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The princess had been missing for two weeks by now. Roman knew that very well.

She had taken some gold, and ran into the night. Spooked by the prospect of marrying a man she didn’t know.

And yet, no one had found her.

Roman, of course, knew where she was. She had run, taking some men’s clothes with her, and cut her hair short before entering the village second-closest to the castle.

And the strangest thing was, she didn’t mind at all to be called Sir, or lad, or boy, or even the name she had chosen for herself. In fact, it was something that made her (him…?) feel lighter than air.

So now, the beautiful, dainty princess was missing, leaving only a strange man behind. He was taken in by someone in the village.

Logan, he was called. He did all manner of tasks in the village, and occasionally outside of it, whatever someone required. For a commoner, he was quite knowledgeable on scholars’ subjects. This made sense, once Roman found the books that Logan spent his money on. Scientific theories, how the world works.

Roman had tried to read one when he got bored, but like most of the books in the palace, it had bored him more.

Roman had gotten his greatest idea one of these times he was bored. Logan had requested he go out and fetch some firewood, and he had stared at the man who was cutting it. Something in him had stirred at the sight and he grinned.

“Excuse me, good sir!” He called out, walking closer with that confident-but-laidback attitude that he’d seen most common men make look so natural and easy, “I would like to purchase some firewood, and perhaps inquire about the possibility of becoming your apprentice?”

Of course, no one would suspect him of being the missing princess if he was doing such manual labour as this…

“Y’ any good with th’ axe?” The man asked, turning to him with a gruff voice and a raised eyebrow. Roman felt a strange sense of jealousy at the way he looked- so rugged and confident and strong, and everything Roman was never allowed to be.

He stared for a single second, before remembering to answer.

“Well- admittedly, I’ve never used an axe before, but if you were to teach me, I promise I would just do the work and not complain!” He grinned as confidently as he could.

The man grunted, handing him the firewood he’d requested to purchase, and giving him instructions to come by the next day.

As Roman had expected, it was truly hard work. But he got the hang of how to hold the axe, and how much strength to put into striking the wood. His hands started to hurt after the first few strikes, not used to this extent of manual labour. Or… any manual labour at all.

But as promised, he didn’t complain. He grit his teeth and carried on chopping.

After a few days, his hands began to form callouses, and he carried on. It was more bearable, when his hands were no longer soft and dainty. And he went back to Logan’s house with a bit more money and a few more muscles.

And, after a few more weeks, he would stare in the mirror and not see a dainty princess, but an (admittedly baby-faced) commoner man, staring back at him with a prideful grin.

It was after a few weeks, when he had begun to gain more muscle mass, and he was truly in the habit of just picking up a log, placing it on the chopping block and just chopping, when the routes that the search party took changed. An unfamiliar man, in expensive looking clothing, had stood watching him enough that Roman had chopped at least seven blocks.

He turned to the stranger with an amused smile.

“You gonna stand there all day?”

They shook their head and smirked.

“Nah. I’m just admiring the view,”

Roman laughed slightly, hefting the axe up to rest on his shoulder.

“Uh huh. Don’t you got somewhere to be?”

Sentences like that would’ve gotten Roman hit around the head with an instruction to speak properly, back in the palace.

The stranger tapped a finger to their chin in what had to be mock thought.

“Well, I am searching for a missing princess,” They said, looking Roman up and down with a smirk, making his heart rate spike- had they figured him out- “Don’t suppose you’ve seen her, have you?”

They barely left any time for him to respond before they carried on

“No? Bummer. Anyway, let’s talk more about you~”

Their face was in a smirk, one that Roman had to have been reading wrong, because he was sure they weren’t flirting with him, a man. Still, they got closer, they were taller than him quite a bit.

“You’re quite a good looking fellow, however did you get so good with an axe?”

Still, Roman kept up his confident smile, even as their fingers ghosted over his arm, as though they were marvelling at his muscles

“Practice, of course! I didn’t quite expect to like it when I first began, but it grew on me quickly,” His grin grew to one of teasing “You think I’m good looking?”

