconscious as fae had been, but the one furthest from faem had an older woman in it who was awake and leaning against the wall of her container. She had silvery blonde hair that was chopped up into a pixie cut and wore a similar set of sweats as faem in the color green. When she spotted faem she waved and fae happily waved back, which she laughed at.

“Katherine, you awake?” A voice spoke above them and they both looked up at the roof of their containers without thinking. The giant person- or normal sized person as they were the small ones- grabbed the handle of the woman’s, Katherine, container and pulled the whole thing up. Fae winced a bit as fae watched her being shaken a little, but she was laughing the entire time. “Good to hear you’re in good spirits, come on, let’s get you checked up. Riley, Roman’s supposed to wake up next, make sure you grab faem when fae does.” 

Another person, just as big as the first, walked up, “You mean like now?” She teased, grabbing the handle of Roman’s container. Her dark hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, her arms tan from the sun with speckles of freckles, and dark green eyes; she was wearing the same orange t-shirt with jean short-shorts. Fae yelped as fae was suddenly lifted like fae was in the world’s fastest elevator, glad fae was still sitting as fae would have certainly fallen at the movement.

“Oops, sorry sweetie,” Riley cooed, holding the container steady against her chest and grabbed a clipboard that was hanging on the cart fae was just on. 

Roman blushed softly at the pet name as she carried faem over to a counter and clicked off the tabs of the lid and set it aside. Fae completely froze as her hand came towards faem, it felt like something right out of a movie and fae didn’t realize faer full small size until her fingers, almost as long as fae was tall, wrapped around faer body, the skin squishy yet thick and warm to the touch. She lifted faem up, and fae squeaked as the pressure increased in faer chest and the ground disappeared from faer feet.

Fae was quickly set back down on the counter, only being held a second, but it made faer heart beat against faer chest rapidly. She grabbed a pen and started asking questions and instructions from the board, having faem stretch and check each of faer limbs and asking if there were any symptoms fae was feeling. Fae felt absolutely fine however, if not a little adrenaline fueled.

“Alrighty!” Riley chirped and slid the pen into the clip of her clipboard, “Looks like you’re all good. You’ve been wonderful, Roman, so sweet. Now, let’s get you settled into your room and let you meet your new roomie.”

Fae smiled at the praise, “I didn’t realise I would get to room with a Mini while here.”

“Uh-huh, it’s to make you feel more comfortable and to make sure you don’t get lonely while we get started trying to get you adopted. Looks like you’re with-” She flipped through the clipboard and frowned as she read the page, “Ah, Virgil,”

Roman frowned slightly as well, “Is that a problem?”

“No, not really, he’s just a little sour jellybean of a Mini when you’re an adorable gummy bear,” She answered, patting faer head with a finger, causing faem to duck instinctively to avoid it. She chuckled at faem, “Maybe you’ll start to rub off on him and he won’t be so grumpy all the time. That's never worked before, but maybe you can be the one to get through to him.” 

“Er, right,” Roman nodded, feeling a little childish with how she was speaking to faem.

“Come on now, he’ll be expecting you.” She once again scooped faem into her hand, turning Roman’s stomach. She held her other hand under faem, so she could loosen her grip, but she never fully moved her hands off of faem and the full and constant contact made faem shudder, probably because fae just wasn’t used to being held, let alone like this. 

Riley carried faem in her hand through the door of what fae believed was an examination room and into another. Faer eyes widened as it was lined wall to wall with cubbies with glass doors, in each were pairs of Minies that were talking, playing miniature games, or watching shows or movies on small screens. There didn’t seem to be any rooms in the cubbies either, all the furniture was pushed against the wall, arranged somewhat differently in each. 

“So, I’ll be spending the next couple of days in one of these until I’m adopted?” Roman asked, looking into a cubby and then immediately turning around as the woman inside was taking off her gray sweatshirt. 

“Sure are; and here we go, you and Virgil’s little place,” She said and crouched down to a cubby on the bottom row, opening the mechanism that was at the top and would be far out of reach of any Mini that was inside. She set faem in and closed it with a loud click, “Dinner will be around in about an hour, you two have fun till then.”

Roman looked around the little cubby as she walked off, grimacing at the state of it. A set of clothes was tossed over the floor, the table was knocked on its side with the top facing the glass door and fae could see the edges of an unmade bed from behind it. Bean bag chairs were pushed back and facing the back wall and the dining chairs were pushed on the other side of the cubby where a very empty looking mattress laid on the floor. 

There was no sign of this supposed Virgil but fae could only assume he was hiding in the other bed behind the turned over table. Fae tapped faer foot, wondering why the other Mini hadn’t shown himself yet before crossing the cubby and knocking on the table top, “Knock knock. Anyone home?”

A loud hiss came from the pile of blankets and fae yelped and backed away. Maybe there had been a mistake and fae was paired with a rat instead of another person- fae really hoped not as fae did not want to attempt fighting a rat.

A cloud of black curls popped out of the pile, matched with dark eyes and a deep scowl. He wore, just like the other Minies in the center, matching sweatpants and sweatshirt. They were black to really put together the villain look he seemed to be going for and doing no favors for the dark circles under his eyes, “Oh, another one,” he mumbled before lying back down.

“I- Another? Hey! Don’t ignore me,” Roman exclaimed.

“Loud too,” Virgil mumbled, turning to face the wall and holding a pillow over his head, “Look, dude, you just interrupted my nap and I’m not in the mood for introducing myself when you already know my name. Your name is probably Phil or Mateo or Katie or Whatever. Just another person that won’t be here in a week so why should I bother remembering your name.”

“When they said you were grumpy I didn’t think they meant rude and mean,” Roman shot back, “My name is Roman, for your information, and if we’re going to be living with each other for the next few days then I don’t see why we shouldn’t attempt to be civil.”

“Right, course, well here-” Virgil said sitting up and bunching up a few of the blankets he had before throwing them at Roman, “These are yours for your bed as well as-” he threw a pillow directly at Roman’s face, hitting his mark easily.

Roman sputtered, grasping the pillow in faer hands as the rest had dropped to the floor, “How- How dare you? I can’t believe I’m going to be spending the next few days with a disrespectful lay-about!”

Virgil scoffed, “Okay boomer.”

“I’m thirty-four,” Roman shot back, “I can’t be much older than you.”

“How’s ten years, douchebag,” Virgil snapped, covering his head with the blanket. 

Roman sighed and grabbed the blankets. Fae was going to have to ask for new ones, not too inclined to use these after Virgil had apparently been nesting with them. Fae didn’t know how the guy expected to be adopted out to a family with that kind of attitude. Though, with how young he is there must have been some shit going on in his life. Fae couldn’t judge too harshly, faer life had been tossed away pretty quickly as well. 

Fae cleaned up their cubby, setting the dining table and chairs up again, despite Virgil hissing at faem for moving his “cover”. Fae moved the bean bag chairs to face the mini screen on the wall so fae could watch it properly. Fae even folded the laundry and the used blankets and set them by the glass door so fae can have whatever attendant that came by next gather them up and replace them.

Riley came by with dinner not too long after. She saw the folded pile and picked them up for faem with a stiff smile, “I’ll get these switched for you Roman, but next time so you know clothes and laundry are switched in the morning,” she said and took the articles and promised to bring back replacements. Fae simply thanked her and took the food she handed faem, placing it on the table. Two plates of chicken and vegetables. 

“Virgil, dinner’s here,” Roman called across the cubby and sat down at the table, not wanting him to sleep through the meal, even if he wasn’t the best company. 

Virgil groaned as he slipped off his mattress and trudged over, sitting in the chair, “Thanks. Though if I had known you were going to get new blankets anyway I would have kept them.”

“You’re welcome,” Roman replied, not bothering to respond to his comment. Fae grabbed the slightly oversized plastic fork and dug into the food. A little bland but fae guessed they had to account for allergies as well as costs. “So, how long have you been waiting?”

He shrugged as he pushed around his food, “What’s the month? March something, right? Then a year and some weeks I guess.” 

Roman nearly dropped faer fork, “Excuse me? They gave me an estimate of a few days. There’s no way-”

“Yeah, well, not everyone is kid friendly, shit head,” Virgil interrupted faem , “Besides, I’ve decided that I don’t want to be adopted. Being turned into a talking hamster just isn’t cutting it for me anymore.” 

“You’re not going to get turned into a talking hamster,” Roman insisted, “The people out there looking for a Companion are just looking for a friend to spend time with. Someone to talk to while they're stuck at home or in between jobs.”

“Yeah, and what makes you think that? The doctors tell you that?” Virgil quipped.

“No. No. That’s why I had wanted to get a Mini myself, to have a friend,” Roman explained. 

Virgil looked up at faem, raising an eyebrow, “Hate to break it to you, man, but you signed up for the wrong part of the program.” 

Roman rolled faer eyes, “I changed my mind, obviously. After my agent dropped me I decided to become a Companion so I can fulfill what I had always wanted for myself.”

“That’s dumb. You couldn’t afford to force someone else to be your friend so you’re letting a major corporation pick out a friend for you, a friend that’s now going to dictate your entire life.”

“Why did you become a Companion then? If my reason is so dumb yours must be truly splendiferous.”

“Nah, I was just too scared to kill myself. Thought this would be better; but, here I am, one year later, and not much has actually gotten better. Besides not being verbally harassed at a drive-through window for six hours only being paid minimum wage for it, that is. Now I just get paid a total of nothing to be talked down to all day by a caretaker that thinks the solution to all my problems is to “Just cheer up”.”

“Ah, apologies,” Roman said sheepishly, “I am aware that mental illness can be a very hard thing to overcome, and it must be very frustrating when the thing you thought would help does not.”

Virgil’s expression shifted a bit and he nodded his head, “I- Yeah. Yeah it is. Thanks for- um- taking it seriously. Lot of people tell me I’m just.. being dramatic or that I should be grateful they’re taking care of me at all.”

“Of course. You’re going through a tough time right now and most people just need someone to understand them so they’re able to find that proper help. I’m sorry no one here is willing to lend an ear or offer that help. Though, are you sure just giving up on being a Companion is the right way to go? I’m pretty sure it’s the only way out of here and staying in this cubby for the rest of your life will not help.”

“You know what’s really not helping my depression? Eating the same seven bland dinners each week,” Virgil grumbled. 

“Exactly! I say give the whole Companion thing a proper shot so you can leave. It may just help,” Roman chirped.

“Whatever, I’ll think about it,” Virgil sighed and slipped out of the chair and went back to his bed. His plate was still full. 

Roman ate the rest of faer meal quietly as fae thought. Riley clearly wasn’t equipped to help Virgil in the way he needed. She called him a sour jellybean when anyone with even a health class worth of knowledge could tell he was depressed. Fae didn’t remember reading about any system MiniMe would have for helping out depressed Companions, but then again, fae had never heard of a Companion being stuck in a holding facility for so long. It didn’t make sense that they were just holding him, unless they have been trying to home him and he has been refusing any attempt even from the beginning. Fae wanted to talk to someone else about this but with faer current option only being Riley, fae didn’t see how fae could do so. The only thing fae could think to do now was refuse to be adopted out before Virgil, and while fae didn’t want to refuse any family fae liked, fae didn’t want to abandon Virgil and have him continue to sit for another year with people who continued to not see the clear signs of mental illness. 

Fae finished faer plate. Fae thought about stacking the plates but thought better of it in case Virgil came back for it later. Though it didn’t matter as Riley was back just a few minutes later. She took both plates and dropped off warm sheets and blankets before moving on to collect from the other cubbies along the wall. Roman watched her move along the wall for a few seconds before fae went to make faer bed. Fae glanced to the screen against the wall, thinking about turning it on to see what they had available to watch, but thought better of it as fae didn’t want to bother Virgil any more tonight. Instead fae laid down in faer bed, and went to bed early for the first time in a while. 

The next few days were a mix of conversations and long silences. Roman watched a lot of movies when fae couldn’t drag Virgil out of his bed to play a game of cards or charades.

Fae did get to know a surprising amount from Virgil though, considering his quiet nature. Though it probably helped that Roman was great at being stubborn and annoying, poking him verbally in all the right spots until he snapped at faem. Then, all fae had to do was be patient and sincere and once Virgil really began talking it was hard for him to stop. It seemed he had spent so long only making snarky comments to anyone that was placed in his cubby that he had a backlog of things he needed to spill. 

Virgil was still keeping things inside though. It wasn’t hard to tell when he’d often be in the middle of a rant before he decided he’d said one word too many and shut down, mumbling a bit about how it was stupid or something similar. Roman tried not to push too much but fae did like listening to Virgil; it made faem think there was still some life in the kid, even if he didn’t think so himself. Though, the more they talked the more Virgil learned how to press Roman’s buttons too, making fun of the shows fae had been in and poking at faer career choice. It hurt sometimes, but seeing Virgil laugh was almost worth it. Besides, fae could just as easily poke fun at all the emo bands Virgil clearly still loved since he discovered them in middle school. 

It was hardly a perfect friendship. Virgil was less interested in actually getting adopted and more interested in convincing Roman not to be. Fae couldn’t take it sometimes, Virgil’s view on the whole of MiniMe and Companions was so pessimistic, believing that there were no good people that wanted Companions. Roman always argued for the people fae knew that had Companions or that had wanted them, but it always went in one ear and out the other with him. Though fae supposed fae was the same with Virgil’s opinions. 

Their conversations were usually mostly civil as long as they avoided talking about that in particular. Today was not one of the days they avoided the topic. Virgil had noticed that Riley had been extra sweet to Roman this morning and was insistent that Roman was going to be adopted today, and had started trying to convince faem once again to not go through with it. Fae wasn’t having it. 

“Virgil,” fae snapped, cutting off whatever rant he was about to start, “I am not just going to stay in this little cubby with you for the rest of our lives. I’m going to get homed, and continue living my life. You should do the same! Let someone take you home! You might find that people want the best for you, not the worst.”

“I’m not going to just roll over and let them turn me into a doll, Roman! That’s what you are! A perfect little doll. You ever wondered why they walked you through each step of selling your life away when they basically told me to go fuck off and figure it out myself? It’s because you’re a happy, excitable, friendly person that can sing and dance for whatever little girl with a rich dad that’s going to come through those doors and I’m just a waste of resources they can’t sell off,” Virgil went off, his face going red, “You’ll be gone any day now to put all your years of theatre to use keeping a little girl entertained for about three days before being put on a shelf to collect dust.”

“We’re not toys, Virgil! They’re not going to sell me or you off to the first person that wants us. They’re going to pick out good people for us, you just have to let them,” Roman insisted. 

“They lied to you, Roman,” Virgil continued, “They don’t have our best interest in mind. They just want to make money off of our stupidity! How can you not see that?”

“Because I don’t want to believe everyone is out to get me! Is that so hard to believe! Why do you have to be so God-damn paranoid all the time?”

Virgil’s hands curled into fists, his knuckles white with how tight he was holding them. He took a step forward and Roman had just enough forethought to cover faer face before the blow came, the punch knocking into faer arms instead of hitting faer face.

“Boys!” Riley snapped above them, causing both of them to jump away from each other as they looked up at her. Neither of them had heard her opening the glass door of their cubby. “Goodness, Virgil, can’t you atleast try to make friends?”

“Fae was-!”

“No. I don’t want to hear it. You don’t get along with any of the Companions we’ve roomed you with. At some point you have to stop pointing fingers at everyone else and start realizing the problem is you,” She cut him off. Roman stared wide eyed at Riley, surprised she’d say such a thing. Fae couldn’t even formulate a response in defense of Virgil’s actions. She didn’t give faem the time anyway, “Roman, we have your first interview. Come on.”

Fae turned to Virgil to say something, apologize most likely, but Riley’s fingers were around faem before fae could get a word out. “No- Wait- I-” fae tried to get out as fae pushed against Riley’s fingers in an attempt to get some control of the situation back, but fae was dropped into a travel container and the lid was snapped into place. 

Fae had landed on faer stomach and faer arms shook as fae held faeself up, staring at the white wash cloth that cushioned the container. For the first time fae felt what Virgil had been trying to tell faem. Riley hadn't even look faer way when fae tried to speak up. 

“Roman!” Virgil shouted as the cubby door closed, looking quite panicked as he banged on the glass, “Act mean! Act mean! Don’t play nice for them! You have to-”

The last bit was cut off as Riley stepped away from the cubby, shaking Roman as fae clung to the towel to steady faeself, faer eyes shut tight as faer stomach turned. Riley didn’t say a word to faem as she walked through the halls, taking a few seconds too long to remember to hold the container up to her chest to reduce the swinging. Fae felt sick by the time she opened a door and set Roman’s container down on it. 

She unclipped the top and picked faem up around the middle once again, and the doll title Virgil had just given faem didn’t seem like such an exaggeration anymore as she set faem on faer feet and pushed faer back up straight, “Mx. Dolos will be in in just a second, he’s having a chat with Dr. Magenta about your background.”

Roman gulped as fae looked around the room, there was a large mirror set directly into the wall by a door and it immediately made faer skin crawl with the idea that it was a two-way and they were already watching faem. The table fae was on was bare except for the container. There were two chairs across from faem. The walls were covered with soft yellow wallpaper and lined with colorful balloon trim. It felt like a mix of too childish and yet sterile and impersonal.

“Can you tell me about Mx. Dolos,” fae asked, turning to Riley only to find she had already left the room.

Roman tried not to let it get to faem, Riley had always been a little dismissive to faem and definitely to Virgil, this was not exactly new treatment from her. However, with Virgil’s words bouncing around faer head it gave new meaning to them. Fae had been tolerating her dismissive and infantilizing behavior towards them, telling faeself it was something that would end the moment fae was adopted out to someone, but the sudden realization that it could just increase tenfold instead was crushing. Fae didn’t want to think that Virgil was right about this situation, fae wanted to believe that most people were good and caring, like faer old friend Kai; but standing here, waiting for a stranger to come in and appraise faem, it was a very swift and hard reminder that not everyone was a good person. Even in situations like these, with intensive background checks, interviews, and wait lists, there were bad people that slipped through the cracks and were given responsibilities they shouldn’t be given, a person’s life included. 