A low whistle came from their mouth

“Totally.. if I wasn’t bound to marry a princess, I’m sure you’d be a strong contender~”

They took a long sip of their drink, which, from the smell, seemed to be coffee from the cafe, several buildings down from him. Surely the pot the workers had boiled to give them the coffee had cooled by now? Who’d want cold coffee? And then, he processed what they had actually said, as he noticed them giving him one more deliberate look up and down, focusing rather obviously on his muscles.

Were they-?

“Anyway, I gotta get back to searching for my runaway bride, but I’ll totally be back to talk to you later~”

Roman stared for a moment, before remembering how words worked

“I’ll await your return!” He moved to curtsy, before quickly changing to bow.

The stranger- Prince Remy- winked at him, before walking away, with the perfect mix of confidence and gracefulness, still sipping at their coffee.

Roman felt… conflicted, if anything.

Perhaps he had moved on his plan to run away too quickly, if the way his heart was fluttering was any indication. But, then again, clearly his betrothed was more interested in random commoners than the princess.

And thinking about it now, a deep seated discomfort at the idea of himself as a princess, as himself as a queen, even, stirred in his gut. It gnawed away at him in a way that felt familiar, like an ache you never noticed until it was cured.

It was strange. He wondered how he’d never noticed it before.

He went back to chopping his wood.

By the time he next saw the prince, he was dirty, covered in dirt from picking up the wood, or from just touching his face. He was used to it by now.

He was not used to the way the prince stared at him like he was the greatest thing they’d ever seen. They looked him up and down, eyes lingering on his arms, and then on his chest and then finally focusing back on his face.

“You look like you’ve been busy~” They said, smirking once again

“Well, I do have a job,” Roman replied, happy to see them, after a long day of working.

The prince came closer, and Roman just kept up his confident grin, leaning on his axe

“So, babes, I happen to realise I never asked your name earlier, so consider it asked. Or I could just refer to you as Handsome Dude, if you’d prefer,”

Roman smiled, still having his mind running around the fact that his betrothed fiancé was flirting with him. Who they believed to be a man…

He brushed it aside.

“Well, your majesty, my name is Roman,” he smirked back at them, bowing.

-~_~-

Remy had almost been glad when their bride-to-be had vanished.

She’d mysteriously disappeared the night before the wedding. Remy figured she’d been just as nervous as they were.

They’d, of course, acted shocked and worried. And, don’t get them wrong, they were worried for the poor girl, but-

But they also really didn’t wanna marry her. Seriously, they had a great time on their own (or talking to servant boys).

They didn’t exactly want or need a wife. Of course, they’d joined in on searching. No matter how much they’d dreaded the eventuality of her being found and them having to get married to her.

After a while, weeks upon weeks after the princess disappeared, the search routes changed. And, boy was Remy glad they did.

Even if Remy was technically supposed to have been searching for their runaway princess, they were mainly looking around at the villagers.

Their eyes had been drawn to the local woodcutter. The guy was short, quite baby-faced, from the few glimpses they got while he was chopping.

“You gonna stand there all day?” The man asked, turning towards him with an amused expression, prompting Remy out of their trance (the way his muscles flexed and shifted with each rise and fall of the axe, the way his muscles pushed against the shirt, the way-).

Remy plastered confidence onto their face, smirking down at the guy.

“Nah,” they said, avoiding looking directly at his lips because he truly looked far too kissable, and Remy didn’t want to cause a scandal by kissing a guy. “Just admiring the view,”

Remy might not have been able to kiss a dude without causing a scandal (anyone who’d kiss someone they weren’t supposed to would cause a scandal, let alone the crown prince of an entire kingdom), but flirting while no one could hear… well that was never off the table.

The dude had waved them away after a while of flirting, and Remy actually started looking for their bride again. Not that they were excited that they’d have to go back to their kingdom and have her as their queen. The idea of anyone being a queen while Remy was king made them feel… wrong.

They knew why, really. And they didn’t want to know. After all, being ignorant to such a moral failing is almost as good as not having a moral failing.

Remy pushed that away.

Truth be told, Remy was beginning to worry about their bride. It’d been over a month, and she’d not been found. Everyone agreed she was alive; a living girl could move to avoid being found, and a dead body couldn’t. But Remy figured she’d probably gotten to the next kingdom over, by now.

The sooner other people figured that out, though, the sooner Remy had to get married and go home. They knew how much this marriage would mean to their kingdoms, the strengthening of two already powerful kingdoms.