The door next to the mirror opened and in stepped, who fae could only assume was, Mx. Dolos. He was wearing a full suit, perfectly pressed black jacket and pants with a yellow button up and matching gloves, making Roman feel incredibly underdressed in faer sweats. His already pale skin was turned white along the right side of his face with circular patches of vitiligo that went from just above his eye to down his neck and under his collar. His honey colored hair was perfectly straight as it flowed down his back and was tied at the small of his back to keep it in place. He smirked at faem, like fae was the punchline of a joke only he knew, and Roman did not like it one bit.

“Hello Roman, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard lots about you,” he said as he took a seat in one of the chairs. 

“I wish I could say the same,” Roman replied, feeling faer nerves spark up in faer body. Virgil had told faem to be mean, and fae was half attempted to do so just to get back to him. Instead fae smiled brightly at the stranger, as fae was hardwired to put on a brave face in tough situations when fae couldn't run from them, “But it’s great to meet you as well, Mx. Dolos.”

“Please, call me Janus, he/him/she/her pronouns. You don’t recognize me?” she asked.

That immediately sent ice down faer spine as fae searched faer memory for any instance of this person or his name, coming up completely short, “No, I do not. Should I?”

“No,” Janus answered, no longer paying attention to faem in favor of pretending to check her nails through the gloves. “You’ve only been a Companion for a few days now, right?”

“Uh, yes. I don’t see why-”

“And am I the first person to interview you?”

“Why does that-”

“Oh, it doesn’t. I just like to keep my facts straight is all, even if I, myself, am not.” She crossed faer arms across the table, “How have they been treating you, Roman? Have you made any friends?”

Fae didn’t quite answer as honestly as fae should have, but there was nothing this stranger could do to help. The rest of the time was spent with small talk, Janus giving faem a bit of recap on the news that had been going out in the world over the past few days, not that fae cared much for world events. Fae talked a bit about the stage plays fae had done and what shows fae had auditioned for and didn’t quite get because of one thing or the other. It was a pleasant conversation for the most part, but fae was just waiting for it to be over so fae could go back to Virgil and properly apologize for what fae had said. 

The knock on the door startled faem but not Janus as Dr. Magenta poked his head in, “Alright you two, your time is up. Mx. Dolos if you’d like, we can discuss any other options. Roman, Riley will be in a few minutes to pick you up.” 

That was the first time fae had heard Dr. Magenta call faem by faer first name instead of Mx. King. In fact, no one had used faer last name since fae had been a Mini. Fae wouldn’t have felt so weird about it if it didn’t also come with the realization that no one was treating faem like an adult. 

Janus left the room with Dr. Magenta, leaving faem alone. Fae stood for a long time after that, waiting for Riley to come pick faem up. Fae didn’t want to sit just for her to scoop faem up at an awkward angle, but twenty minutes later fae let faeself lean back against the container and lower faeself to the ground. The quiet room made everything so much bigger. fae was stuck on top of a table top with no way down, which currently made faem fairly less capable than a bug that could have climbed off the table and crawled under the door by now. Maybe a bug would even be noticed.

Fae really needed to talk to Virgil, there was certainly something to what he had been saying. Fae hated to admit fae was wrong, but becoming a doll or a talking pet hamster seemed like a much more likely reality than fae thought. 

When Riley finally came fae was up on faer feet in a second, “Riley! There you are! I-”

“Sorry I waited so long, sweetie, I figured you wouldn’t want to see Virgil again so soon,” She cut faem off and once again wrapped her fingers around faem to lift faem up, “But I have great news! Mx. Dolos signed all the papers, you’re going home with him now.”

Roman’s eyes widened, “What? You can’t be serious. D- Don’t I get a say in this? I’m not ready to go,” fae exclaimed, wiggling in Riley’s hand as fae pushed against her top finger. Fae wheezed as her grip tightened around faer stomach, squeezing faem for just a second before she set faem in the container. Fae coughed as fae attempted to suck air back into faer lungs.

“Whoopsie. Sorry, I just didn’t want you to slip out. I know it sounds scary but you’ll be much happier getting out of here and finally having a real home,” She cooed over faem and clipped the lid shut again. 

Fae groaned as faer chest hurt and she lifted the box up in one swift and swinging motion. Bile filled faer mouth and fae swallowed it down, hoping the nausea would go away instead of grow as fae thought about leaving this place with the absolute stranger that was Janus Dolos without even so much as saying goodbye to Virgil. Fae stood and stumbled to the wall of the container between her steps, “Riley- Riley, please let me go say goodbye to Virgil. I can’t- I don’t want to leave on the note we left, please.”

“No,” Riley answered, sending Roman’s heart plummeting, “He’s a bad influence on you.”

“He’s a kid!” Roman yelled at her, “A kid that’s been through a lot of shit and you’re only adding to it. Goodness gracious, how could they put someone so careless and ignorant in charge of people.”

“I’m helping you Roman,” She said calmly, only making faem angrier. Fae kicked the side of the container, making faem lose faer balance and topple over onto faer side. She continued, furthering faer growing panic, “Besides, we have a potential adopter lined up for him. We just have to hope this one isn’t put off by his behavior like the others. He becomes so crude with potential adopters.”

Roman laid back covering faer face with faer hands at the sudden realization why Virgil had looked so scared and had told faem to “act mean”. He knew this would happen. He knew Roman wouldn’t get the final say in whether or not fae was leaving. Virgil had been trying to ensure fae would come back, and Roman had blown it. Instead fae was never going to see the kid again. Fae just hoped Virgil knew it was because fae was an idiot and didn’t think fae did it purposefully to get away from him.

The whole container shook and fae looked up to see fae had been handed off to Janus. Fae gulped, barely being able to focus on the conversation happening above faem. Fae really was starting to feel like an expensive pet as Janus didn’t even acknowledge that she was holding faem as he talked and laughed with Dr. Magenta and Riley, as they talked about faer behavior and temperament and faer special skills.

Fae couldn’t even bring faeself to do anything but listen, feeling despair grow from the pit of faer stomach to faer heart and up to faer eyes, where tears were forming slowly. Fae stared up at the lid of the container as they trickled out the corners of faer eyes and slipped down into faer ears, making the miserable feeling even worse. Fae had lost complete control over faer person, and the realization that fae likely wasn’t getting it back was tearing faem apart. 

Chapter Text

His head fell against the cool glass with a dull thunk as he stared past it to the tiled ground a few inches below him. You’d think after a year he would get used to the height difference, but it still made him sick to have to look down a distance that could twist his ankle or break his arm if he fell from it, and that was the shortest distance to the floor from the bottom kennel. The kennel above him had it worse if they fell, and so on for two more kennels. 

Though, the sick feeling could be the dread he felt for Roman this time around. He had been stupid, letting the guy get close to him. Now he cared whether or not fae left and it was something neither of them had a say in. He just had to hope fae listened and decided to act like a dick so fae wouldn’t be adopted. He could question what happened there when fae got back, maybe fae’d finally be on his side.

He didn’t let himself feel anything for the next hour, taking slow breaths that fogged up the glass. He occasionally shifted and glanced up when the door opened. He didn’t have a good track of time anymore, but when the second hour went by he did start to panic, wondering what was taking so long. Riley hadn’t even been back around, and another caretaker was going around on the other side of the room handing out dinner, which means Riley should be doing the same soon on their side. 

His chest constricted tightly with each passing minute and he gripped at his sweatshirt, pulling at the sleeves. His heart stopped when Riley finally came through the door, her hands empty of any travel container. He couldn’t breath after that, realizing the worst had happened so quickly, each breath was cut short as he gasped and choked on the air around him. He didn’t even register he was pulling his hair until it was hurting him, though he kept going, yanking on it to keep himself grounded, even as his vision started going white and dark around the edges. 

“Virgil!” Riley shrieked as the glass door opened. 

He shot back from her as fast as he could, practically sprinting towards the back of the kennel, but he wasn’t fast enough. He was never fast enough. Riley’s fingers clasped around him, pinning his arms to his side and gripping just a bit too tight. His panic ridden brain did the first thing it could think of and bit down. She yelped and dropped him. His shoulder bounced against the bottom of the kennel and scrambled up and away from her, right into his bed and pulling the blankets over his head. 

This was usually when she let him be. It wasn’t the first time she had grabbed him during a panic attack, and not the first he had bit her. He was surprised she continued to be his caretaker at this point, he really thinks she should just hand him off to someone else at this point. 

“No. That’s it,” She snapped and before he could even look up to see what she was doing her fingers came back around him, this time trapping him in his blanket, and even as he thrashed around it only got him tangled up more as she moved him and deposited him in a travel container. “You’re going to sit in there until I can get a hold of Dr. Dreagawit, maybe they’ll be able to talk some sense into you.”

He kicked the blanket off of him, pushing himself into the corner of the container, “Fuck you! You took the only person who fucking cared about me in this shitty place!” He yelled at her through the lid. 

“Fae’s been adopted, Virgil, that had nothing to do with me. Not to mention if you really cared about faem you wouldn’t have hit faem earlier. Honestly, I think you just want any reason to be angry at me. I haven’t been anything but nice to you,” She replied, moving the travel container to the bottom of her cart as she continued handing out dinner to her assigned Companions. She never ended up giving him his, though he doubted he would have been able to eat it even if she had. 

Once she had finished she pushed the cart into the clinic behind the kennels and set his container on a counter, grabbing the landline and a numbers list, “Let’s see, Dr. Dreagawit, here we are-” She dialed in the number and waited for it to pick up. 

He glared at her the entire time, ignoring the growing trails of tears slipping down his face. Riley had grown to be the one person he hated most, but Dr. Dreagawit had to be a close second. They were his Companion Representative. Roman had told him a bit about Dr. Magenta, which was faer’s, and how helpful he had been through faer process. Dr. Dreagawit was the exact opposite. They had seemingly purposefully put as many potholes in his road as they could, withholding papers, resources and information. 

Maybe they had been trying to do him a favor, as becoming a Companion was the worst decision he’s ever made, but they did a piss poor job at actually giving him information that would dissuade him from volunteering. Instead they took all the paperwork he had finished in the weeks after his birthday and signed every one until all that was left was going to the MiniMe Companion Facility.

He had seen them a few times after that, usually after adoption interviews and a few times before, but the adoption interviews went from once a week to once a month to now two full months since the last time he talked to a potential adopter and seen Dr. Dreagawit. Though after the first three interviews he had started to purposely sabotage each one, acting out or not reacting at all, making himself a completely undesirable pet to anyone at all. He didn’t blame Dr. Dreagawit for not setting up any more interviews for him. Maybe they were both hoping to forget about the other. 

Riley clicked the phone back into the receiver. She crouched down to be eye level with him, though it felt worse as she was still looking at him through a layer of plastic, “They’ll be here in the morning. You can’t keep lashing out at people, Virgil, I hope they can help you understand that.”

“You really don’t understand shit, do you?” He sneered at her, feeling his face heat up even more as she didn’t even acknowledge he was crying. 

“I have never understood you or why you try to ruin every good thing that comes your way,” She sighed before walking off, leaving him on the counter.

Another level of despair filled him and choked on a sob before letting it out. He bawled in that little container, burying his face into the towel beneath him and pounding his fists into the fibers. He cried for the first time in weeks. Letting out everything he had been bottling up for so long now. 

He had gone through so many weeks of just laying in the back of that kennel, most every Companion that got roomed with him ignored him. He should have made Roman do the same. He should have screamed and yelled at faem like he had to that middle aged woman that pulled the blankets off him, insisting all he needed was some light; or he should have gone completely silent like he had with that 70-something guy that told dad jokes and talked about his old job until he got bored of trying. Instead he let Roman, the stubborn ass, poke and wiggle faer way past his defences. Let faem get close just to be torn away from him in the end.

Some of it was his fault, he didn’t fully warn Roman how quick the adoption process could be. He’d seen Minies come back after an interview feeling absolutely fine until they're told they’ve been adopted, their composure crumbling into hysterics when they realize they have no choice. He didn’t even get to see faem one last time, whoever fae met must have adopted faem on the spot, a surprising number of Minies get adopted after their first interview. He wondered if fae had been scared when fae realized fae was leaving, or if fae had taken it in stride. Maybe fae was so bull-headed fae thought of this as a way to prove Virgil wrong, that people could be good. Maybe fae was happy to be adopted, finally getting away from him.

He was never getting out of this damned facility. Even if he did give up on giving up and tried being nice to any potential adopters, no one would actually want him. The few interviews he actually tried they hated him, finding him too vulgar and depressing. Roman was an easy Companion to home as fae was friendly and energetic, even for being an old person in faer thirties. Fae had everything going for faem and Virgil had nothing at all. 

Riley didn’t come back. He spent the night in the travel container, and despite having nothing to do and the lack of naps all day and his general exhaustion, it took hours for him to start to drift off.

It felt like he had just closed his eyes when all the lights were turned back on the next morning. He slipped in and out of consciousness at that point, squinting and glaring at anyone that got too close to him, not that they ever paid him any attention. They went about their business like he wasn’t there; like he didn’t exist at all, and he was really starting to wish he didn’t. 

“Ah, there you are.” Dr. Dreagawit’s voice was deep and gravely, something that reminded him of a cliche tv villain, “Hello, Virgil, it’s been awhile.”

He didn’t bother looking up as he just turned around in the carrier to face the wall, ignoring the new waves of tears. The travel container was lifted, making his stomach lurch and forcing him to grab ahold of the fibers of the towel to stop from rolling into the other wall.

Dr. Dreagawit walked them out of the clinic and down the hall to an empty interview room for privacy. The container was set down and the lid was opened. “Do you want to come out?” They asked, sticking their hand into the carrier. He hissed and swiped at their hand, which they thankfully moved out of his space.

“Gone feral now, have we?” They mused, sitting down in a chair, “Now, Virgil, Riley’s been telling me you’ve gotten aggressive. Biting her and attacking other Companions. What’s that about?”

He sneered, burying his head into his blanket, “Riley’s a bitch, she keeps grabbing me instead of doing her fucking job.”

“Her job is to take care of you until you’re adopted. That includes picking you up occasionally.” 

“I don’t want her to touch me! She always squeezes me and drops me instead of putting me down. I wish she’d just leave me alone.”

Dr. Dreagawit gave him an unempathetic look, “You know, there’s one way to make sure you never see her again.”

“No,” He grumbled, gripping the blanket tighter, “I’m not letting some stranger take me home.”

“It’s going to happen eventually, Virgil, I know it’s been awhile since I set up an interview but this next client I think has real promise for you, you just have to put a little trust in him.”

“Why should I?” Virgil snapped, “He’s just going to treat me like everyone else here; like a piece of literal shit on the bottom of their shoe. Like a child throwing a perpetual tantrum. Like a fucking dirty rat that crawled into one of the kennels and refuses to leave. Why would I want to live with that?”

“Because you already do and this guy can’t be worse,” Dr. Dreagawit answered bluntly, “And if you sabotage this interview I’m just going to give up. I’ve tried finding good people to take you home. This man is nice, kind, and just wants to help and care for someone.”

“And if I do sabotage it?” He hissed at him.

“Then you stay in that one by one cubby for another six months with only Riley and Terrance to take care of you before your file is handed off to a personal adopting agent and the cycle of interviews starts again; and it’ll keep cycling until someone thinks they can put up with you and your shit. There’s no getting out of this Virgil, you know this, you went through the entire process by yourself, signing those waivers and agreement forms.”

He winced and sat up slowly, “I... I just thought this would make everything easier. That it would make me feel better; but it hasn’t. I feel worse than ever and- and every time I get close to someone here they leave me.”

They groaned, “You’re not supposed to be getting close with the other Companions, they’re leaving because they’re completing what they signed up to do. You have to do the same, one way or another. You have an interview tomorrow, actually talk to him and see what he has to offer you.”

“Is he actually a good person or is he just your last option for me?” He pushed.

“He seems like a good person, he volunteers at animal shelters and food banks, he’s a full time nanny, and he donates money to LGBTQ+ charities,” They answered, “However, I’m sure you’re already thinking of all the ways he could be faking it or that he’s going to be controlling and demanding or he’s secretly planning to feed you to his pet dog. You’re never going to be satisfied with my efforts or trust anyone with good intentions, so I don’t see why you bother asking me.”

Virgil glared up at them. They were right about him not trusting anyone. He didn’t like the idea of being adopted by some nanny that probably wanted him to be the perfect playmate for some snotty kids or maybe just a pet to overly fawn over on his days off while he sat by himself for most of the week. Not to mention if he actually had a pet dog there was no way he wanted anywhere near it. He didn’t particularly like dogs in the first place, and he knew for a fact he would hate them now with being biscuit-sized. 

He wasn’t going to trust anyone that sat at this table and promised him the world. He went through the entire process, months of paperwork agreeing to be this size and going home with a caretaker, and he didn’t trust anyone that wanted to take care of him. He wanted to point out all the reasons this was the worst caretaker and how he’d never let a man like that take him home, but Dr. Dreagawit had said it, he was never going to be satisfied. No one would ever ease his anxiety in one interview.

He wiped his eyes and laid back, “What’s his name?”

Dr. Dreagawit raised an eyebrow, “His name is Patton Morgan.”

“What if I do try and he still doesn’t want me?” He asked meekly.

“Is this the part where you want me to comfort you, you little asshole?” They questioned, poking the plastic container. They waited for his response, before sighing when he remained quiet, “If you actually try I’ll try too. I do have a small list of people I think you could like; but this guy really seems like a good option for you. You’re the first companion I thought of when I was talking to him, and trust me, I don’t think about you often when it comes to potential caretakers.”

“Wow, thanks,” He grumbled, curling up in the blanket. “Are we done now then? I haven’t eaten in over twelve hours.” 

“Yes, we can be done. I’m glad you’re at least considering participating as a Companion now, would you like me to get you something to eat? I have a steak sandwich you can have a bit of.” 

“I think you giving me some of your lunch will be the nicest thing you’ve ever done for me,” He replied.

They snorted a laugh as he put the lid back on the carrier. The two spent lunch together in the staff room, making passive aggressive comments towards each other. Virgil didn’t think they’d ever really like each other, and he didn’t want to like the other. Dr. Dreagawit thought of him as a nuisance to get rid of. He thought Dr. Dreagawit was a dickhead. Their opinions of each other wouldn’t change just cause they came to somewhat of an agreement. 