It was selfish, but they hoped that their bride might’ve found a nice secret life, never to be found. That way, when they eventually end up going back to their kingdom, it’d be wifeless.

They went back to talk to the woodcutter. They hadn’t asked his name, after all.

That night, they rested in the guest bedroom of the castle- their future wife’s castle- and thought about him. Roman. Such a beautiful name. Such a handsome man.

For the next few days, they stopped at the cafe in the village, grabbed some coffee, and just stopped by to watch Roman work. Roman talked to them, between cutting the logs, and Remy found that it wasn’t only his muscles that began to hypnotise them, but his voice. His laugh. His smile.

“So, where’re you from? I’d love to hear ‘bout you,”

That enchanting smile greeted them as Roman placed the axe down

“Well, I wasn’t born too far from here, really. I’d love to talk about it more, but I had to leave rather suddenly,”

Remy tilted their head. “Aw, how come? Not that I’m complaining, really, I mean, I wouldn’t have met you if you were anywhere else,”

His smile thinned slightly at something they said, maybe signalling them to shut upp for once.

After another few weeks of just sitting there, watching, flirting, Roman walked up to them, extending his axe towards them as though to give it to them.

“Why don’t you give it a try?” He asked, grinning in that oh-so-adorable way, small gap in his teeth fully present, and him looking perfect.

Remy smiled back “Oh? You telling a prince to do manual labour now? My my,” they teased, looking at the axe and back at Roman “I could totally get you executed for that,”

“Well, maybe I wanna see what’s so appealing about watching me. And besides, if you were to maybe ask for the axe yourself, who am I to say no?”

Remy looked down at the axe and back up at Roman “Well, thank you so much for obliging my request,” they said, grabbing the handle, marvelling at how heavy it was, before sauntering over to the chopping block.

They could hear Roman’s quiet laugh behind them

“Okay- you are holding that all wrong. Just, here,” He walked up behind them, grabbing their hands and holding them for a moment before beginning to move them “Here. Here’s how you hold it,”

Remy froze, unable to stop the blush crawling up their face. Their only saving grace was that Roman was behind, and probably couldn’t see their face. Roman’s hands lingered longer than they probably should’ve- guiding their fingers into the absolute perfect position, before moving to position their arms and tell them how to strike the axe.

Remy just waited, unable to even plaster on their grin. And- oh. This wasn’t just a stupid crush anymore.

They thought about this through a truly pitiful attempt at Roman’s job. They gave the axe back and just swallowed, staring at Roman.

They had noticed enough about Roman these past few weeks that they knew that he would look away, or his smile would get thinner when the Princess -Remy’s fiancé- was mentioned. They hoped it was for the same reason that Remy’s did the same.

Remy just stared at his face and thought about what to say.

“You could come back with me, when she’s found. I don’t- I’m not excited to get married, but it has to happen. But you could come back to my kingdom with me, you could work in the palace, I would come see you every day,” they swallowed thickly “You could just be my little secret. No one would have to know about us,”

They figured they probably sounded desperate. And they were.

Roman stared at them, seeming completely taken aback. Remy just hoped he wouldn’t hate them after this.

“Please,” they pleaded “Please just think about it,”

—-

Virgil had hated this from the moment he had wound up there. His fellow human seemed to somewhat share the sentiment, though he seemed to have become used to it.

Virgil hadn’t had much interaction with the faeries. Not since that first encounter, when the snake-like one, Janus, had found him and toyed with him (Roman said they did that a lot, but that they got better after Roman stopped outwardly showing his fear; apparently the lack of reaction bored them).

Virgil had frozen up when the third faerie had walked in. Roman had said that this one was nice, but-

He tried his best to steady his breathing and stop freezing up. The faerie didn’t do anything but stare at him, before one of the other faeries- Logan, he remembered- ushered them out, and had a secretive sounding conversation in another room.

Virgil turned to Roman wordlessly, not quite as panicked as before but still not exactly calm.

Roman gently patted his back, looking over to the room where the faeries had gone to.

“You get used to stuff like that, don’t worry. Sure, it’s panicking and annoying and stuff, but… the only one you really have to worry about is Janus,”

Virgil nodded, still not remotely calm. He tapped his fingers anxiously, and glanced around the room. The faeries were still doing whatever they were doing, and Roman was still beside him. He yawned, against his will, and blinked a few times.