He still didn’t like the idea of going home with a stranger. It didn’t sit right with him, and he didn’t know how it sat well with anyone, that someone got to make a decision to start a lifelong relationship based on one interview. Though he guessed the person could just bring him back to MiniMe if they ever got tired of him. Maybe if he got tired of them he could beg and be a little shit until they took him back- or killed him. He didn’t think it was legal to kill Minies but it was probably really easy to get away with. He’s kind of surprised Riley never tried it. If they did end up killing him he hoped they would make it quick and not feed him to a dog or something like Dr. Dreagawit said. 

Dr. Dreagawit handed him off to Terrance after lunch as it was Riley’s day off. Terrance was usually much more tolerable than Riley was. He took care of his cubby section only when Riley wasn’t there, and for whatever reason (probably because she was a controlling bitch) Riley usually worked early morning to dinner time, five days a week. It was exhausting as hell to see her all the time. Terrance was nice, he smiled and said hi, handed him his food or clothes for whatever time it was and left; instead of either cooing at, berating, or ignoring him like Riley did depending on her mood.

“You had a chat with Dr. Dreagawit, huh? That had to be fun,” He mused, setting Virgil back in his kennel with a change of clothes. 

He shrugged, looking around the room and how all the furniture was still arranged the way Roman had it. He wanted to put it all back where it was before faem. He wanted to push the table over to hide behind, steal the empty bed’s blankets for himself and lay in the corner for the next year all over again; but that meant just forgetting that Roman had been here at all. He didn’t want to forget about faem just yet.

He looked up at Terrance just as he was closing the door, “Hey, um, Terrance, do you think- do you think I’d actually be happier if I left here? Like, going home with a caretaker, would it make this better?”

Terrance opened the door again, looking down at him for a second, “Yeah, it would make it better. Staying in this little cubby can’t be good for anyone’s mental health. Getting out, seeing people and places- It’s not a cure but it helps.”

“Right,” He mumbled, nodding, “You’re right. It won’t- Nothing is just going to fix me, but I can’t get help either if I stay in here for the rest of my life.”

“I hope you get out of here soon Virg, you’d thrive with the right people. I didn’t get to talk to Roman a lot but fae got you out of your shell pretty quickly, you just need another Roman,” Terrance smiled. 

“Not another Roman,” Virgil shook his head, “I only need one of faem; but I get what you’re saying. Someone that’s not going to give up on me, whether it’s because they want to help or just cause they’re annoyingly stubborn.”

Terrance chuckled, “That’s right. Well I’ll see you around, kay?” 

“Kay,” Virgil said back as the kennel door closed. Terrance moved on to the other kennels he was in charge of. 

The rest of the day was spent distracting himself from tomorrow’s interview. He mostly watched the show Roman had last been watching on their screen, which was a reboot of some nineties cartoon that was way too engaging to be just for kids. It helped more than he thought, and he sat in a bean bag chair, completely wrapped in a blanket. 

He fell asleep in that bean bag and woke the next morning to Riley opening his kennel. He hissed as the door opened and her hand reached in. Thankfully all she did was put his breakfast on the table. 

“Good morning, you sour jellybean. I had hoped you’d be in a better mood for your interview after talking with Dr. Dreagawit but I see you’re still mad at me for no reason. I got you a new change of clothes, something a little less depressing.” She placed the set of lavender sweatshirt and pants on the table opposite of his breakfast. She shut the door again and he waited until she was fully out of sight before prying himself from the bean bag. 

He picked up the lavender sweatshirt, staring at it for a moment before setting it down to go eat his breakfast: egg whites and hashbrowns. After he wiped his hands on the black sweatshirt he was wearing before pulling it over his head and replacing it with the lavender one. If he wanted he could have just kept the black one on. Riley wouldn’t have made him change even if she was being passive aggressive today, but he wanted to appeal to Patton. No one but him seemed to like black. Of all the colors Riley could have given him he actually wasn’t too mad it was purple. Better than the bright red Roman had been wearing. 

They never told him when he had an interview. This was the first time in a year he had early notice to one. He wasn’t sure if this was better or worse than not knowing. On one hand, he could prepare himself mentally that Riley could come back at any moment to sweep him into a travel container again; on the other, he could think about all the ways this could go absolutely shitty. 

Maybe he immediately falls into his usual routine and starts insulting Patton, or Patton takes one look at him and leaves the room, or he has a panic attack so bad that he has a heart attack and dies. He’s not so sure about how possible the last one was but he couldn’t stop worrying about it either way. 

Worse yet, nothing goes wrong with the interview at all and Patton Morgan decides he’s the perfect Companion to take home. What then? He can’t even think past that point, his thoughts disappearing the moment he thinks about getting out. He’s never left the facility since being shrunk down to a Companion, and while he has a good idea of what it’ll be like outside he knew it was much different imagining it versus the reality of it. 

It wasn’t long after Riley had finished her rounds with breakfast that she came back with a travel container. She wore a satisfied smile upon seeing him in the lavender clothes. They didn’t say anything to each other as he let her pick him up and set him in the carrier. He sat in the corner, watching kennels and then different doors pass by until they entered an interview room, the walls beige with cutesy trim.

He’d been in a few interview rooms, and this one felt increasingly childish from the rest, the corner having a pile of toys. He figured this one was usually used to introduce Companions to small children and he really hoped he didn’t have to meet any today.

Riley set the travel container on the table and left the room, apparently too busy to bother pulling him out. Though maybe having Patton take him out of the box would be better, he’d get a good idea of how the guy thought of him.

The door opened on the other side almost immediately, surprising him. In came Patton, his curls shaved down to about an half inch and dyed a bright blue and had a short, trimmed beard that showed his natural black color. His smile revealed a gap in his teeth, and freckles scattered over his entire face. He was wearing a bright blue polo, grey cardigan around his shoulders, and khaki cargo shorts; dressed like the dad Virgil never had. 

“Hi kiddo, sorry for the wait, me and Dr, Dreagawit were talking and I didn’t realize you came in. Did you need help out of there?” He said, sitting in the chair and holding his hands out, but not yet reaching for the carrier. 

Virgil looked between Patton and the two way mirror he knew Dr. Dreagawit was still behind. He didn’t want to deal with another person that got to decide everything for him. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life following directions and being toted around like a doll. He really wanted to go back to his bed and sleep the rest of the day away and pretend he had some form of a life; but he wouldn’t be able to find someone he could compromise with if he rejected everyone.

He looked up at Patton and nodded slowly, “Um, yeah, you can help me out.”

Patton reached a little further before pausing once again, looking consideringly at the travel container before speaking, “Did you want me to pick you up or did you want me to tip the box over for you?”

His eyes widened for a second at the suggestion, taking a second to process that he was being serious, “Ti- Tip the box,” he said quickly before Patton could change his mind. 

“Right,” Patton nodded, grabbing the box and slowly tipping it over so Virgil had time to adjust as it was placed on it’s side, “There we are. You good, kiddo?”

“Uh, yeah. Thanks for that.”

“Of course. I can’t imagine being grabbed by a stranger could be all that fun,” he empathized, continuing to surprise Virgil, “I’m Patton, by the way, he/him. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Virgil, he/him, though I’m sure you knew that. Pretty stupid name right?” He replied.

“I don’t think so. It’s unique,” Patton said back.

“I guess.”

“You don’t like your name?”

“Not really, it’s a dumb name.” 

“It’s not dumb, but it’s okay if you don’t like it. Not everyone likes their names a Pat-ton.” 

Virgil looked up with a raised eyebrow, his mouth twitching up as he realized the pun, “What?”

“Well not to give myself a Patt-on the back, but I think you’re on the Verge-il of a laugh.” 

He covered his mouth, hiding the growing smile, “No. No, I’m not.”

Patton beamed, “Well, I don’t want to Dreag these on, don’t want to Rile-y you up too much.”

Virgil winced, dropping his hand down, “You know Riley, huh?”

Patton noticed the shift immediately, “Dr. Dreagawit was telling me about her. I guess you don’t get along?”

“She’s a-” Virgil stopped himself from using any curses, “-she’s not my favorite person.”

“You can’t request a new primary caretaker?” Patton asked.

“No, I’d have to ask Riley and she’d get pretty upset with me. Not to mention I was technically only supposed to be here a month at most... Dr. Dreagawit tell you about that too? About how long I’ve been at the facility. They tell you why?” He questioned back, sneering at Patton on instinct.

 “I-” Patton hesitated for a long moment, “I do know how long you’ve been here, but I don’t know why. I didn’t want Dr. Dreagawit to tell me without your permission. Whether it was by choice or not it has to be pretty upsetting for you to not be able to have a proper home for so long.”

Virgil worked his jaw as he cast his eyes down at the table. It was upsetting, but that did not mean he wanted to go home with just anyone. “Look, we have an hour to get to know each other. Why not just ask some questions.”

“Oh, alright! Well, I did want to know your opinion of dogs?” Patton started, making him immediately tense up again, but he tried to be open with it even as he was honest about his small fear of them. 

Patton was surprisingly able to keep his spirits up the entire interview, even if Virgil thought it was going poorly. He liked Patton a lot, but the two couldn’t seem to agree on anything. Patton found it exciting that they were so different, but it was a nightmare for Virgil. He was growing afraid that Patton was planning on adopting him despite their opposite personalities and he could feel his anxiety growing at the idea of going home with him today.

Despite that it only felt like a few minutes instead of the full hour when Dr. Dreagawit knocked on the door, signalling that the interview time was over. Thankfully they weren’t the type to walk in and left them to finish their conversation for an extra minute.

“That’s our time, kiddo. This was nice,” Patton smiled, standing up slowly.

“Uh, yeah, it was. Thanks for talking with me, honestly,” Virgil replied, shuffling his feet a bit.

“Of course,” Patton nodded, “Though, I was wondering if you’d be willing to do another interview with me next week? I don’t want to force you into anything too soon, so I think meeting up again will be a good idea.” 

“Another- Yeah- Yeah that sounds like a great idea,” Virgil breathed out, feeling relief surge through his body. “I’d love to meet again next week.”

“Perfect! See you then, Virgil,” He chirped, waving as he backed out the door and into the observation room with Dr. Dreagawit.

Virgil watched him go, and he wasn’t able to hold back the smile that was forming. He’s only had two other people interview him more than once. One came back only because the wife wanted to meet him herself when she wasn’t convinced by her husband that someone so young could be so unadoptable. The other wanted to introduce him to their teenager but decided against him as instead of doing all the “funny things” he did in the first interview he decided to be extremely quiet and unresponsive. Both times he hadn’t been given a choice or a head’s up that he was seeing anyone, let alone the same people.

This was the first time he actually got a choice, or at least the illusion of a choice, by being asked first. It actually made him excited to see Patton again, even if the interview wasn’t all that great. He sat back in the travel container, back against what would be the bottom as he waited for Riley or someone else to come pick him up. 

It was Dr. Dreagawit that came in however, which surprised him, especially since they were actually smiling at him, “He’s set up to come back next week to see you. I’m actually impressed, Virgil, it seems you two got along.”

He shrugged, “Yeah, it was alright. We didn’t really have anything in common though.”

Dr. Dreagawit set the box upright, making him tumble over with a yelp. He sat up-right again and growled at them. They just chuckled at him, “Having things in common isn’t always what makes a good relationship. He might be the one bloke that’ll be able to understand you.”

“He has a dog. I don’t think it’s going to happen,” he deadpanned. 

They set the lid back on, “We’ll see how you feel after next week.”

Even after that ominous comment Virgil had a normal week. Riley was just as rough with him but she didn’t sugar coat it as much with sweet talk and candy themed pet names.

Terrance was actually a big help, and on the one day he was there for lunch he took Virgil out to the faculty courtyard. It was actually really nice. He was feeling like he was going to be stuck in that building forever but the little trip outside was a big reminder that there was an entire world outside the walls that he hadn’t seen in a year. The last time Terrance had taken him out it hadn’t felt this good. The experience lifted his spirits a bit for his next interview with Patton. 

He actually smiled a little when he saw Patton the next day, even as they talked about things that did not make him very excited. Like the two kids he took care of, Missy and Parker; they were eleven and fourteen now, which were not the worst ages they could have been (the ideal age would have been no kids but that’s just his opinion). As well as more on Patton’s small dog, Milk Stool, or Milky for short. She was a three-legged Shih Tzu mix he got from the shelter; five years old now and not slowing down anytime soon. Talking about them didn’t make them sound as scary as they did initially.

For the first time ever someone set up a third meeting with him. They talked about their favorite shows and what he wanted out of a home. Actually talking about what he expected and Patton agreeing or suggesting reasonable alternatives made the whole idea of being adopted feel more like the care it was supposed to be. It actually seemed like Patton thought of him as a person. 

It was the fourth interview that Patton asked him. 

“So, kiddo, I know you’re still a little hesitant, but I’ve been prepping my house for a Companion and I really think you’re the one for me,” He started, segwaying their conversation about what they had in their childhood bedrooms, “If you’re comfortable, I was wondering if I could go ahead and adopt you?”

“Okay,” He answered, surprising them both.

“Really?” Patton questioned wide-eyed, “I- I mean- Oh, Virgil, I’d love to take you home. I can talk to Dr. Dreagawit right after this interview. Would you like to go home with me today or do you want to wait till after next week’s interview?”

Virgil’s mouth opened and closed for a second as his own brain caught up with what he said. He didn’t think he wanted to go home with Patton. There were too many variables and not enough answers. He didn’t know if the dog would try to eat him, or if the kids would just think of him as a new toy. There could be new difficulties and dangerous obstacles. For all he knew Patton had been faking this entire time and was just waiting to reveal that this had all been one giant sadistic game and he was going to lock Virgil in a hamster cage for the rest of his life, feeding him table scraps. 

However, Patton was looking at him so earnestly. He wasn’t trying to pressure him into it, just honestly asking him and giving him space to back out if he wanted to. There was nothing stopping him saying no and returning to his life in the kennel. Patton would leave and he’d move on to the next applicant. Somehow that thought made him more nauseous than any of his anxieties. 

“You- um- you said you prepped for a Companion? What did you do?” Virgil asked instead of answering. This was the safe middle for now, not agreeing but not disagreeing, besides, hearing about what he had to go to might make him make up his mind.

Patton didn’t seem discouraged from the topic change and readily started describing all the little things he changed and added to his house for whatever Companion he did end up adopting. It was honestly impressive. According to him he added high up walkways with railings so the companion didn’t have to worry about going from room to room on the floor or by hand, along with pulley elevators and ladders to frequently used surfaces and rooms. He’d have his own little house that was accessible from the walkway and built on two shelves of a hallway closet so he had privacy but it was easily accessed by Patton in case of an emergency. 

A system like this meant he wouldn’t have to worry about the dog or being trapped in place while Patton was at work with his kids. Not to mention the access to the computer and television he would have, which was honestly pretty exciting considering how long it had been since he had been on Tumblr. 

It seemed way too good. He was almost convinced Patton was lying about the whole thing until he pulled out his phone and showed Virgil the pictures. Some included selfies or even Patton’s thumb in the corner, coincidentally easing any of his worries that the pictures were also somehow fake. There were even some pics of Milky in there and even he had to admit the dog was super cute.

“If I were to come home with you” -Virgil started as Patton put away his phone- “what would you be getting out of it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you didn’t just start the whole process because you felt like it. There had to be a reason you decided on getting a companion, so what was it? What benefit do you have for taking me home and doing all this shit for?”

Patton’s smile dipped and he sighed, “If I’m going to be completely honest, I like taking care of people. It’s selfish but I want to provide you with a home you can be happy in; to see you smile and know that I caused that. You barely smiled at all our first meeting, and it looked hard for you to do so. You’re so closed off, I want to get through that wall and know what makes you happy so I can do those things for you.”

Virgil winced. It didn’t sound selfish, but he had known people who made it their goal to make him happy and when they couldn’t achieve that it just made them upset at him as if he owed them happiness for their efforts. Riley was a prime example of that. “I’m not going to make that easy for you. I’m going to be a living nightmare, probably make you want to throttle me- rattle me around until whatever came loose in my brain clicks back in. A few kind gestures and presents aren’t going to just magically make me happy. I’m an angry ball of negativity and worries, I feel obligated to tell you that before you take me home and get frustrated that you can’t fix me.”

“I’m not- Virgil, I’m not aiming to fix you. You’re not broken, you’re a person who is in a bad place right now, mentally, emotionally, and I’m really starting to think physically as well. I know whatever you’re going through in that brain of yours has got to be a hard battle, and I know it’s not just going to be over just because I swoop in with some cookies or a dad joke, but I hope it makes your battle a little easier.”

Virgil chewed on his lip, scrunching his hands into his sweatshirt, “You really think that?”

“I do. I just want to help you, kiddo.”

“It could take years- Hell, I might never get better,” Virgil added, “I could wake up one day and completely hate you, maybe throw shit at you. I’ve done it before.”

Patton held back a smile, “And on that day I’ll give you your space, and we’ll have a talk when you feel up to it about what I can do to help you.”

He didn’t want to believe him. No one was that nice or accepting. Everyone hated his guts. Even Roman left the facility probably hating him after all that effort put into getting along with him and he trashed it. Patton would end up hating him too. He shouldn’t even bother letting him go through the adoption process, he should tell him to fuck off and find some other, better, Companion to take home that wasn’t such a hot dumpster fire like he was. 

There was a knock on the door and Dr. Dreagawit came through, “Times up, should I give you two a few more minutes?”

Patton turned in his chair towards Dr. Dreagawit. He took a hesitant glance to Virgil before standing, “No, I think we’re good for today,” he said, making Virgil’s stomach drop. 

He could worry about being tricked everyday for the rest of his life while sitting in a kennel disguised as a bedroom; or he could actually trust someone for just a few minutes to have good intentions. 

“Virgil, do you want me to-”

“No!” He shouted, finding his voice before he could lose it again, “I want to go home with you today. Be- before I grow nauseous and change my mind. I... I want to do this.”

His cheeks turned pink as both Patton and Dr. Dreagawit stared at him with wide eyes for a second. Patton was the first to break the expression, grin spreading quickly, “Oh, kiddo!”

“Holy fuck-” Dr. Dreagawit muttered. Their face contorted into several different expressions before a laugh burst from their chest. Virgil’s heart stopped for a full second, his mind immediately shooting to the idea that Dr. Dreagawit had faked everything. This was just what he feared, it all being a sick joke and he was going to end up right where he started. They glanced at him between laughs, shaking their head as he did, “No- No, Virgil. I know what you’re thinking. I’m just- just surprised. I thought I’d have to talk Patton into signing the paperwork before you agreed.”