He was… exhausted.

He had barely slept the night before, and then he had managed to get transported to a realm filled with bullshit faeries that held untold power over them.

As much as he hated it, he was going to have to sleep at some point. Hopefully, when he woke up, it’d turn out as a dream (he absently wondered if that’s how Roman felt the first day there).

He startled slightly as the faeries reentered the room. Unfortunately, all three of them.

It was quite overwhelming. The way that their presence simply overshadowed any other elements of the truly gigantic room they were in, simply due to their size alone. They had to be, what? 90, 100 feet tall?

Either way, he didn’t like how big they were. And, something he noticed now that he didn’t earlier was that two of them had wings.

Once the image was plunged into his mind that the wings could knock into him and knock him off of the table, which at this size would certainly be a death sentence, he immediately shuffled further back, staring with wide eyes, and his heart pounding in his ears.

To pour salt into the wound, he could hear Janus chuckle a little at the sight, clearly finding his panic and, quite honestly, pure terror a very amusing sight. He managed a weak glare, before feeling Roman’s hand on his arm.

“You good, Vee?”

He briefly glared at the nickname before remembering- right… they weren’t gonna use names in front of the faeries because… well, neither of them really wanted to feel less in power than they already were.

He managed a small nod before just deciding to not look at the faeries at all. Maybe if he just ignored the fact that he was on a giant table, with three giant faeries, he could just not think about it (unlikely, but he would hate himself if he didn’t try).

He just stared down at the wood grain beneath him, trying his hardest to ignore the scale of the grain, and just focus on the fact that it was something mostly familiar. He took a deep breath, almost scared he’d forget how to, and looked at Roman.

“What- what was it like when you first got here..?” He asked, trying to focus on a distraction.

Roman looked at him, seemingly looking for a way to phrase it.

“They.. didn’t find me immediately. I hid under the roots of the tree we’re in, and I stayed there until.. the storm. They found me- Logan, and Patton, that is- and they saved my life… it sounds pathetic, I know, almost drowning in a simple puddle, but..”

Virgil swallowed, imagining it.

“That sounds… terrifying. What- what if they didn’t find you, would you be.. would you still-?” Would you still be alive, would you be able to talk to me?

Roman looked almost lost in thought at the question, but he eventually shook his head.

Virgil sucked in a breath, squeezing his eyes shut for a brief moment. Nice to know this world was exactly as dangerous as he thought.

“Right, okay- cool. Not cool- just…” he sighed, trying to think of something to say to salvage this “… are you okay?”

Roman’s mostly-confident grin was back, as he looked back towards Virgil.

“Why, of course! Why wouldn’t I be? I’m alive, I’m healthy, I don’t have any problems.. what else could I ask for?” He asked, head tilted like a confused puppy.

Virgil pointedly glanced at where the faeries were watching them, not being able to hold back the snarky remark.

“I dunno. Maybe to be back in the human realm without giant faeries watching your every move?”

“That’s certainly a nice goal, but sadly.. not something I think is achievable as it is,” Roman remarked “We got here by spilling blood on a faerie circle. How much blood do you think would be needed to activate it at this scale?”

Virgil swallowed, unwilling to admit that he was correct.

——

Logan was still reeling from the new facts he had learned from the book of folk tales. As horrifying as it seemed to him, he couldn’t help but imagine the different things to be done with a tiny creature he could control.

He would never, of course. The idea, fascinating as it was, made an uncomfortable feeling, which he couldn’t identify, curl in his gut. Tiny, and Tiny’s new companion, whom had yet to be given a nickname, didn’t deserve anything that had happened to them.

As far as Logan was aware, the humans had found their way into an unfamiliar landscape, filled with creatures larger than them. He could hardly imagine how disoriented they’d be.

He knew next to nothing about their own world. For all he knew, the sky there might be a different colour than the purple of the world he knew. For all he knew, the trees could be the same small size as the humans, or at least scaled to them. It was an almost amusing thought, for trees to be of such small size.

He had noticed that the newer human had been immensely terrified, more so than when they had first truly found Tiny. It made sense, he supposed; Tiny had had a larger adjustment period, and was still quite scared of them.

Logan hummed, before whispering to Patton.

“Do you suppose there is a way to get them back to their own world? I’d imagine there must be, however it’s hard to know for certain.. I’m sure they’d prefer being there than here, though”

Janus leaned into their conversation before Patton could even respond, as he was prone to do.

“Talking about our little guests without me? My my, how rude of you. It’s almost as though you don’t trust me,” he said in that tone that Logan and heard enough to know it was mocking.

He glared.

—

Roman, against his moral compass, was actually quite happy at the appearance of another human.

Not that he was happy with the how, the why, or any of that stuff, but… it was nice to finally see another person. It had been a while since he’d been able to properly talk to someone.

His new friend looked like they’d just robbed a hot topic, but who was he to judge based on clothing? To be quite honest, he knew he didn’t look very well presented after (how long had he been there?) a while of being in this realm

When he had been left alone with Janus, he’d not been excited. He knew that Janus hadn’t done any actual life-threatening things in the past few weeks. But he also knew that the main cause of that was the other two faeries watching him often

When he’d heard Logan leave the house, and Janus walked into the room, he’d forced himself not to freeze up. Despite the fact that Janus had not been putting his life in danger for amusement recently, Roman had still been subjected to a few smaller misdeeds since.

Janus liked to mess with him. Liked to poke and prod him and occasionally push him over because apparently it was funny, how much power they held over him, but they only really did it when the other two were out, because they told Janus off for it.

Roman had stopped reacting. He figured his lack of reaction had bored them, considering the way they’d stopped bothering him quicker than usual. Who knew that pretending not to be scared could do such good?

Patton and Logan were nice, but Roman was much more grateful for the way they kept Janus from hurting him. When Janus messed with him, he felt far too much like a mouse that was being toyed with by a cat

Now, it seemed that that cat (that horrible, snakey cat) had brought home another prey to toy with.

Roman spoke quietly to Virgil, who seemed to want to know as much as possible about their situation (Roman couldn’t blame him for that- he’d have loved to have someone to tell him what was going on)

“Yeah, so there’s those two,” he pointed out “that’s Logan, they’re nice, but, uh, a little hard to read,” Virgil nodded beside him.

“And the uh, snake one?” They said, only stuttering a little, clearly still terrified overall

Roman felt for them, and he nodded “That’s Janus. They’re my least favourite, but the other two keep them in check, so, not as bad as they used to be,”

Virgil scooted back slightly, away from the faeries as they looked at the two humans.

Roman kept his demeanour in check; Virgil had much more of a right than him to freak out at this point, and Roman didn’t want to fall apart in front of him. He needed to be reassuring.

“Y-you, uh, you mentioned a third?”

Roman drew his eyes away from the faeries

“Oh, yeah… um, there’s Patton as well. They’re nice, but they can be a little overwhelming. I’m pretty sure that this is Patton’s house, actually..” he mused quietly

He hadn’t really been conscious when he’d been brought here, but it seemed logical that he’d be brought to Patton’s house, since it was the closest to his tunnel.

Virgil stared at him a few seconds “How?”

Roman looked back with a tilted head

“Hm?”

“How are you so calm?”

Roman pursed his lips

“I suppose if you’d really like to know,” he started quietly, bringing his hand to the back of his neck sheepishly “I’m not. I’ve just gotten better at hiding it,”

He still felt his heart racing every time one of the giants looked at him. He still couldn’t stop the mile-a-minute thoughts when he was carefully picked up, as though he was made of extremely fragile glass. Especially not when Janus was involved.

He and Virgil talked for a little while, before the sound of the door alerted them to Patton’s return. Roman watched the two other faeries, look at each other before hurrying towards the door, likely to explain their new find. Roman informed Virgil of everything he could understand from what they were overhearing (it wasn’t much, but still)

Patton had walked in with wide eyes, and thinly veiled excitement and perhaps concern. Roman knew firsthand how overwhelming it could be to be faced with three giants, so he didn’t comment on the way Virgil had frozen up behind him, or the way he could hear Virgil’s breathing speed up ever so slightly

——

Patton hadn’t known what to expect when he’d left Logan and Janus alone for the day. But this was certainly not on the list