“Which I never would have done,” Patton replied. 

Virgil blew a sigh out his nose and nodded. There was no reason to panic. Patton and Dr. Dreagawit left the room, Patton waving as they did, to go fill out the paperwork. He sat down on the hard table. For the first time in what felt like ages, he felt good about leaving this room. He was finally leaving this facility and the shit that resided in it. He didn’t think he was better, not even close, but he was finally taking that step in the right direction after every wrong turn he made. The door opened again and Virgil smiled.

Chapter Text

The table was set with a red cloth and a little vase with fake flowers, a yellow plate piled with pan seared chicken, asparagus tops, and framed with shiny silverware. A wine glass sat to the side of faer plate with more white wine than was appropriate. If any other person had poured the wine fae would have looked over it being so full as it was really only a few drops proportionally- but Janus had poured faem the glass.

A week had passed since fae was forcefully brought to this home and fae was still not very happy about it. Especially when fae couldn’t figure out Janus’s motive. Some moments it seemed like she genuinely wanted to make friends; others felt like a cat toying with a mouse. Even times like this felt like a double edged sword. The lavish dinner was exquisite, the chicken smelled wonderful, the asparagus was perfectly cooked, and the wine was paired perfectly with the entree. Still, fae wasn’t sure what the dinner was even for, let alone if the extra wine was on purpose or not. Fae certainly did not feel like getting tipsy around this snake of a person. 

Janus sat down at his own seat across from Roman’s table, the plate he had was bigger than faer entire set up. Fae glanced over the plate he had and immediately frowned at it. There was one glaring difference between the two plates and, while it wasn’t a difference fae minded, it certainly deserved to be questioned, “Why do you get roasted carrots and I don’t? What if I had wanted roasted carrots with my asparagus?”

She looked up at faem with a raised eyebrow. Her lips were painted a bright red that Roman for the life of faem couldn’t figure how she hadn’t gotten any of it on her teeth as fae was always checking the mirror to scrub it off when fae wore it. “Roman, you despise carrots.”

Roman’s frown deepened as fae clenched faer fist, “How could you possibly know that?”

“Did you not tell me the other day?” He asked, looking back down to his food. He cut off a piece of chicken and delicately pulled it off the fork, once again not ruining his lipstick.

Fae sneered as fae stabbed faer own food. Fae didn’t recall telling her such a thing, but there was no proof fae hadn’t and no idea where else she could have gotten such information. They continued their meal in silence, Roman sipping the wine slowly, until fae got bored, “So, what is all this for anyway?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Janus answered, rather cryptically as Roman found he usually did. 

“If it was I wouldn’t be asking, now would I?” Fae replied.

“I’m trying to court you,” he said bluntly, causing faer face to go red completely. His lips twitched up, “I’m kidding, Roman, obviously. No, I just thought it’d be nice to celebrate your week anniversary here.”

Fae huffed, crossing faer arms, “Well that’s stupid. Why would we celebrate something as insignificant as that?”

“Really? I thought you liked frivolous celebrations.” She took a sip of her wine.

Roman grinded faer teeth. She was doing it again. She always spoke like she knew Roman, and what really got to faem was that she was usually right about it (fae did like frivolous celebrations). Fae had no idea where she was getting her information from, or if she even was getting it from anywhere. Everytime fae would question her on it she’d deflect or claim it was something she guessed or observed of faem. Fae didn’t think she’d be able to get all this information out of faem so quickly but fae couldn’t be sure. 

“Do you mind if I take your picture?” He asked, pulling out his phone, “I hope you’ll agree to me posting it online this time.”

There was that too. Almost everyday this week Janus had asked to take a picture of faem and post it. He always claimed it was because the lighting was perfect or fae was posed exquisitely, and while usually he was right, sometimes it was the middle of the night or during a meal and his reasons just did not make any sense. It was grating on faer nerves, and fae told him no everytime, even if he was feeling faemself that day. It felt like Janus was trying to accomplish something by getting faem to agree, like it was part of a game fae couldn’t see. 

He had provided faem with an incredibly extensive closet and allowed faem to pick anything from it whenever fae liked. It was one of the things fae actually enjoyed about living with Janus, and despite not caring much for the reason for the nice dinner fae still enjoyed dressing up for such an occasion. So fae had gone through faer new wardrobe and gotten a red button up and matching black vest and slacks, as well as just a small touch of mascara and eye-liner. 

Janus had on something similar, a soft yellow button up with an ankle-length black skirt. His long hair was out of its usual low ponytail and had been curled at the ends to sit over his shoulders. 

“No, you may not,” fae replied.

“Shame, you look so lovely too,” he hummed, and instead went about texting someone. 

Roman’s face once again turned red as fae stabbed at an asparagus head. Her phone buzzed in her hand and after she read whatever message was on the screen she glanced up at Roman once again with a smirk before sending a message back and setting the phone face down. “Roman, are you sure I can’t take that picture? I’d like to capture this moment.”

“You’re just going to send it to whoever you’re texting,” Roman snapped back, “I don’t particularly feel like being made fun of behind my back right now. I already feel dreadful enough as it is.”

“If you don’t want me to send it I won’t, and I can also assure you that I, nor the person I am texting, is making fun of you currently,” he swore.

Fae considered that. In all honesty fae wouldn’t mind posing for a few pictures, especially since fae did feel handsome and presentable. What fae really didn’t like was the idea of Janus spreading the photos around to his friends without idea of what he or his friends were saying. “You promise that if we take a few pictures they won’t be sent out without my say so?”

She thought on that for a moment. Her lips pursed as she looked down at her phone. “I will say that preferably you would allow me to send out any pictures I do take, but I suppose it is only fair that you have full say as to when and who I can send any pictures. So, yes, I promise.”

Roman nodded, “Wonderful. How do you want me?”

His eyes widened a bit before grinning, “A little model are we? Let’s just keep you in your seat for now and then we’ll move on.”

Janus directed faem through each picture, and surprisingly listened to every suggestion that Roman made, though he did shoot some of them down with sarcastic comments. They started, like Janus said, with faem sat at the table after they’d moved faer dinner aside, acting like a beautiful maiden that had been stood up by her prince to be. A solemn theme for a photoshoot but well done by Janus. Then they moved to the wall and did some standard shots, with Janus changing the lighting with lamps and the dining room’s dimmer. Fae was honestly enjoying faerself in what felt like the first time all week, even with the efforts Janus had made to do things with faem. 

Fae had almost forgotten why fae didn’t like Janus. That is until they had finished and she suggested the next activity, “Well, now that we’re finished, how about a movie? It’s kind of a childish choice but how about The Little Mermaid?”

It was once again phrased so it seemed coincidental, but how could Janus have guessed faer’s unofficial favorite movie on the first try?. Fae had mentioned Disney, fae’s sure, but not once had fae said a single thing about The Little Mermaid like fae had The Lion King or Frozen or even the Star Wars franchise. 

“Is there a problem?” She asked as she noticed his sudden tension. She put her phone away and placed her hand down for Roman to climb on, something fae had begrudgingly gotten used to these past couple days. 

Fae hesitantly climbed on, crossing faer arms as fae glared up at him, “How do you know?”

“Know what?” He asked innocently, lifting faem up and keeping his hand close to his chest.

“The Little Mermaid! How do you know? Of all the movies you could pick, of all the ones I know you would prefer, because I’m not stupid, I’ve seen you’re Netflix List, you choose one of my all time favorites instead. How could you possibly know that? Who in the Seven Sister Seas are you?”

“That’s for me to know,” he hummed, setting Roman down on the coffee table next to the Mini seats available, “And for you to find out.”

“You knew me, didn’t you?” fae growled.

“I didn’t know you, Roman, I can promise you that,” she answered, pulling up Disney+, “At the MiniMe facility is the first time we met.”

Fae dropped down into a bean bag, “You’re so infuriating! I can’t even tell if you’re lying or not.”

She chuckled, leaning back on the couch, “That’s the point.”

“You’re the worst.”

“Do you still want to watch The Little Mermaid?”

“I do,” fae sighed, resigning faemself to not being able to get any answers tonight. 

Roman was sure that fae should probably be more concerned with Janus’s weird and suspicious behavior, but by now fae had grown used to it. If Janus had done anything else fae would have more energy to care, but all in all, even if it’s been the weirdest week of faer life, Janus has not been so bad. She hadn’t once grabbed faem, opting instead to wait for faem to climb on to her hand, occasionally offering some other form of transportation if fae was being particularly (and reasonably) stubborn. She always asked what fae wanted to do or if fae needed anything before deciding what they were going to do that day.

Janus had even provided faem with a phone, not that fae ever felt up to using it for anything other than watching Youtube and other streaming apps or calling Janus when they were in separate rooms. Occasionally fae stalked faer old instagram, checking on what people had commented on faer last post. It was the day before fae finished the paper work and was shrunken down. Fae had went on a bit in the post, saying goodbye to anyone that cared and talking about how excited fae was about this new chapter of faer life. All the comments were empty good lucks and farewells, fae got a few Direct Messages that fae hadn’t checked, let alone responded to. Fae had even got a few messages from faer twin, but fae definitely wasn’t ready to open that can of worms just yet. 

They watched the movie in relative silence for a few moments before Roman got into faer old habit of making fun of the movie and all the stupid little things fae caught. Janus chimed in a few times, with his own jabs or even to defend the movie, which annoyed faem enough to argue back. They were half way through the argument about whether or not Ariel knew how to read and write that Roman realized fae was having fun. Fae was genuinely enjoying faemself.

The argument somehow continued until the credits rolled, moving on from topic to topic and not ending until Roman yawned widely. 

“Tired?” Janus questioned, “Perhaps we should just agree that I’m correct and mosey off to bed now.”

“Not tired,” Roman argued back, despite the last syllable being caught off with another yawn, which was just unfair. 

Janus hummed and stood, “Well, why don’t I just get the ladder and you can climb down the coffee table when you like and make your way to your room all by yourself then, while I go to bed now and leave you to whatever activity you have planned.”

Roman pouted as fae looked down the hallway at the long walk from the living room to faer bedroom. Was it really worth it to walk a quarter mile to prove a point? “You’re a cruel caretaker.”

“Ah yes, wanting to go to bed and giving you the option not to makes me evil,” Janus added sarcastically, “Is there anything I can get for you before I go?”

“No, just carry me to my room,” fae caved in, slumping in the bean bag chair, “I don’t want to stay out here.”

Janus stayed quiet for a second and Roman’s brow furrowed as fae turned around to look at her. Fae glimpsed the edges of some soft expression before it was replaced with her usually cockiness. She placed her hand down for faem, “Well, I had been planning on getting you one of those Companion Cars to help you get around easier, but I see you’re lazy enough as it is.”

Faer eyes widened as fae climbed on, “You’re joking right? You weren’t actually planning on getting me one, were you? I mean, I’d like one of course, but it didn’t seem like something you would waste your money on.” 

“We’ll see,” He answered, glancing at the closet before walking off to Roman’s room. It only took him a couple steps to get there and he placed Roman in front of the door, which had a hole cut down at the bottom just for faem to get through without help. “See you in the morning drama queen. I’ll be in my office tomorrow doing actual work for once, so I don’t have anything planned for you.” 

Once again Roman couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not, with anything he had said, but in the end it didn’t matter, fae would figure it out in the morning fae was sure.. Probably. 

“Goodnight, Janus, thanks for the dinner.” He waved goodnight and walked into his room, one of the four bedrooms Janus had in his giant rancher. The room was the smallest fae had figured and mostly empty except for the Mini House that sat in the middle of the space and a couple of boxes set to the side. The Mini House was set up similarly to a dollhouse, two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a living room, but sized perfectly for faem. Janus had to refill the water tank attached to the house and supply him with the food for his kitchen, but the house had its own lights and power when the power cord was plugged into the wall. It wasn’t too bad of a set up for a Companion. 

Fae listened to Janus’s steps walk off as fae made faer way up to faer room, sighing lowly as fae stripped and fell into bed. It wasn’t too bad, really. And if tomorrow fae woke up to a little red car sitting right outside faer door, well then fae didn’t think it’d be getting any worse anytime soon. 

Chapter Text

It had not been hard to slip out of the apartment. Their caretaker had made it clear he thought Logan was an idiot from the very beginning. It didn’t matter that he had extensive schooling from before or had shown his intelligence through his actions. He only thought Logan’s intelligence was equal to that of his size.

He ran along the walls of the hallway, gritting his teeth as their knees flared with pain on each step. He got to the elevator first, and while they longed to get on it instead of slipping down stairs ten times too big for them they knew it was too big of a risk getting caught. They had measured the pros and cons closely of being returned to a MiniMe facility or finding a new way to survive, and if he was being honest, they’d rather try living in the walls like a rat dealing with arthritis flares than going through the infantilizing process of being rehomed once again, or worse, sent right back where they started. 

Each stair looked about twelve feet tall from this size, though it was likely only the standard seven and a half inches, give or take some, not exactly the safest height to be jumping down, but he had long since learned that this new size gave them more give when falling. Without the height and weight to pick up speed he could fall proportionally a lot further than he could without injury than he ever could at five foot nine. However, every fall was a risk, no matter the height, one wrong move and they could still twist their ankle or tumble down the next step too early and do far worse, especially so when his brain was already half focused on the pain in his joints. It was all a risk they were willing to take though, as it would be much better than slowly starving in the care of an imbecile. 

If they believed deities or gods he’d be thanking them now for the stroke of luck that they were placed in a third floor apartment instead of the tenth or even a highrise, and that no one had decided to climb the stairs but some drunk bastard too off it to see him descending. The ground floor was dirty and his flimsy shoes were getting covered in large dust bunnies as he kept his hand along the wall towards the door. It was a waiting game now, keeping close enough that he could slip through the door easily.

They desperately wanted to sit and rest, their knees hot and spiking with pain, but they couldn’t risk it and miss the next opportunity. The longer they sat the more likely they’d get caught. He didn’t worry too much about his caretaker coming down the stairs, likely he’d yell and scream for him in the apartment for hours before even thinking to come looking for him outside. 

The apartment building didn’t have many residents so it took awhile before the door swung open from the outside. He skidded out, around the corner of the door and back against the wall, looking around to make sure no one, especially the woman that had just gone through, had seen him. He took a few deep breaths as he watched the people that hurried up and down the sidewalk, their feet two- three times his size and going much faster than he could sprinting. It was a bit disorienting seeing so many people from so far down, even more so that they weren’t being the involuntary center of attention. 

He moved along, keeping the same hand along the side of the building as he walked with purpose. He wanted to make as much ground between the apartment and him now before even beginning to make a new start. At the edge of the building was an alley, nothing he would have thought twice about before but now held much more possible dangers. The open space meant being seen, or getting chased by a rat or cat that thought he’d be an easy meal, neither of which he wanted but there were more alleys to come and he couldn’t get bogged down with the dangers of one. 

They sprinted forward, making it to the other side without trouble, except the growing pain in his knees it seems. They tried to keep their speed, making it past one more building and alley before having to pause for a proper break, slipping around a corner to stay mostly out of sight. It didn’t feel truly fair that they hadn’t made it even a block yet before sitting down to rub away the tension in their knees. They were barely going to get to the next apartment building at this rate, let alone a safe place to hide for the rest of the night. 

Their face hardened as they pulled themselves up on shaky legs and continued down the street, walking quickly. They didn’t want to go back. They couldn’t get caught. They just had to keep going for now. He just wanted to make it two blocks before stopping, that had to be a doable distance.

Keeping close to the wall kept him from most of the foot traffic, but the alleys posed a threat he hadn’t quite anticipated. Some people in hurries used those few feet of extra space to skirt past the people in front of them, taking large steps into the alley and then out again. He was nearly stepped on once. He started going deeper into the alleys before crossing them after that, which just increased his walk distance that he painfully couldn’t afford. Maybe they’d have to settle for one block.

The hairs rose on the back of his neck as he was crossing a somewhat narrow alleyway, making him stop with the sudden notion to try and find the person that must have spotted them. They didn’t realize their mistake until it quite literally kicked them in the side, sending them flying straight into the middle of the sidewalk. 

Their head pounded as they pushed themselves up off the pavement, only for someone else to nick his head with their heel, sending them tumbling forward and dizzying pain shooting through their entire body. It was made worse by the sound of a car horn being pressed down, blaring in the street next to him combined with someone shouting . 

He struggled to stand back up, taking a step toward the relative safety of the nearest building, before a tanned hand descended in front of him and pushed him back into their other, lifting him up and away from the sidewalk in one swift motion as they cupped him to their chest.

“Holy shit- You went flying like three feet there. What the fuck. How are you still alive. I knew Minies were more durable but fucking gracious, you were like a football! I would say a meaty football but footballs are made out of pigskin anyway- or they were, not so much anymore. They should make pigskin footballs again, or I could- I wonder how hard it would be to get pigskin, or maybe the better question is how hard would it be to get a pig? What was I saying? Oh! Right! We need to get you away from the sidewalk before you become a Mini pancake.”

The voice trailed off as they began walking, swerving through the crowd. If his head wasn’t pounding so hard they might be more quick to speak up about the sudden kidnapping, but they were just able to slur out a few words, “Where are you taking me?”

“You’re still awake?” The stranger exclaimed, “Gracious, I’m taking you fucking home. We’ll put some ice on your.. Whole body I guess. Great now I gotta watch you during the healing process too cause if not you’ll get hyperthermia and your toes’ll fall off.”

“Falsehood,” he mumbled, laying his head back against their fingers, “While hypothermia could be achieved at my size through ice pack exposure, toes loss, along with other extremities, is more commonly associated with frostbite, which would happen gradually over a prolonged period of time. You’d have to stick me in your freezer for a few days before I experienced any losses like that.” 

“No sticking you in the freezer, got it,” The stranger replied, “That’s probably a good thing you can tell me all that, means you still got your brain attached. Why don’t you keep telling me the symptoms of frostbite, huh? I’d like to hear more about it.”

Logan didn’t oppose, rattling on about what they knew about frostbite to keep conscious. The stranger likely believed the common misconception that it was dangerous to sleep after a head injury, but he knew better that if he was having a coherent conversation (or at least he assumed it was coherent based off the strangers lack of concern towards his words) that he would be fine to sleep without risking any more damage to his head. However, it was much more in his interest to stay awake than become fully unconscious with a stranger. He still had no clue what their intentions were. 