He’d only gone to take care of plants for an old friend, he’d never expected for him to come home to the chaos that he did. Logan and Janus had rushed towards the door as he entered; Patton was almost expecting them to tell him about an argument they’d had

But for them to tell him that they’d found yet another tiny person (and that “Janus scared them quite badly when he found them”), and that Logan had found quite a big discovery on what exactly they were, and why Tiny had not shared their name

Patton didn’t have time to read any part of the old-looking book that Logan had shown him, before he was ushered into the kitchen to the table. The new tiny person (or “human”, as Logan had informed him) was even smaller than Tiny, almost hiding behind them with wide eyes as he approached

Patton was careful not to move so suddenly, or not to be too loud. He approached, trying to suppress his natural reaction of seeing something small and cute and trying to scoop it up to hug. He tried to hide his upset for the way they froze up, the way Tiny used to.

They were slightly paler than Tiny, though he wasn’t sure if that was natural or because of fear. He hoped it was natural.

He couldn’t find any words to say. He knew they wouldn’t understand him. After a few minutes of just watching them, letting them realise he wasn’t a threat (it was a bit like when he found a baby bird) and slowly calm down.

Logan carefully led him towards the living room, to where the big, old book was sitting. Logan flipped to a page near the end, and pointed him to a paragraph about names. Control.

Patton swallowed down his deep discomfort at the idea of controlling the little guys. Yeah, they’d have to stick with nicknames for now.

—

Virgil stared around him for a few moments, in shock. What the absolute hell.

He hadn’t done anything- he’d just wandered around after work- it wasn’t his fault that the tree root had tripped him up. He remembered noticing that his arm was bleeding. He remembered noticing a few mushrooms nearby. Then, he opened his eyes and he was here.

He absolutely, positively hoped this was a dream. But, from the way his arm was stinging, he could tell it wasn’t. He felt his breath speeding up.

Why the absolute hell was everything so big? Why the fuck was the sky purple?! Where- where was he?! He stared around him.

There were people around him, he noticed. He was glad that there were stupidly-large plants around him, which were concealing him from view.

The people were all unnaturally coloured, and they were giant. Many of them were flying, because apparently he’d tripped into some bullshit fantasy land. He could still feel his breathing speeding up.

A few minutes passed of him trying not to hyperventilate so hard that he would pass out, before one of those giants walked closer to him. It had grey skin, and yellow scales on its left side.

Virgil took a shaky breath, trying to quieten his breathing- he couldn’t get found. He didn’t want to be found by something so big, he didn’t know what it would do to him, though his mind was supplying him with many, many possibilities.

From the way it was looking around with those eerily slitted pupils, scanning the floor as though it knew exactly what it was looking for, he felt that it knew exactly where he was already- that it was just toying with him.

When its eyes finally locked on him, it brought its arms out of its cloak, and Virgil noticed that it had thrice as many as it should have.

He was still hyperventilating, and the way this thing was crouching down to get closer to him with a far-too-sharp grin was so very not helping. He stumbled backwards, but it grabbed him either way.

Between its thumb and index finger on one of its left hands (the lower one he thought it might have been), he felt less than safe. It said something in a voice akin to hissing, still grinning like a child that had found an amusing toy, which was not a comparison he’d like to think more of.

The hold it had him in was not stable, held between only two fingers. The thumb on his chest, and index finger on his back was restricting his breathing somewhat, but it wasn’t like he was breathing well, anyway.

It rotated its hands ever so slightly, as though to look at him from another angle. Virgil yelped in fear, feeling as though he’d fall from this great height. His reaction simply elicited a small laugh from the creature. He felt as though his heart was going to burst, and he was almost certain that his life was all but over.

It moved its hand again. This time closer to itself, placing him in a pocket inside the cloak. The fabric was soft, expensive-feeling, but he couldn’t care less. He began to try to climb out of it, even knowing how stupid of a plan that was. With how close he was to its body, the chuckle that he heard from it, he could also feel, and it shook him to his core, like he was standing directly on a speaker

It reached into the pocket and pushed him down slightly, and before he could attempt again, he felt movement and the cloak was swaying and moving too much that he couldn’t even try to climb.

It was walking. Such a mundane thing, but it was affecting him so much. He had absolutely no control over what happened to him- had absolutely power in this situation

The giant whatever-it-was walked for a while, before he heard even more sounds, like that of the snake-ish giant, but deeper, less hissing, and slightly further away than how close he was to the snakeish one

When the one that had kidnapped him spoke, he could once again feel it reverberating in his bones. It reached back into its pocket, grabbing him once again between finger and thumb and bringing him out of the pocket with its middle hand, showing him off to the second giant

The second giant had blue skin, dark glasses, and dark blue hair. It was dressed smartly, and stared straight at him with dark eyes. It was clearly shocked, but it looked away from him to talk to the first one again

Snakey, as he decided to call it in his mind, adjusted its grip, moving its hold to dangle him by the hood of his hoodie. His eyes widened in alarm, though his body was frozen in fear. He was lifted closer to its face as it replied to the blue one in a tone that felt rather absentminded

Blue said something else, gesturing toward a table in what seemed to be a giant living room. Virgil was soon placed on his own two feet, and stumbled back in a feeble attempt to put some distance between him and the giants, looking between the two and hearing his heart in his ears.

He hated this- he so, so hated this. He stared between them as they discussed something- probably to do with him, he thought miserably

How and why was he even there? For the next few minutes (possibly less than one minute, but he was too tense to take proper notice), he watched them discuss him, before Blue scooped him into its hand, and carried him to a different table

It took him a moment to notice the other human wrapped in a blanket, but before he could process that, he was placed down and the other human was nudged awake by Blue

They awoke with a start, briefly staring at the giant with a terror that Virgil could only see by being so close, before they saw him.

“…Hey,” they said, quietly “how- how are you? Wait, that’s a stupid question, probably not good, right? I mean you’re on a giant table in a giant faerie’s house, you’re not exactly gonna be a-okay with everything, I mean, I certainly was terrified when they found me. Not so much anymore, but I know how scary it is, so, you know..” they rambled

Virgil was still staring at the giants- faeries, apparently- but he wondered absently how long it had been since this guy had actually spoken to someone. Probably too long.

The faeries left the room to speak to each other, Virgil turned to properly look at his fellow human.

“What- what is this place?” He asked quietly

They gestured dramatically “This,” they said with a flourish “Is the realm of the faeries,”

They leant closer to him, as though sharing a secret

“It kinda sucks, but… sounds cool, at least,”

Virgil nodded. He wasn’t so sure about it sounding cool, it sounded like something kinda dorky, but whatever

“Why are we here?” He asked

His fellow human stared into the distance dramatically

“I mean, I don’t know about you, but I hurt myself and bled on a mushroom circle, so… maybe if you did something like that, that’s why you’re here,”

Virgil looked down at his arm

Virgil looked towards the other human

“What’s your name?”

They looked around them, as though scared that someone would be listening in

“Okay, you can not call me by my name while we’re near the faeries, okay? But, uh, I’m Roman,” they said

“… why can’t I call you by your name near the faeries?” He asked skeptically

Roman looked around him again, as though scared the faeries would reenter the room while they were speaking

Roman explained his reasoning- that there was a chance that the faeries would gain even more power over him, so he didn’t want them figuring out his name. Virgil shuddered

“Yeah, I get that.. don’t call me my name in front of them either, but I’m… I’m Virgil,” he said quietly

For the next few moments, he and Roman sat in silence. The faeries had still been in the other room

“So, is it just those two, or is there more?” He asked, almost dreading the answer

“There’s another. But they’re really gentle and they’re a bit easier to read than those two,”

——

Janus had been bored when he’d been put on babysitting duty- he’d teased Tiny a little, but it didn’t react very strongly like it used to, so it was just boring

It had gone to sleep after a while. Janus wasn’t even allowed to touch any of Logan’s books while he was alone (not that he’d want to, they were all boring and undramatic)

So, when his senses began to prick with interest, he’d immediately wanted to investigate. It felt far too similar to when he’d felt that his dear cousin had found Tiny for it to be nothing

He quickly scrawled a note and left it on the counter, leaving Tiny asleep and climbing down from the house. He followed the feeling to a small clearing

He could sense its general location, but he looked around either way. It was small, he noticed when he found it, possibly even smaller than Tiny. He picked it up between his finger and thumb and looked at it.