It took awhile to get to the strangers dingy little apartment building, Logan having been able to move on from describing frostbite to hyperthermia to bronchitis, occasionally the stranger getting distracted from their objective to ask him a question, which was fairly annoying considering how much pain he was in. They walked into their place and into their kitchen,  placing him down on the counter, before hurrying around the tiny space. He grew quiet as he watched them, holding his head as they began talking to fill in the space, continuing where Logan had left off with painful and deadly diseases. 

They came up with ice wrapped in a stained washcloth, placing it next to him and gently nudging it against them, “Is this right? You seem to know a lot about sickness stuff, were you a doctor or something?” 

“No, but medical research was a special interest of mine during middle and highschool before I discovered coding. The ice pack should be fine for my aches, as well as any ibuprofen you have,” they answered, laying their head back on the cloth and grimacing as it very much felt like a cold, wet, moss covered rock instead of anything comfortable. 

“Right, I only have standard sized ibuprofen, is that going to kill you if I break off a bit of that? Is it going to make you shit blood?”

Logan considered that for a second, “I should be fine as long as I take a small amount and wait over twelve hours before taking more to be safe.” 

“I’m going to smash a pill with a hammer,” They said, going through a kitchen drawer and pulling out said hammer, which Logan did not think was very sanitary at all.

“I hope you plan to disinfect that beforehand,” He said dryly. 

“That’s what he said,” They mumbled as they went through the cabinets above the fridge and pulled out an over the counter bottle of ibuprofen, “Soap and water good?”

Logan sighed, “Yes, that’s fine. As well disinfect the counter or break the pill on a clean surface. I do not wish to be concussed and catch something as well.”

The stranger pulled a plastic cutting board from another drawer and Logan was honestly starting to wonder what this person didn’t keep in their kitchen. Washed the head of the hammer in the sink with dish soap, though the sink itself was looking disgusting in of itself. They also rinsed off the cutting board as well, drying it with a few too many paper towels they dropped on top of an overflowing trash bin. The more Logan watched the more of a state he saw the apartment was. This person was either having a rough time or just plain gross.

They set a pill on the cutting board and reared the hammer up above their head, making Logan brace for the loud crash that was sure to follow. They swung down only to stop just short, shaking their head, their greasy hair barely moving with them, before starting to lightly tap the pill over and over again. He sighed a breath of relief as he watched, the stranger continued tapping for a minute longer after the pill had already broken off several small pieces, staring absentmindedly at the motion of the hammer before their body fully paused.

They set the hammer aside after a second and stared at the broken pieces of the pill before looking up at Logan, “Did you want to pick the piece? So you get the right size and not choke to death on something too big, especially since I don’t know any CPR for Minies and I’d just end up killing you faster if I tried.”

“You can bring the board over here if you don’t think you’ll spill it,” Logan said, sitting up a bit and ignoring the sharp pricks of pain.

They nodded and brought the cutting board over, setting it next to them. “I’m Remus, Remus King, squish/squelch/squirt pronouns,” squish blurted out as squish stepped back, “I grabbed you off the street you should know who I am.”

Logan hummed appreciatively as they looked over the pill bits and chose one that was as proportionally correct as possible, “Logan B. Crofters, he/him/they/them pronouns.” 

“Do you need water for that?” Remus asked, “I usually take my meds dry, when I remember to take them that is, but my sibling hated the feeling of the pill going down faer throat. I don’t know what floats your banana.”

“Is that a new meme? I haven’t been able to keep up and catalogue slang like I had previously, I fear I’m behind on social trends once again,” He questioned back immediately before remembering to answer squirt question, “And yes, if you can provide water that would be greatly appreciated. I haven’t hydrated in several hours as well and would like the equivalent amount of a water bottle if possible.”

“Okay, I got that,” squish said and turned around to pull a full water bottle out of the fridge. Squish opened the bottle, poured some water in the cap, cursing a bit when some spilled over, and set the full cap in front of them, “There. I hope it’s not too big- the cap. But no! ‘Float your banana’ is not a meme or reference or anything. I just say it instead of boat cause bananas float and banana can also mean penis and penises float too so really I can’t be wrong.”

“I suppose you’re right,” They agreed, grabbing the cap of water. They grimaced as it was a bit heavy to pick up and water spilled over the side, getting on their pant leg. He gulped down the water and the ibuprofen. The water was refreshing, and cooled his body temperature ever so slightly.

He looked up at the face of Remus, taking it all in. Squish was likely under the male average height, squirt hair was a dark brown, with bleached and white dyed bangs and underlayer. Squish sported a thick, curled mustache and wore thick indigo eyeshadow and eyeliner. Squish wore a black tank top over a lime green sports bra and lime green cargo pants and squish was so skinny squish hips jutted out a bit too much. 

Squish seemed to be doing the same, “You’re a lot smaller than I would have thought.”

“Am I the first Companion you’ve ever met?” Logan asked, wincing as he laid his head back on the ice. He should probably readjust so he could lay the side that got kicked on the ice as well, as he could feel the growing bruise that likely took up half his body, but that sounded like a very uncomfortable position to lie in. 

“You are. I was expecting the first Companion for me to get grabby with was going to be my sibling when I finally found faem, but it was you instead. But that’s probably a good thing, I can use you as practice to see what I need when I finally get him. Obviously I’m lacking in a lot of the essentials. I wouldn’t even have thought to get mini ibuprofen, but now I have to add that to the list. Same as dishes, utensils, clothes- that is, unless you were lost and not running away. Probably should have asked that first cause if you are just lost you’re probably really freaked out about me making all these plans on getting you shit to stay with. You would probably think I’m a crazy kidnapper. You looked like you were running away though. I don’t think it’d be a good idea to try and walk home instead of staying in place or asking someone for help, considering how close you were to nearly get stepped on flat into a bloody mush puddle on the sidewalk,” Remus rambled.

Logan did not like the idea of being used as practice, not that he liked the idea of going back to his caretaker either. Preferably he’d rather be back on the street, getting further away from his caretaker and now Remus, but the injuries would slow him significantly, and Remus, while squish weren’t soft with squirt words squish had been nothing but caring with squirt actions.

They were a bit surprised squish had guessed their situation so fast, though maybe it had been obvious they were running away. It wasn’t often you found a Companion walking the streets, and if someone did happen upon one they were told to either contact the police or drop them off at the nearest MiniMe facility.

He knew it really wouldn’t have been hard to convince MiniMe that they needed to be rehomed, it wasn’t like abuse accusations were taken lightly from Companions, but that wouldn’t stop him from possibly being homed with someone just as bad the next time around; or even, once again, being homed with someone that thought they could handle an autistic Companion with chronic pain only to return them to the facility a few weeks later not even bothering to sugarcoat it that they believed he was too hard of a Companion to deal with.

“It’s illegal to not return a Companion,” he said instead of his thoughts, “It’s kidnapping and you could face a lifetime in prison if caught.” 

“If I get caught,” Squish countered with a grin, “Someone would need to snitch for that to happen. You gonna snitch on me?”

They hummed, “I suppose not. Unless you give me a reason to, or you’re implying that you could physically prevent me from telling, which you could certainly do as well.”

Squish flinched before pulling out squirt phone and typing things down, “I’m not going to do that. Prevent you from doing something, that is. I need to get a mini phone, how about that? Do they make mini phones? Would I just get a normal one?”

He looked up at squelch in surprise. Remus had immediately suggested a way to give Logan -or at least another Companion- more control over their situation. Squish wanted to find a way to remove some of squirt power over them. It was definitely something Logan hadn’t experienced in their short time as a Companion. 

“So, just to be straight-”

“Going to be hard for me to do that.”

“Just to be clear,” Logan corrected themself, “You’re not going to be holding me against my will. You just wanted to get me off the sidewalk so I wouldn’t sustain further injuries.”

“Not even going to stick you in a clinic box,” Squish answered, “You’re free to venture off whenever you please. If you left the apartment I’d still think about all the grisly ways you could die, but I was going to think about that anyway, whether you were a Mini or not. For example, sometimes I’d think about how my sibling might fall through a broken sewer grate walking down the sidewalk and snap faer neck when fae hit the bottom, then fae would get picked apart by rats until there was nothing left but the bones the rats were too small to carry away back to their hidey holes, but with you I just think you’d fall down a grate and get eaten by two rats instead, or one really big rat, with matted fur and blood on it’s teeth and those gross little sharp claws, and we wouldn’t even be able to find any of your bones. Oh, my sibling’s a Mini now too, I hope that doesn’t happen to faem either.”

Logan almost thought the disturbing imagery was some sort of scare tactic to make him too fearful to attempt to leave the apartment, however it seemed to be a genuine thought Remus had, one squish wasn’t too concerned about more than voicing it. Not to mention, while the idea of that happening to a full grown adult was unlikely, it really wasn’t as unlikely for a Companion. One of his fears in fact when running away had been getting attacked by a rat or some other predator, so slipping or getting pushed down a drain and getting eaten wasn’t too far-fetched of an idea. 

Staying with Remus currently was his best interest in surviving. Perhaps he could use this opportunity to stock up supplies, even practice surviving on his own, in the case that he would have to run away once again.

They’d have to run again, even if they were several blocks further than he would have ever made it by himself, it was still dangerously close to where his legal caretaker was residing. It would just take one trip to a shared grocery store or a walk down the wrong street that they could run into him again by coincidence and then an altercation would break out, likely resulting in Logan once again being held within the MiniMe facility to be passed around from family to family. He wondered vaguely if this is what many foster children felt like; if they had just as little say in the people and places they went. If so he thought the entire system should be abolished and redone, as well as MiniMe, though they should just end at the abolition. He was foolish to think giving his life away would somehow grant him more freedoms. 

“Alright,” They started, “I will stay with you.” 

“Really? Honestly, I thought you’d want to leave after that; but this is great! I’ll get you like your own little room set up. It can be a cardboard box with some holes in it for now but later I’ll make it out of wood and shit like a real house, and I’ll nail it into the wall so no one can break in and steal it with you inside. When I finally get my sibling here, Roman- I don’t think I’ve said faer name yet- Roman and you can be roommates or I can build faem a new house. You’re going to like faem if you’re tolerating me. Unless you end up hating faem, fae can be really annoying sometimes too. You’ll see when you meet faem. If I can find faem that is. MiniMe is the worst and refuses to give me any information about Roman. Something about client confidentiality or some bullshit like that. I’m faer twin! I know being blood related doesn’t mean I’m not a serial killer planning on tearing him limb to limb but come on, do I really seem like the kind of person that would do that? Besides, it’s only been a few weeks. How has fae been adopted out already?”

“While the background checks and inspections can take weeks, the actual adoption process only takes a day,” Logan explained.

“What? That’s stupid.”

“Indeed.” 

They continued to talk about Remus’s sibling and the absolute rubbish heap of an organization MiniMe was. MiniMe gains it’s volunteers from mountains of propaganda, false testimonies, and hyper-manipulative doctors. Logan had believed the lies they fed them in the hopes of being able relieve some of his stress of everyday life, but instead was piled high with the mental strain of being mistreated and dehumanized.

Remus’s sibling was now likely going through the same thing. Fae had apparently joined as a volunteer Companion just a few weeks ago and Remus had not found out about it until three days later, when squish got a few boxes of Roman’s stuff and a letter explanation in the mail. The boxes were stacked in the living room, squish had gone through some of the stuff but didn’t do more than look to see what Roman had given squelch. 

Half way through Remus began walking around squirt apartment, completing or starting small tasks before switching to another. Logan didn’t say anything about it, especially since if they ever stopped talking Remus would perk up immediately and restart the conversation. The only lapse in the conversation was when a sudden wave of pain shot through their head and they closed their eyes. They weren’t sure if they had a concussion, they hadn’t been experiencing many symptoms besides their pounding head and a fair amount of dizziness, but they’d treat it as such for the next couple weeks just to be sure. 

The washcloth on the ice pack was slowly becoming damp. They winced as they slowly sat up, pain striking through their entire body from their side. “Remus, is there somewhere else I can rest? I’d like to attempt to sleep now.”

“Should you be sleeping right now? What if it makes it worse?” Squish asked, stepping back into the kitchen, “Should you even be moving?”

“Yes. I understand the concern but as long as I avoid any strenuous activities for the next two or so weeks my head should heal up fine, same as my bruised side. The arthritis, not so much,” He assured Remus. 

“Got it.” Remus scooped him up and brought him to the living room where he was set on a worn blanket on the couch. “There we go, do I have to go out and find some arthritis medication for you or something? Like joint pain killers?”

Logan readjusted, not too miffed about being picked up as he was fairly used to it by now. “Sadly no, all currently available medications for arthritis can not be scaled down to my size and development of new ones is impossible without human testing which Companions can not legally participate in. It’s a safety precaution, one that, while it limits the advancement of medicine, I am completely okay with, as being downgraded from pet hamster to lab rat is not something I’d wish upon anyone. I wouldn’t wish being a Companion upon anyone either, to be honest.”

Squish nodded, “That sucks but I guess you're right. I’m going to turn out all the lights, if you need anything I’ll be in my room so just scream at the top of your lungs to get my attention.” 

“I will keep that in mind, thank you,” He said, taking a deep breath as he laid down. 

The lights above them were turned out and a door creaked not too far from him. Their headache didn’t disperse, instead now their focus was on it entirely, and every little noise was loud and grating. It was a few minutes before some music was beginning to play from the same direction he heard Remus go, some techno beat and barely eligible lyrics. He focused on it for a long while, letting the sound distract him. It took him to nearly the end of the song to realize he recognized the band: Lemon Demon. He had listened to a few of their songs before, during finals studying when his roommate had gotten tired of the classical music he had been playing. It didn’t give him the same level of concentration but it was just as enjoyable he thought. 

In the end he did drift off into a fitful sleep. Every now and then he would wake up and feel his head pounding before he fell back to sleep. His bruised side wasn’t any better either. He’d ask Remus for some more painkillers and double the dose he took. 

When he finally woke up enough to think past the pain and sit up the apartment had gone eerily quiet. The quiet was perhaps why he had woken up, Remus didn’t seem the type to be quiet, even in squirt sleep. One glance out the window, which had metal bars over the outside, told him it was late at night. Street lamps and low neon lights illuminated the buildings across from them. The constant sound of traffic had petered off from many engines and beeping horns to the occasional rev of a car speeding down the mostly empty streets. 

They used the time to fully assess the damage to their person. After a brief hesitance choose to start at their feet and work up, reaching forward with a wince as they pressed and prodded at their toes and then soles of their feet. They didn’t find more than a few slow fading bruises as they went up their legs and arms. They reached their torso and sighed heavily, wishing they could avoid this. He hadn’t had any pain from breathing, so he could probably rule out a broken rib, thankfully. He lightly prodded around the bruising, the worst of it had turned a deep purple with ugly yellow and red splotches. He was trying to check for a fracture, it seemed it was just bad bruising, but he couldn’t be sure. With bruising this intensive he would be in pain for days, something he really should be going to a clinic for to get the proper treatment, but going to a clinic was not a possibility right now. 

He laid back down, suppressing a soft whine. The injuries were far from ideal, but as long as Remus wasn’t hiding any ulterior motives or turned out to be abusive in some way then he should heal fine in ample time. 

The front door opened and closed, though Logan couldn’t see who it was from where he laid, though he’d make a guess that it was Remus, especially since they seemed to be humming WAP under their breath. 

“Remus?” he asked, his voice cracking at the end. 

“Here!” Remus shouted from the kitchen, where it sounded like squish was setting down some things on the counter, “You weren’t awake long, were you? Apologies if you were, I couldn’t just sit in my room like that so I went out and bought a bunch of shit. I got you an actual bed, ibuprofen, change of clothes. Just a lot of things.”

“Oh, thank you,” they replied, “And no need to feel apologetic, I woke just a few minutes ago. Can I get that ibuprofen now? I’d like a proper dosage as I’m still in quite a bit of pain.”

“Oh definitely.” Squish rummaged through the bags for a bit before walking into Logan’s line of sight. Squish hadn’t changed but squish had added on a puffy long-sleeved matching lime green crop top.

Logan honestly had lost track of what the time was, sometime between the fourth of July and Halloween, closer to Halloween, but not sure whether they were past the summer months now or not. He wasn’t sure if the nights were still warm until hours after the sun had disappeared or if they now cooled as soon as the sun lowered towards the horizon. It was probably the latter if Remus was wearing another layer while out in the middle of the night. 

“They’re like fucking pebbles,” Remus mumbled, using a (hopefully sterile) pair of tweezers to pull out an pill and placed it in Logan’s open hands. “The bottle says you can take up to two in a four hour period.”

“I want three,” Logan deadpanned, swallowing the small pill dry, “And some water if possible, please.”

“I’m going to trust you not to poison yourself,” Squish replied, dropping two more of the pills in their hands before walking away to get some water. 

“What time is it?”

“One AM, I think, you’d be surprised how many twenty-four hour stores there are within walking distance around here.”

Logan nodded, laying back after they took a few sips from the bottle cap Remus supplied. “Do you want to tell me about everything you got?” They asked, wanting something to listen to as the pain faintly started to ebb away. They hoped their next sleep would be significantly more restful once he wasn’t in so much pain. 

Remus did start to go on and on about the things squish bought, describing each thing and even reading off the package when squish thought the information was particularly useful or funny to squelch. It was mostly the basics for Companions, you could find a little bit of stuff in convenience stores and supermarkets for Companions, but mostly you had to go to MiniMe run stores or go online to find anything extra. Logan was a but impressed squish had been able to find so much this late at night without going to one of said stores. Perhaps squish was out longer than they thought. 

He drifted off again at some point. He remembered vaguely some of the things Remus described but it was mostly fuzzy. His head hurt still- and his side- and his fingers and ankles. 

“Remus?” He called loudly, hoping squish was still in the house. He had to cover his face with his hands, the sun now pouring into the window, apparently high enough to reach over the opposite building to shine right where he was. 

“Still here, Logan,” Squish replied, closer than he would have thought. “I cut doors and windows in this box and now I’m painting it so it’s not just an ugly brown and instead is broken bricks being overtaken by a plant monster. It’s for you but if you hate it I get it, I can paint it something different or get a new box or whatever you want.”

“I’m sure it’s wonderful Remus. Can I get two more ibuprofen?” They sat up slowly, wincing as another wave of pain went up their side. 

“Next to you,” Remus answered, “And a glass of water. Y’know you have to use an eyedropper to fill those little cups? I had to make another store trip to get one cause I didn’t think I had one and even if I did it’d probably be all germy or have weird chemicals in it.” 

Logan’s eyebrows furrowed as they looked over to see a tray balanced on the blanket with a mini glass of water and three more ibuprofen. “Oh, thank you. That’s very kind of you.”

“I just didn’t know when you’d be waking up again and didn’t want you not to have anything if I was out again. I didn’t leave again after getting the eyedropper anyway, but you never know when inspiration will strike. Are you hungry? I can make you something to eat. You remember the food stuff I bought last night? I can give you any of that.”

He did not remember any of the food Remus had bought. “That’s fine Remus, I’ll just take a bit of whatever you’re having.”

There was a long silence after that and Logan looked over to see Remus frowning tightly. Squish was sitting on the floor, surrounded by paint and brushes, the cardboard box in squirt hands was painted surprisingly realistically, with textured bricks and plant vines wrapping around it coming from centerpoint Logan couldn’t see from their vantage point. Squish licked squirt lips “Right, what I’m eating. I’ll get something to eat and we can share. That sounds like a good plan.”

“Have you already eaten?” Logan asked curiously. Remus didn’t seem to be keen on food at the moment.

Remus shook squirt head, “I haven’t,” squish got up and walked into the kitchen, once again out of sight of Logan.

There were a few minutes where neither of them spoke as Remus clambered around the kitchen, seemingly making as much noise as possible to drown out the silence and occasionally banging or tapping something repeatedly if it made a particularly pleasing or unpleasant sound.

Squish came back with a ham sandwich that was cut unevenly. Logan sighed as he was given a bottle cap with the ripped off corner of the sandwich inside. It certainly wasn’t the worst meal he’s ever had.

Remus sat down on the floor again and ate an entire half of squirt sandwich in four bites. Squish than immediately went back to painting, humming something off tune under squirt breath. 

Logan ate their food a bit slower before resigning themselves to just watching Remus work. They had thought that perhaps that after all the fuss squish had made that this time around with a caretaker would be different, but once again they were sat stuck and with nothing to occupy them. As well, Remus seemed to be upset, though they couldn’t fathom why or if it was their fault or not. They’d certainly been blamed for upsetting caretakers and alike before without knowing how they did so. 

“Are you really just going to watch me? It’s fine and all, but how do you not find just watching someone do something incredibly boring?” Squish asked, looking up at him, “When my old art professor made us watch these dumb tutorials I felt like my brain was going to turn to mush and drip out of my ears with how mind-numbingly boring they were. I just wanted to get to the actual art stuff. She’s the reason I dropped out of college. Also, I didn’t feel like going anymore after my mom died and Roman left.”

“I don’t mind watching, your work is interesting,” He answered honestly, “But there is also nothing else for me to do at the moment.” 

Remus’s brows furrowed for a second before squish stood up, knocking over a plastic cup and blackish paint water spilling over the already stained hardwood. Squish rushed out the room, “Logan, I apologize, you’re literally stuck- You probably think I’m such a dick- a dork if you will- Dork means whale penis by the way- I’m a huge dick- a giant penis- a humongous cock” -squish came back into the room with squirt phone and a little package- “This thing cost me like sixty dollars and I forgot about it, here we go-”

Squish set the phone up in front of Logan, propping it up on the blanket. Squish plugged it into a portable charger, which squish set to the side, before ripping into the package in squirt hand and pulling out a hot pink Companion keyboard with included mouse pad. Squish pressed a button on the side, the entire thing blinking as squish hooked it up to the bluetooth on squirt phone and then dumped it in Logan’s lap once it connected. “There! Now, you can do whatever you want. You can download anything, go anywhere, watch porn if you want. Just if you buy anything don’t spend too much, I’m already bordering on debt as it is. I had to cancel my Netflix subscription and I kept thinking about slamming my head in a door the entire time because I’d rather do that than not be able watch low quality horror movies or the Bee Movie on repeat, but doing that wouldn’t get me out of debt. That is, unless you don’t want to play on my phone, which I understand, you’re a grown adult, but I thought with your whole “being kicked across the sidewalk” thing from yesterday you’d want to not move, but I can let you off the couch instead and you can walk around or explore the house or-”

“Thank you,” Logan spoke up, cutting squelch off, “I appreciate it, Remus, really. This is fine.”

“Okay, good.” Remus nodded, “Yell at me if you need anything else- do you want privacy? I can move this into my room again.”

“No. You can stay where you are. Though I suggest you wipe up that water before it ruins your floor further.” 

“Ha. Like it’d matter.” Squish grinned, but went to grab a towel anyway.

Logan tested out the keyboard, typing a basic search into google and moving the new cursor around with the mousepad. It was the closest thing to a computer he’s touched in years now. Their mouth twitched up, even as their head pain persisted and their fingers ached as usual, because this was the best they’ve felt in a long time.

They worked independently for hours. Remus finishing up the painting on Logan’s temporary home, and Logan had spent the time fiddling with the phone’s settings and getting into contact with a few of his old coding acquaintances. Logan did have to remind Remus about dinner, which made squelch grumble under squirt breath about breaking squirt flow. It was instant mac and cheese, and Logan was beginning to think squish didn’t know how to feed squelchself. Hopefully they’d be able to convince squelch to buy proper food for the next coming weeks, that is unless squish was having trouble affording food, then that was a whole other problem they’d also need to help with. 

They were sure that with their new access to the internet they’d easily be able to pick up their own jobs through their old contacts. That reminded them- 

“Remus, did you want any help finding your sibling?” they asked. 

Squish paused what squish was doing- setting up the mini furniture in the box home- to look up at them. “Yes. Is there some way you can help? I’ve been trying to get information for weeks, even tried harassing a very nice receptionist, but it just got me thrown out. Apparently threatening to skin some nice girl’s cat is against the rules.”

“Please do not harass customer service employees, they are not the ones at fault for what is happening,” Logan reprimanded. 

“I know,” Remus groaned back, “That was my last attempt. I was just so fucking pissed at that point, but I kinda felt bad about it after. I sent her a box of donuts after. Can you still help me?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Logan sent a message to an old buddy. She didn’t respond right away but that was alright, they still wanted some time to get to know Remus before getting any information. 

“How long do you think it’ll take before you get anything?” Squish asked. 

A few days, depending on their security. “A few weeks at least. This isn’t an action movie.”

“No cool cut scenes or montages?” Remus pouted.

“Not for us.” Logan shook his head. 

The two of them went to bed not long after that. Logan opted to stay on the couch, not wanting to be moved just yet. Remus took squirt phone back to charge properly, along with the portable charger and mini keyboard. Squish promised to be up early to give it back to him in the morning so he wasn’t once again left alone without anything to do. Though he still managed to wake before Remus, not that he minded more than wishing he had more ibuprofen to drown out his head and side and ankles and fingers. Some proper painkillers would be nice, but he’d really rather not go to a clinic if he was already reported missing. If he was lucky his injuries would heal well on their own and he’d be declared dead in the next few days. 

When Remus did wake up it was the start of a growing routine. Squish would get them breakfast and give him a couple of ibuprofens for the day before the two would split off into their own things. Remus worked on odd art projects and the occasional Rube Goldberg machine. Then lunch, which Logan had convinced squelch to invest in more complete meals; after which squish would make a small dinner for Logan for later before they would head off to work for the night, working the closing shift at a nearby pharmacy five nights a week.

His days were mostly spent taking ibuprofen, in somewhat irresponsible doses, starting on the basics of coding again, creating a small game, so that he could brush up on his skills as well as doing mass amounts of researching and digging through any information he could find on both Remus and Roman King. It wasn’t terribly hard to do so, while Remus didn’t have a high social media presence, squish also didn’t bother to ever erase their search history. Logan had seen more gross and disturbing things in said search history than he had in his entire life time, but nothing to suggest Remus was cruel or sadistic squelchself. There was a short time spent incarcerated for weed possession and assaulting an officer, but that was years ago and Logan could care less about such things, it certainly wasn’t an indicator of a pattern of violence or drug abuse. 

Roman was easier, as fae had an account on nearly every social media platform available. What was most telling was that, while there weren’t any posts from the past few weeks, there was plenty of activity. Logan was able to find Youtube comments on makeup tutorials from just a few days ago, and Roman’s “liked posts” page on faer tumblr was growing everyday. The only thing Roman hadn’t done online in the last few weeks was draw attention to faerself, just lurking, very similarly to Logan themselves. 

They sent a message to faem through Instagram, though unsurprisingly fae never returned the message. It was marked as ‘read’. 

Their friend did respond to them however. Remus had managed to get them their own smartphone, a cheaper one but it was perfectly fine and gave them the security to massage whomever they pleased.  It only took them passing on a little bit of information about their old Companion Representative for them to get the entirety of Roman’s MiniMe files sent to them, including quite a few concerning notes made by faer Representative. It sounded more like they were talking about a high-end dog than a person. Not even Logan’s Representative was this bad.

The files were mostly medical records, post and pre physicals of the shrinking procedure, along with a report from faer primary MiniMe caretaker about faer week in the MiniMe facility, which was almost as concerning as the Dr. Magenta’s notes. There was a brief mention of another Companion named Virgil, which Logan wondered if it was a coincidence or it was the same Virgil he had shared a “room”' with during their own period at the MiniMe facility. They didn't know whether or not to be relieved that Virgil had not been exploited the same way they had been but had likely spent a year in that facility now without any stable relationships. 

It was the last few pages that included the adoption process. He put off reading it for a few days. He wanted to be sure that Remus’s intentions for squirt Companion of a twin were truly good. Though, squish seemed to always speak squirt completely honest opinion, especially about squirt twin. Squish talked about the good and the bad, the times squish had looked up to Roman and the times fae was an annoying prat. 

Logan had been staying with Remus three weeks when they finally read the end of the file, now sure that Remus, while chaotic, wasn’t a danger to another Companion or squirt twin. There was a lot of legal jargon that was signed periodically with Dr. Magenta and the caretaker’s initials, until the last page where they both signed their full names: Percy Magenta and Janus Dolos. Surprisingly, Logan found the name familiar, but couldn’t quite place where they had heard it. He didn’t think it was before volunteering at MiniMe. 

He set aside his keyboard, standing up from his couch. The bruise along his side was nearly completely healed and his headaches came less frequently. Walking wasn’t much more trouble than it usually was anymore, and he headed out the lovely painted home Remus had made him. 

Remus noticed them immediately, squirt head popping up and looking over from squirt current art project: an abstract and colorful painting of two masculine figures having intercourse, not Logan’s taste but he was hardly an art critic. Squish wiped squirt hands on a dirtied cloth, as squish preferred to paint with squirt hands over conventional tools, “What can I do for you, Lo-to-the-ground-gan?”

He sighed at the pun before starting the climb up the mini staircase to the top of the coffee table, “I have the name of the caretaker that adopted your twin.”

 Remus’s eyes bugged out of squirt head before they scrambled off squirt stool and onto the floor, sitting on squirt knees as they leaned over the table, “Y- You did? How? Who? Do you have any other information?”

“Just the name right now, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find more. Their name is Janus Dolos,” Logan answered. 

There was a quiet moment. Remus’s entire body had frozen solid- Logan was worried for a second squish was having a stroke. Then squirt expression morphed and they shot up, looking ready to destroy something (which squish did end up stabbing squirt canvas with a pocket knife), “That son of a- that vile- a worm! She’s a worm, a disgusting, slimy, dig-in-the-dirt earth worm that eats dirt and shits dirt! Oh when I get my hands on that slippery snake I’m going to ring his neck- Really ring it, like a wet towel, and I’ll watch his neck snap and her head tumble to the floor and I’ll kick it into the next state for good measure! I’m going to eat his toes, should have done the moment I knew he was rich- really put the saying ‘eat the rich’ to good use. I’m going to steal her organs and make a haggis and it’s going to be fucking delicious.”

“You.. know him?” Logan questioned. 

“Yes, and we’re going to his fucking house right now. Come on.” Remus brought squirt hands towards Logan, getting within an inch before pausing. They had worked more on consent these last couple weeks, and while Logan was a little nervous about being in Remus’s hands when squish was this riled up they knew they had no reason to be afraid. They nodded and were immediately scooped up into paint stained hands and the two of them were out the door.  

He didn’t have a clue where they were heading or what they would find when they got there, he simply hoped that he had been correct in thinking Roman wasn’t truly in any danger. Perhaps he should have taken the time to calm Remus, let squish think this through logically and explain who Janus Dolos was, but to be completely honest he was extremely curious as to who could bring such a visceral reaction from squelch. 

Chapter Text

Fae mumbled to faerself softly as fae swept faer paint brush over faer canvas, mixing paint before it dried. Twenties music, high and upbeat, played softly through the surround-sound speakers, just loud enough to keep the house from being quiet. Fae had a clear view out into the garden and was painting the pink roses, occasionally adding faer own touches. Janus had asked once if fae had actually seen the mythical creatures fae had added to faer paintings and Roman was only eighty percent certain that had been a joke at the time. 

Janus was in the kitchen, swinging her hips to the music as she made their lunch. Roman had  asked for cucumber sandwiches and tea, and fae could hear the kettle whistling before it was pulled off the stove top. The weeks had come and gone and they had come to more of an equilibrium. Well, more Janus has acted the same way he always has and Roman has come to accept it, especially since putting up with the teasing and weird comments came with gifts, like paints. 

“Oh, it looks like we’re about to have a guest,” Janus said, causing Roman to look away from the garden to Janus, who was looking out the open window to the front yard. “Seems squish figured it out by squelchself. Pity I didn’t get time to prepare.”

“Squish/squelch? Those are the same pronouns as- Who’s outside?” Roman asked, setting faer brush in the water. 

Faer question was answered by a loud pounding on the front door, “Janus! Janus you slimy piece of shit! Open this door right now before I climb in through the windows like I want to!”

Roman’s eyes widened, recognizing that nasally voice anywhere, “That’s- How did squish-”

Janus simply walked up to the open window next to the door and leaned her torso out, crossing her arms over the wood panel- Roman could practically feel his smug expression from where fae was at the other side of the room- “Why, hello Remus, why don’t you come through the window? I would expect nothing less from you.”

“Because Logan told me not to because I might drop him, but trust me, if it weren’t for them, you’d already have a black eye instead of a green one! You’re two minutes away from becoming rattlesnake stew, double D.”

“Logan? Who is- Oh, hello. Well it’s good to see Remus can make more than one friend. Blink twice if he’s holding you against your will.”

Roman could hear someone speak softly before Remus’s loud voice continued, “I can’t believe you’d accuse me of such things when you’re the criminal here!”

“I haven’t done anything illegal… recently, anyway. So I have no clue what you’re referring to,” Janus brushed off, “You’ll have to be more specific.”

“My twin! Roman! Fae Is in your house right now you future pair of snakeskin boots! I bet your spots would go for twice as much on the black market as the last pair I made,” Remus went off and Roman could see the doorknob rattle, “Now let me in, you shitty Two-Face rip-off.”

Janus chuckled, “You’ve always been so polite, dukey.” She pulled herself out of the window and unlocked the front door.

Immediately Remus came barreling through, another Companion cupped in squirt hands. “Where are you keeping faem? If faer is trapped somewhere you’ll be getting my pocket knife shoved right up your-”

“Remus!” Roman shouted, cutting squelch off, “I’m fine. Standing right over here.”

Squish looked around widely before spotting faem by the back window and immediately rushing over. Roman flinched as squish just barely stopped from knocking into the platform fae was on. “Fae flinched! Why did fae flinch, Janus?” Remus shouted accusingly.

“Cause you ran at faem full speed, dumbass, calm down before you hurt faem or break something,” Janus replied, closing the door.

“Oh, like you haven’t done anything to faem!” Squish argued. 

“I mean, she really hasn’t,” Roman mumbled. This was the first time fae had seen their sibling not only as a Companion but for the first time in years now. They didn’t even follow each other's social media (not that Roman didn’t check Remus’s every now and then). It was a little intimidating seeing squelch so big, especially since they hadn’t separated on the best of terms and squish was shouting quite a bit, “I’m surprised you’re here, to be honest. I didn’t think you’d want to see me again after all this.”

Remus scoffed and set the Companion in his hands, Logan most likely, on the platform next to faem, “Yeah, well getting a bunch of your crap sent to my apartment with a little note from you about how you were deciding to disappear of the face of the Earth made me want to see you, stupid-head. You were the one supposed to inherit my weird bone collection and rainbow porn art when I died in an unfortunate skydiving accident in the Grand Canyon where I forgot my parachute and it took them weeks to recover my body, not the other way around where you shrink yourself down to something easily portable and squishable. Do you know how many ways you could have died in the last few weeks?”

“Well, considering all my platforms and stairs have railings and I’m never under foot fall, I’d say not many,” Roman deadpanned. 

Logan looked around. Roman noted their black tee-shirt covered in constellations, paired with a jean button up, they looked like a nerd with their square glasses sitting perfectly on their nose. Their expression didn’t change as they spoke, “Fae isn’t wrong, this is a fairly safe set-up; fae would have to jump off to get hurt and even then it’s not a particularly fatal fall for a Companion unless they were to land wrong. I’d have to assume the rest of the house has a similar set up. As well, there’s a MiniMe distributed car down there, the safest on the market for Companions, which decreases faer chance of getting stepped on with the minimum time on the floor. Not that getting stepped on is likely for a Companion in the first place, as most people who are aware of a Companion in the house are more likely to watch their step and Companions usually stick close to walls.”

Roman gave Remus a smug look, “See, as I said, safe!”

“Remus, do you really think so lowly of me that I wouldn’t provide your sibling with all the best accommodations possible?” Janus asked, pouting slightly. 

“I’ve been searching for faem for weeks. Fae hasn’t responded to any of my messages. I had to assume the worst and the worst is coming from you right now!” Remus responded, stomping squirt foot like a child. Guilt bubbled up in Roman’s chest as squish continued, “So what did you do to faem?”

Fae had no idea that Remus cared so much. Fae had seen the notifications for the messages, but never looked at them, not ready to face what faer sibling had to say. Fae should have, fae realizes, it was unfair to squelch to have not. Squish had been looking for faem this entire time, found faem even, and fae couldn’t bring it in faem to read the messages. 

“That’s my fault,” Fae answered, “I saw your messages. Janus gave me a phone, he wasn’t keeping me away from you. I just- I just thought you wouldn’t want to see me- and- and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to see you.” 

Remus was quiet, slowly getting on squirt knees to be level with faem, “Am I really that bad of a twin you’d rather drop off the face of the Earth than come talk to me?”

Roman gulped down the lump in his throat, “No. No, not at all Remus, I’m the awful one here. I’ve always ran from my problems instead of facing them head on. We both know that. I ran from you all those years ago, from the rest of our family, and now I’ve run the second my life wasn’t going as planned.” 

Squish sighed, “Look, I don’t blame you for running after mom-”

“You should! I left you when I knew you needed help and-”

“And you weren’t able to provide that help then. That’s okay. We were both going through it and you couldn’t heal and be my therapist too. Running was kind of a shit thing to do, yeah, it sucked that you weren’t there; but you didn’t think you had any other options and were afraid to ask for help. I’m sure you felt the same about whatever thing happened that made you think shrinking and selling yourself was a good idea.”

“My agent dropped me,” Roman mumbled faer explanation, “And I always liked the idea of MiniMe from an outside perspective, thought it’d be like a new start.”

Squish snorted, “Yeah, that tracks. You romanticize new starts way too much. So, how do you like it from an inside perspective now?”

“It’s not too bad” -fae caught Logan making a face out of the corner of faer eye- “But yeah, if I could redo it I’d probably reach out to some people first before listening to advertisements and creepy doctors.”

“I read some of your file,” Logan cut in, “Dr. Magenta was your representative, right? He thought of you more like an expensive poodle than he did a person.”

“Oh, I know,” Janus added, “Getting on that man’s good side was disgusting. I had to nod along with his ramblings to secure my adoption of Roman. The man had no tact, even babbled happily about the tricks I could teach faem when faer carrier was currently in my hand. It’s taken weeks to get Roman to trust me.”

“If you had told me any of that from the beginning- maybe even mentioned you knew Remus- it wouldn’t have taken so long,” Roman snapped.

“Well, what’s the fun in that?” He asked, leaning against Remus’s back, which Remus huffed about but didn’t push him off, “Watching you trying to puzzle out every little thing I said was hilarious, and when you’re angry your entire face turns red, it reminded me a bit of Remus.”

Faer cheeks burned red, "You could have said anything, literally anything and that would have been easier. For all I knew you were just a villain that got off on feeling bigger than you are."

"You really don’t have room to talk about being big now," Remus said, snickering when Roman glared at squelch. Squish craned squirt neck to look up at Janus, “Though you were being a dick, Janus, I vented to you about it when I got faer stuff in the mail.”

“And I listened.” Janus ran her fingers through Remus’s hair, making a face at how oily it was, “I made sure Roman didn’t end up in any of those awful homes you had been worried about.”

Remus huffed, “And you didn’t tell me you adopted my sibling, why?”

She smirked, “I did, on April first.”

They all took a moment to process that information, Remus’s face slowly turning bright red.

“You did that on purpose!” Remus shouted, “I thought you were being a dick and planning on giving me poisoned tea when you invited me over to “come see Roman”.”

“Hmm, pity,” Janus replied.

Logan frowned, though Roman doesn't think fae had seen them smile yet, "So what now? Are we still going through with the original plan?"

Janus raised an eyebrow, "What plan?"

"Oh, yeah! Roman, you're coming home with me. Obviously Janus has been an awful caretaker, just as I thought, and I will not stand for it," Remus said, standing up and shoving Janus off squirt back, "I've been spending the last few weeks setting up everything I could think of for you! Okay, actually, I mostly got the stuff for Logan, I probably wouldn’t have anything for you if it wasn’t for them; but I made you your own little house that you can live in with your own stuff in it. I got you a bed and clothes and dishware and stairs and ladders and I’m saving up for a MiniMe scissor lift. That’s also for Logan but you two can share until I can get two," squish listed excitedly.

"Ah," Roman nodded and rubbed the back of faer head, "That's very kind of you Remus, but, well, when we live together it’s kind of a disaster. It nearly tore us apart last time and I don't think I'm quite ready to just go back to that."

Squish stared at Roman for a long moment before flinging squirt hands around widely as squish spoke, “I can’t believe-! You want to stay here! You don’t even know him. He could be evil for all you know. I do know, and he’s an absolute snake. A second-rate friend.”

“Remus-” Janus spoke up, and was subsequently talked over.

“Tell faem they can’t stay, Janus. Tell faem how awful it would be to stay with you and how fae should come home with me like faer supposed to,” Remus begged squirt friend. 

Roman tensed, faer hands clasping together tightly. Fae realized quite suddenly fae didn’t truly have a say in this. Janus could easily listen to Remus, take squirt side and fae would be scooped up and hauled out of the house, once again leaving everything fae had for an unknown place. Fae didn’t want to leave again; fae loved faer twin, but fae also liked it here.

“Remus,” Logan near-shouted, startling faem. Fae looked beside faem to the other Companion, his arms crossed as he glared at faer sibling. “Who is in charge of Roman?”

That made Roman feel even more like shit, knowing the obvious answer was Janus. Fae really didn’t have a voice at all anymore, all faer decisions being made by those far bigger than faerself. Fae bit the inside of faer cheek, willing the growing tears to subside. 

There was a sigh from Remus, “Roman is in charge of Roman.”

Now that was a shock.

“That’s right,” Logan agreed with squelch, “So, we are not going to make decisions for faem when fae is an adult, perfectly capable of making those decisions on faer own.”

Roman looked up to see Remus pout, “But fae only ever makes stupid decisions.”

“Hey!”

“Well it’s true. Look at you. You’re four inches tall.”

Logan cleared his throat, “Which is a mistake anyone can make when put in a precarious situation.”

Squish actually looked sheepish, “Right. Sorry, Logan.”

“You’re forgiven.” Logan nodded, “Now, I understand this is not how either of you two thought this situation would go, but Remus, how about you sit back down and we can discuss this properly?”

Squish hesitated a moment before walking back over and sitting on the floor once again in front of the platform. Logan hummed and stepped closer to the edge, placing a hand on the railing, “Thank you, Remus.” 

“Yeah. you’re welcome,” squish grumbled, shifting, “Roman, I just- I don’t get how you want to stay here instead of come home with me. You know me. Janus is a complete stranger to you. I know him, sure, and he’s fun to hang with, but I never thought you’d like him.”

Roman chuckled, rubbing faer eyes, “Janus isn’t a stranger. I’ve been here a few weeks now Remus, and, while he’s confusing at times, we’ve gotten along quite well. She’s taken good care of me and has made efforts to give me my independence. If you had come the first week or if it was someone that I didn’t get along with, it would be a different story, but I enjoy it here.”

“So you’d rather never see me again?” Remus whined. 

Fae raised an eyebrow, “Janus is your friend isn’t he? Can’t you just come and visit me?”

Squish blinked before squirt eyes lit up, “I can come visit you!”

Janus laughed, “Glad you figured that out, stink bug. You were being a clingy idiot.”

Roman grinned as Remus stood, planning to tackle Janus, but she easily slipped out of the way and watched squelch fall to the ground. She brushed her skirt of imaginary dirt and excused herself to the kitchen to get the tea. Remus shouted at her and trailed after, leaving faem and Logan standing on the platform by themselves. 

Fae sighed, leaning on the banister next to him. They looked over the living room for a moment, Logan taking in each detail of the room, eyes lingering on the noticeable Companion accommodations. There were a few, Janus had gotten more stairs and ladders and set them around the more frequented surfaces. There was a walkway attached to the hall wall now, two feet off the ground, and a cubby in the living room that kept faem hidden but able to stay in the same room. Not to mention faer little chair and couch set up on the coffee table and faer car that helped faem get to room to room. 

Logan looked back at the window and Roman’s painting, humming thoughtfully, “You and your sibling share a similar art theme, realism with fantastical elements added. Do you also do abstract on occasion?”

“I do,” fae answered, “It’s been a long time since someone has compared me to my sibling, and now it’s been twice in the past ten minutes.”

“Is that a bad thing?” they questioned.

Fae shrugged, “It was, when I was a kid. Everything was always Remus-and-Roman. It was hard to find something that was just Roman, y’know. Now it’s not as bad, we’re similar but different, same as any siblings.” 

“I see,” Logan replied, tracing the dry edges of the painting, “Were you being honest with Remus about wanting to stay here? I know it can be hard sometimes to be honest when you’re in a vulnerable position.”

“I was. Janus is a good caretaker and I’m just not ready to live with Remus again after so long apart. Though, I’m a little surprised squish managed to get a Companion on squirt own, and I’m having trouble thinking of a reason why squish would want one in the first place. I mean no offense of course, but I’ve recently seen squelch be very verbal about his distaste for MiniMe online.” 

“Squish didn’t get me through MiniMe. Squish picked me up off the sidewalk whilst I was running from my last caretaker.”

“Oh,” fae replied dumbly, “It was that awful?”

Logan took that into consideration, “Not in the way you’re thinking. I wasn’t scared of him, he was simply neglectful of my needs. I could have easily found a way to contact MiniMe and be rehomed again. I was just tired of the process. MiniMe is inept at homing disabled Companions. I had planned on surviving on my own, as it would give me some sense of control again.”

“Then Remus came barreling through your life?” Roman smirked 

“Indeed,” Logan answered with a half smile, “Squish has been the best caretaker I’ve ever had the experience of being with. Squish is always attentive and makes accommodations as possible, and yet gives me independence to make my own choices and is not overbearing.”

“I never thought my sibling would be any good at taking care of anyone, to be honest. Squish has had trouble taking care of squirtself in the past,” fae chuckled softly, trying to brush off the guilt that was building within faem. The lack of care squish had for squirtself was one of the reasons Roman had to pry faemself away from squelch. It had gotten too hard on faem to take care of both squelch and faemself while on already descending mental health. 

“I noticed that,” Logan said, surprising Roman slightly, “But I found that it’s much easier for squirt to take care of squelchself and squirt space when squish is thinking about me and my care. Squish cleans squirt space so I can walk easily from room to room, squish eats meals with me when I ask squelch to, and squish attempts to sleep through the night so as to not wake me until morning. I’m almost like a therapy animal,” they joked. 

Roman snickered, “At least squish is doing better. I worry about squelch sometimes, but I was always too scared to reach out, and squish never did either- Not until squish got my stuff that is but, y’know-”

“I’m sure it was overwhelming at the time,” he said, “though the weeks after don’t have much of an excuse.”

“I know. I was just scared after that and I felt it was too late.”

“It’s never too late to speak to those that reach out to you, Roman, they did so because they care for you.”

Fae sighed, “I suppose you’re right. Did you leave anyone behind when volunteering for MiniMe? If you don’t mind me asking that is. When I volunteered I was out of friends and what family I had left I hadn’t spoken to in years by then. Volunteering for this kind of gig isn’t exactly for someone popular.” 

Logan hummed back at that, “I think I mind you asking that. It’s something I’d like to keep to myself for now.”

Fae couldn’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment, but fae didn’t pry. Whatever Logan had before was none of faer business, especially since Roman was just a stranger to him. They fell into a silence until Remus came back, ranting about Janus and what the other had said to squelch. Janus followed not soon after with a tray of sandwiches and tea. 

Somehow the four of them easily fell into conversation after that, each talking and bouncing off each other. It was weird speaking with Remus again, squish was just as fae remembered squelch and yet also still surprised faem, especially with how conscious squish was with squirt movements when squish was close to faem and Logan. 

Occasionally Janus would say something that would get Remus red in the face before squish would start ranting at him for whatever it was. Usually the topic was something him and Roman had done together in the past few weeks, which made squelch upset over not knowing fae was here all over again. Other times it was just a remark about squirt art or capitalism in that weird way that Janus spoke where you never knew whether or not he was praising or condemning it. Remus either knew exactly which Janus meant every time or would just choose whichever way squish knew how to reply to quickly, because squish wouldn’t hesitate to respond like faem or Logan. 

Logan, when they weren’t puzzling out Janus’s words or smiling fondly at faer twin’s ranting, was adding four syllable and larger words to the conversation, along with research paper amounts of information to answer simple questions, and yet still managed to keep it interesting each time. Roman would have thought that listening to another person rattling off like a human encyclopedia would have been exhausting, but from Logan it was compelling, and clearly it was the best way he knew how to communicate. Roman certainly couldn’t fault him, especially since fae would often take the crumbs of the conversation and faer mind would run off to an entirely new topic even fae barely knew what the connection to the original topic was; but somehow it kept the conversation from going stale. 

It was growing dark when Janus asked Remus and Logan if they wanted to stay for the night. The spare bedroom was always made up for Remus’s surprise visits it seems and squish had at least two sets of clothes tucked away in said room. Logan also had the option of sleeping in Roman’s Mini House, Remus’s room, or even the second spare room, which was currently being used as an office space but had a fold-out couch within. He seemed to appreciate the choices and choose the spare bedroom in Roman’s home, even after fae warned him that it had been half turned into a closet at this point. 

Though even after sleeping arrangements were made, they didn’t head to bed for hours. Pizza was ordered a while ago and they had all had their fill. Logan yawned sometime around midnight and that’s when they tapped out, asking faem to show them where the Mini House and room they would be starting in was. 

Roman led him off the coffee table, which they had moved to some time ago and offered a ride in his car. Janus cleared his throat before they got too far, “Roman, do you think you’ll be returning? I want to talk with you.”

Fae considered that as fae turned on the car, which was just a start button on the dashboard. Even with the pleasant conversation today fae was still somewhat pissed at Janus for withholding so much information from faem. It wasn’t right of her to keep her identity and intentions secret for the past couple weeks. However, it would be good to talk about it, “Yes, just give me a few moments.”

Fae took Janus to faer room, showed him around the little house and what was available to him, and aptly ignored the looks Logan was giving faem. Fae pulled out an extra set of sheets and handed them to Logan as fae showed him the room he would be sleeping in. 

“You know, if you ever feel unsafe or controlled, Remus and I are just one call away,” Logan said, faking casualness as they made the bed. 

Roman ran a hand through faer hair, “Excuse me?”

“You don’t seemed too thrilled about talking with Janus, but you still agreed,” Logan replied, voice gentle like he was afraid of setting faem off, “I just want you to know you have a choice if-”

Roman cut him off with a huff of breath, “No, it’s not that. Thank you, Logan, I’m just upset with him is all. I could have easily said no, but I do want to talk with him and get a better understanding of this situation. .”

They nodded, “Alright. Apologies, I didn’t mean to assume but I know sometimes-”

“It’s alright, honestly. I appreciate the concern, and I will very much keep it in mind, but I don’t believe things will go south with Janus. Like I said before, she’s hard to understand sometimes but a lovely caretaker. It is a bit hard to trust her words, but his actions have always been true and good.” 

“Actions are some of the truest of getting to know a person,” Logan agreed, though hesitantly, “It has been a pleasure meeting you, Roman, I’ll see you in the morning then?”

“Yes, you will, and it has been wonderful meeting another Companion, I almost forgot there were others my size,” He chuckled, “I’ll try not to wake you on my way back up. Good night, Logan.”

“Good night,” Logan responded back, closing the bedroom door behind Roman. Fae saw the light turn off under the door. 

Fae left the house and made faer way back to the living room. Fae didn’t bother taking the car, taking slow steps back even though fae knew there was no point in delaying the inevitable. Fae was still a bit worried of Janus’s motives, especially now, and while fae was sure this conversation would clear a lot more up there was a small part of faem that worried that he would just continue to lie to faem. 

 Roman heard faer sibling as fae walked around the corner, “I’ll admit it was funny Janus, I would have done the exact same thing in your position, but I would have at least told the person I had kidnapped who I was.”

“I suppose,” Janus sighed, “But it’s not kidnapping if I’m the legal guardian.”

“That shit stinks worse than four-day-old elephant patties and you know it. Roman doesn’t need a legal guardian, fae’re a fully-functioning adult. Did fae even agree to come with you, or did you just adopt him on the spot without any warning?”

“Remus, you have to understand that I couldn’t risk leaving faem. Faer mini representative had a slew of potential adopters after me. Roman would have been gone within the next few days if I didn’t-”

“At least fae would have gotten a choice-”

“Fae wouldn’t have gotten a choice with anyone else,” Janus hissed, “You know what would have happened with a representative like Dr. Magenta. Roman was one interview away from being a high-priced pet or a singing doll. I wasn’t any better, I understand that I should have-”

Roman could hear Janus’s voice but wasn’t processing the words anymore. Fae thought back to Virgil, his terrified face when Roman was dropped in the travel carrier. Fae had taken Virgil’s words before fae was whisked away a lot more seriously since that day, but hearing someone else repeat the kid’s words like they were fact once again shined a light on faer position. Besides that one week at MiniMe, fae had always had at least some control over what fae did, faer life before and with Janus, it was hard to fathom that reality the others were so afraid of that Roman wouldn’t have an ounce of that control at all. 

“How do you know that?” Fae asked, the words surprising faem and just loud enough for the two full-sized people in the room to hear.

They looked down, both surprised to see faem. Janus was the first to speak, “How do I know what? How long were you standing there?”

Fae pulled at faer sleeve, walking closer, “I’ve heard that before, that I would make a good doll. Why do you think that would happen, me becoming something like a doll? If you didn’t pick me up, was that really what was going to happen to me? How are you so certain? I always thought homes were carefully picked out to make sure Companions were safe and well cared for. After my own experience, I realized there were some things I was misled about, but is it such a great possibility that you’re certain it would happen to me.”

Remus grabbed one of Janus’s cork coasters, tearing it apart in squirt hands. Janus didn’t stop squelch as she carefully placed her hands in her lap. She took a deep breath, “Currently, many Companions are older, a vast majority are over the age of fifty. This is because MiniMe advertises as a care service. Older people volunteer so they can be adopted and homed to someone that can provide 24-hour personal care and companionship.

“Since this is the case, younger Companions, especially ones that are outgoing and friendly like yourself, are somewhat rare. Someone does not ask specifically for a young Companion because they want to care for them out of the kindness of their heart. My job will sometimes put me in circles with a caretaker that has adopted a young Companion, and more often than not they’re quicker to speak about the looks or their kid’s feelings of the Companion than the feelings of the Companion themselves. It's disheartening, when you can read between the lines and realize that Companion is most likely acting as a form of entertainment for their kids or as a showpiece to fake a bit of charity.”

A string pulled loose on Roman’s sleeve and he moved his hands to the other sleeve to avoid pulling on it, “You really think that was going to happen to me?”

“It was a strong possibility that Remus was worried about when squish got your things in the mail. I wasn’t able to meet any of the other potential adopters Dr. Magenta had on the list for you, but I got a few names from conversations with him. Some of them would have likely been fine homes and others would not have been, I thought it best not to risk you being placed in those other homes.”

Remus snorted as squish dumped all the bits of coaster on the coffee table, “I don’t know why you’re surprised, sib, humans have a track record of taking advantage of anything weaker than them and I could literally punt you across the room right now and you couldn’t do a thing about it.”

“I could spit in your ear while you sleep,” Roman shot back, slowly climbing up the coffee table stairs to the top. 

“Oh, yeah, that’s really scary,” Remus snickered, flicking a bit of coaster cork at Roman and it bounced off faem harmlessly. Fae rolled faer eyes and decided to push all the bits off the coffee table onto the floor. Janus’s exasperated sigh and Remus’s burst of laughter was enough for faem to start laughing on faer own. 

Janus laid back on the couch, his eyes slipping shut, “Roman, you’re a menace of a Companion. If any of those high-price caretakers had adopted you they would have returned you within the week. Goodness knows I’ve thought about it myself.” 

“Now I know that was a lie. You find my company delightful,” fae laughed. 

Janus merely hummed at that, “Debatable. Though, I did want to properly apologise for my actions.”

“Ah,” fae replied.

“That’s my cue to leave.” Remus pushed squelchself up and off the couch, stepping towards squirt room. Squish waved as squish left, “Sorry ‘bout the coaster.”

“I have plenty extra,” Janus waved squelch off. He did wait until they heard the shut of the door before continuing, “Roman, when I adopted you I wasn’t honest with you, something I felt was necessary at the time but I could have handled the situation better, as well, keeping you in the dark all that time after is inexcusable. I could have greatly hurt you by withholding the information that I knew your sibling. I know these last few weeks have been very confusing for you because of this. It was wrong of me to use the information I knew against you, even if none of it was done with malicious intent.” 

Roman sighed, “Honestly Janus, it’s whatever. It was weird and frustrating, but you being friends with Remus of all people explains a lot of it; not just all those little things you knew about me but just your personality in general. If Remus was friends with anyone it would definitely be someone as weird and hard to get along with as squish is.”

Janus rolled her eyes, leaning forward on his knees, “You’re not as nice as you think you are.”

Fae smiled small, “I’m nicer, you mean?”

He laughed, “Keep thinking that, Mx. King.” 

Faer grin widened. It hadn’t been that long since fae had heard faer last name, but it was still a weight off faer shoulders. Fae was still the same person fae was just a few weeks ago, different size or not.

They went to bed shortly after that. It was a lot to take in and despite faer exhaustion fae stared up at faer ceiling contemplating what it would have been like to be homed with one of the caretakers Janus described. At this point fae didn’t doubt that Dr. Magenta would have overlooked some toxic qualities of caretakers in favor of getting faem adopted quickly and getting paid. He probably would have even encouraged it to keep on a potential adopter’s good side. Fae still couldn’t quite grasp the idea of being used like a toy, the idea not quite processing in faer brain as a real possibility. It almost made faem morbidly curious as to how it would feel, but fae wouldn’t be asking for a demonstration anytime soon.

Fae hoped that Virgil was alright. Fae had no clue about his whereabouts. Maybe fae could ask Logan for a favor and see about getting Virgil’s files, they had been able to get a hold of faer’s. Fae wanted to know if he had gotten adopted and to whom if he had. Remus was down for kidnapping Companions it seemed, so perhaps if Virgil wasn’t in a good spot they could attempt to bring him here as well.  

The next morning Logan and Remus stayed for breakfast before going back to Remus’s apartment. Roman had thought about going with them, just to see what Remus had set up, but fae wasn’t quite ready to spend that much time with faer twin. They did agree to another day when Janus could come with them, as she couldn’t today with work to do. However, Roman did follow Logan on instagram and gave them faer phone number so they could talk. 

Roman spent most of the day by faemself, but fae did go through a few of faer messages and responded to old friends that had messages faem a while ago. It felt good to talk to some people again. Fae hadn’t realized how much fae had been isolating faemself, thinking that fae had to give up faer old life completely for this new one. If Remus showed him anything it was that fae wasn’t in a whole new world, it was the same world fae had always lived in and fae just had a new perspective.

Janus and faem spent the next few days as they always had, with the addition of Remus occasionally popping in or video calling them with Logan usually by squirt side or in squirt hand. It had taken Roman some time to get the courage to ask the other Companion for help finding Virgil, but he seemed happy to help. He did say it would take a bit more time than him finding Roman’s file because neither of them knew his last name or even how long he had been in MiniMe. It turned out Logan had known Virgil for a short period as well, unless of course there were two grouchy Companions named Virgil that wore all black and hated the MiniMe caretakers.

During one of Remus and Logan’s visits they were looking for him together, going through a list of unadopted Companion files Logan had gotten their hands on. Roman was much too impressed to ask how he managed to get them, but they had yet to find anything. 

Logan was growing frustrated as they were nearing the end of the list, “I truly would have thought we’d find his name here. If my memory serves correctly his representative was Dr. Dreagawit, but these are all of their available Companions and we still haven’t come across him yet.”

“Well, that leaves two options, either Dr. Dreagawit is not or is no longer Virgil’s representative or Virgil’s been adopted,” Roman answered with a sigh, skimming over the information of the last Companion, a woman in her seventies with silver hair and a long list of medical information. It was certainly weird going through other people’s information, but it wasn’t like fae knew them. It would be much weirder if they were to actually find their emo’s information. Fae wasn’t sure how much fae would be able to resist reading what was there- fae was nosey. 

“What, are you two doing exactly?” Janus asked, placing lunch down next to them on the coffee table. He raised an eyebrow as he looked over the information on Logan’s screen, “You two planning on stealing some poor old woman’s identity? Do you need help? I’m very good at scam calls, I can probably get her social security number out of her easily.”

“No, we’re actually looking for someone specific,” Logan answered, not phased by Janus’s illegal suggestion as he closed out of the files, “An old friend of ours that we had both met within MiniMe. It’s quite a coincidence that we had both met him, but I think that makes it ever more evident that we should try to reconnect.” 

“It’s fate!” Roman added, “We were destined to be friends. We just have to find him again.” 

Janus hummed, “I have a few connections of my own in MiniMe, maybe I can help. What’s this friend of yours named?”

“We haven’t got a last name,” Logan explained, “But his first name is Virgil.” 

Janus’s face twisted up for a second. She pulled out her phone and tapped a few times before showing the two of them the screen, “It wouldn’t happen to be him would it?” It was a facebook post, note even a few days old, with a picture of Virgil front and center, sitting in a bright purple bean bag and flipping off the camera and sticking his tongue out. He was wearing a black jacket with hand stitched patches, a purple shirt and ripped jeans. His hair had been pulled into short braids and he had a frightening amount of black makeup smeared around his eyes. The caption had an almost scary number of exclamation points.

This is the only picture Virgil would let me post of him, so sorry for the rude gesture, but I just needed to show off how nifty he looks!! Virgil’s got more cool style in his little body than I got in my pinky finger!!! I mean, look how spiffy his jacket is!!!!! I don’t think I could pull it off like he can. He’s been helping me buy some new clothes now, so I think with his help I could dress half as good someday!

Logan adjusted their glasses, even going as far as to cleaning them with their 
microfiber lens cleaning cloth they carry around everywhere like the nerd they are, “How in the world did you find this so quickly?”

“This post is from an old college friend of mine, Patton, we were in psychology together and have been Facebook friends since. He hasn’t stopped posting about his new Companion for the past week. Is he actually the same Virgil you two are looking for?”

“It really is fate,” Roman replied excitedly, “What other reason could there be to having our pocket-sized dark daydream just in arms reach? We have to go get him!"

"He looks well taken care of," Logan mumbled, pushing his glasses back up on his nose. "However we all know that social media isn't the most accurate form of information. Should we plan another kidnapping?"

Janus snickered, "As much fun as that sounds, Patton is probably one of the most harmless people I know. I would have trusted him with a Companion long before I would have trusted Remus. I say we invite them over for tea and you two can talk to Virgil yourselves and see what he has to say. If by some cruel stroke of life he's being mistreated we can stage a rescue after, but with what I know I think he's likely doing just fine in Patton's care."

Remus popped up behind the couch, "So no crime?" squish pouted.

Janus leaned over and flicked squirt forehead, "No, not yet. Patton has to prove himself unworthy first."

"Boo," squirt sighed and flopped over the couch to faceplant into the cushions. 

"Can he come over today?" Roman asked.

"I'll ask him," she answered, shaking her head with exasperation, "but don't get your hopes up. More likely it will be in the next few days.” 

He sat down on the couch, patting Remus’s hair as he typed with one hand. He spoke aloud as he typed, “‘Hello Patton, it’s been awhile since our last chat. My annoying Companion has been whining at me that fae is lonely and friendless, I think it’s because fae is far too obnoxious for anyone to like but fae seems convinced it’s because I haven’t been socializing faem enough. Would you like to come over today with Virgil so I can prove that fae is just an unlovable person. Respond when you can, thank you.’ How is that, Roman?” 

“I think it’s perfect!” Remus chirped, “An honest take.”

Roman stuck faer tongue out, “No. It’s not good. It’s a lie for one, as I have many friends. Two, you’re going to scare them off!”

“Too late, already sent it,” Janus smirked, setting her phone down, “You’re just going to have to prove yourself unobnoxious.”

Remus laughed as Roman crossed faer arms, “I’m going to assume this is one of your tricks and that you actually wrote something appropriate. However, I do not appreciate it in the slightest.”

“If Patton can not come over today do you think you could ask him if Virgil has his own phone number or social media account we can speak to him on? I think that would also be a good place to start on seeing what kind of caretaker Patton is. If Virgil doesn’t have access to either then that’s a red flag that something is wrong,” Logan added. 

Janus nodded at that. They all slowly devolved into conversation as they waited for Patton’s reply, talking about their time in MiniMe a little before moving on to more comforting topics. Janus was recounting a particularly grueling stage play she had been a part of when they all heard the Facebook Messenger ping, putting the conversation on halt. 

She hummed thoughtfully as she answered the message before speaking, “Patton has agreed to come over, I suppose I should go make the cookies I promised him. They’ll be here in an hour. Roman, Logan, if you two want anything or need to do anything to prepare for your friend don’t be afraid to ask for assistance.” He pushed Remus off of him as he stood. 

Roman watched him leave the room with wide eyes, quite a bit in shocked surprise. Fae was actually going to see Virgil again. Fae had thought before that fae would never get the chance to talk to the kid again. Even after seeing his picture it didn’t seem real until now. Virgil was actually on his way to see them. Fae hoped Virgil wasn’t mad at faem for getting adopted, even if fae knew now that fae had no control over that. 

Fae spent forty minutes after that picking out a brand new outfit, trying faer best to make sure fae looked cool. Fae didn’t think fae was that old, but a ten year gap and style difference meant the two had wildly different ideas of what cool was, and if Virgil made fun of faer outfit, which fae wouldn’t put past him, then it would make faem feel twice faer age.

Logan sat on faer bed, flipping through a Mini-sized version of Harry Potter, as fae had dragged them up to give faem their opinions on faer choices. Problem was, despite being gay, Logan had zero style, so it mostly resulted in them just humming vague approval and complaining about the print quality of the book instead of actual feedback. Apparently Mini books were not only hard to come by but it was a coin toss on whether or not it was readable. It was because the pages were printed first before being cut, if whatever page-cutting machine they used messed up by even half an inch it could cut out half the text. Logan’s book was fine up until the second chapter where they were shifted slightly too far down and the bottom text of each page was cut off. This was all Roman got from Logan instead of any helpful advice about faer outfit. 

Fae eventually settled on a red leather jacket, a white and black floral shirt and dark jeans. Fae even threw a button up at Logan to go over his considerably plain Minecraft Bee t-shirt, which he rolled his eyes at but slipped it on. 

They made sure they were both back in the living room long before Patton and Virgil were supposed to be there, Roman driving Logan to the coffee table and Remus helping them both on top again so neither would have to climb the stairs. Janus was pulling cookies out of the oven, making the house smell delightfully of baked sugar, before he started on the tea.

Remus made fun of faer outfit, but that was to be expected from faer sibling, so fae only took the absolute most offense from it, starting to bicker with squish over whose style was the worst. Logan ignored them both in favor of sitting down in a chair and reading what he could of his wrongfully cut book. 

Then the doorbell rang. Roman stiffened, fiddling with faer zipper and Logan set their book down, looking towards the door. Remus hopped up, rushing to the door before Janus could stop squelch. Squish slammed the door open, wolf-whistling the moment squish looked Patton up and down, “Well hello, daddy. When Janus told me he had a friend I didn’t think she meant one hell of a bear.”

Janus came around the corner and immediately smacked Remus over the head with a spatula, “Go be a dumb dog somewhere else, Remus,” she hissed, pushing squelch out of the way to let Patton in, “I’m sorry about squelch. Squirt head resides permanently in a gutter. I would ask squelch to leave but then I would have to drive Logan home myself and I really don’t want to do that, self care and all. That being said, if squirt comments do make you uncomfortable, squish will dial it back. Squish just revels in the reactions squish gets.”

“Oh, um,” Patton mumbled, clearly already affected by Remus’s behavior. Roman felt bad for the poor soul, dealing with Remus was hard enough when you knew squelch, but meeting squelch for the first time was jarring for many. He laughed awkwardly, “Well, I’m not really fond of being called, ah, ‘daddy’ like that. I mean, to each their own, no judgment, but it’s not for me. We’re all adults here though I assume, the language and comments are fine for now.”

“No ‘daddy’s, got it! But how about that shoe size? Is it as big as I’m thinking?” Remus asked with a wink as Patton walked through the door. 

“Don’t answer that,” said a gruff voice from Patton’s hand, drawing Roman’s attention to it for the first time. Faer breath hitched as he caught sight of Virgil, sitting crisscrossed in Patton’s palm with his arms crossed and glaring up at Remus. He had on a black and white striped turtleneck with a purple ghost shirt over top and black ripped jeans.

Remus snickered as Janus grabbed squirt arm and pulled squelch away, “Apologies, squish is being put on dish duty now since squish can’t behave. You can join Roman and Logan in the living room, they’re on the coffee table.” She dragged him into the kitchen as squish simultaneously whined and laughed. 

Patton looked thoroughly confused as he watched them disappear into the other room before walking fully into the living room and making his way to the living room. Fae watched Virgil intensely, who was looking all around the room except the coffee table. Until he did. Roman caught the moment Virgil saw them, his face scrunching up in confusion for a second before eyes going wide and jumping up. 

“Patt- Patt, put me down. Put me down!” Virgil exclaimed, his hands starting to flap at his sides. Patton seemed startled but he quickly set his hand down on the coffee table. Virgil stepped off and ran the rest of the distance, practically tackling Roman in a hug, laughing, “You fucking dick! I told you not to get adopted, idiot!”

“Says you!,” Roman shot back. 

Logan cleared his throat, trying to hide his own stimming hands, “Hello again, Virgil.”

Virgil pulled away and grinned at Logan, “Logan, holy shit, can I hug you, man?”

He sighed and nodded, “Yes, I think I’d like a hug in this instance.”

Virgil pulled him in. Logan smiled as he hugged back before pulling away again, his stims increasing tenfold. Virgil’s body was practically shaking now. “What in the world are you two doing here? I thought I’d never see anyone from MiniMe again.” 

“You knew each other?” Patton asked, sitting down on the floor.

“Yeah! Patton, this is Roman and Logan. They were both cubby-mates with me at one point. Seriously, what are the chances of this?” 

“On normal circumstances, nearly infinitesimal, but the chances of you knowing and then once again meeting a Companion from your time at MiniMe are much greater than mine or Roman’s, considering how long you stayed in said cubby,” Logan answered. “Give me some graph paper and the average adoption rate and I can make a more accurate estimate.” 

Roman chuckled as Virgil’s cheeks darkened with blush, “I don’t need that number. I was just waiting for the right caretaker.”

“Did you?” Fae couldn’t help but ask, even with Patton sitting right behind Virgil he wanted to see what Virgil’s reaction was, even the slightest frown would be enough for Roman to suspect something was afoot. 

However, Virgil’s shoulders untensed and his smile grew soft, “Yeah. Patton’s pretty good. I even kind of like his yappy little mutt. He’s been kind and took the time to get to know me unlike a lot of other people.”

“Aw, kiddo,” Patton cooed, squishing his own cheeks together. 

Virgil rubbed the back of his neck, “Don’t be a sap, Patton, it’s just the truth, not a big deal.”

“I’m glad you’re doing alright, Virg,” Roman said, “I didn’t realize how right you were until Janus was carrying me out of the place. Goodness, that feels like so long ago now.” 

Virgil’s nose scrunched up, “Is Janus-? Are you alright here?”

“Oh! Yes, I’m doing wonderful now, Virgil. It was a scary first day but Janus has been a wonderful caretaker,” fae assured, realizing how it sounded.

“Are you sure? ‘Cause his friend Remus is kind of-”

Fae couldn’t help but laugh, “Trust me, I am very much aware of what Remus is like. We grew up sharing the same room. Squish is my twin.”

Virgil gaped, “No way. But squish is so-”

“Goodness, he’s disgusting, I loathe the fact we share the same DNA,” Roman joked. 

Janus came in with the cookies and tea on a tray then, setting them in front of Patton. Remus was trailing behind and sat on the floor with Patton on the other side of the coffee table as Janus sat on the couch. They each got their own mug and cookie before continuing their conversation.

They all began catching up with each other, talking about every little thing that happened since they had been apart. Every person chiming in with their own experiences. The tea was downed slowly, sipped between sentences and laughter. Each person fitting into the conversation with ease. Even Remus’s occasional crude comments didn’t seem out of place. Patton and Janus made quick work of building back the friendship that had faded over the years apart. It was a wonderful evening the six of them shared.

Even if they would all split up again at the end of the night, leaving to their respective homes, they had created a family that evening, and they would never be too far apart from each other again. They all cared for each other, they all respected each other, and there wasn’t anything that was going to change that now.