This- this was entertaining. He brought it closer to himself, and placed it down in his pocket, and (after pushing down its highly amusing escape attempt) he set back off to the house.

Logan was back when he walked in, and didn’t seem to appreciate his leaving the house (but he literally left a note so who cares)

But, his want to scold Janus for his actions soon dissipated, when he brought out the second little creature

Once they had introduced it and Tiny to each other, Logan brought him to a different room

“I did find some information,” he started, bringing out an old book of folktales and flipping to a page near the end

Janus read it. Oh? He grinned, imagining how amusing it would be to control one of the little… humans

He looked in the direction of the kitchen. Of course, he probably wouldn’t actually, even he could admit that was maybe a little bit too far. Maybe only a single inch over the line, but still too far

—

Logan took note of every reaction Tiny had, and to what. They were startled by Patton’s sudden touch on their arm, but that was just as obvious as the way they were scared when Janus was nearby.

They evidently didn’t forgive Janus for what he had done. Janus had attempted to claim that it was because they mustn’t have understood the apology, but Logan knew for sure that they did. Their reaction was far from the non-comprehending stare they often had when hearing words they didn’t understand.

In addition, they had heard apologies from Logan and Patton enough times that he was almost a hundred percent certain that they must understand it. He figured that they simply had not liked Janus’s (admittedly not the best) apology, and had reacted as such.

Logan not only didn’t disagree with their assessment of the apology, but in fact he would have thought about doing the same as them had someone given such a lacking apology to him. Of course, he wouldn’t have done the same, despite thinking it, as he never acted that dramatically, and quite frankly, he’d have simply walked away from the conversation if it were him.

Tiny didn’t have the same luxuries of leaving the situation, but could still show their unimpressed attitude in their own way. Logan almost felt a smile creep onto his face.

All six of Janus’s arms were crossed stubbornly.

“Why should I have apologised if they won’t even give me a chance?” He was complaining, as Patton was checking on Tiny.

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose, pushing his glasses up accidentally in the process.

“You apologised because you were told to, and you sounded like it, I doubt I’d have accepted that apology either,” Logan informed him bluntly.

Janus, turned away from him in much the same manner that Tiny did to Janus, which Logan had to admit was quite amusing. He still had his questions about Tiny, not one of them having been answered.

What were they? Why were they here? Why hadn’t they shared their name? Why were they so tiny? Why didn’t they have any magic? Why were they so faerie-like, but so different?

They had basic features replicated, though on a much smaller scale, but the only colours that they had as a part of their skin and hair were shades of beige and brown. Their eyes were green, but that was the only colourful thing about them other than their clothes.

They had a noticeable lack of wings. And a noticeable lack of extra limbs. Their ears were rounded rather than pointed, and their teeth had barely any that were sharp.

He had no clue what they were.

He wondered if they felt the same about him. Were they just as clueless as he, when it came to each others’ species? Or did they know more about him than the very little he knew about them?

At the very least, they likely knew how they got here, which Logan didn’t know. He sighed.

A few weeks later, he still knew next to nothing about them. They had become more vocal over the few weeks, though he understood very little. They greeted him when he greeted them, clearly having learnt the greeting from him and Patton (Logan pretended not to be amused at the way they blatantly ignored Janus if he ever tried to say hello to them)

He was still having to resort to calling them Tiny, due to the fact that they still hadn’t shared their name, and any time they tried to ask, they’d freeze up, becoming more nervous again. They’d stopped asking them for it- they clearly had a reason for not sharing it, perhaps something cultural. Logan knew nothing of them.

Janus had not been tormenting them, in Patton’s words, for the past few weeks- at least not at the same extent that he was beforehand.

He was still annoying them, poking and prodding them, and making snide little comments. Janus was banned from being the one to bring them their food, as he’d attempt to annoy them by stealing the food off their plate, often making little comments about how they’d never be able to eat all of it, anyway.

Tiny didn’t often get all pale and scared because of it, anymore, but did often get very visibly annoyed. He noticed that they often crossed their arms when they were annoyed, and they tended to mutter and grumble in their own language.

Logan found the language extremely interesting- but he had not yet figured out the meaning of any words. He hoped that could be remedied at some stage.

He was voicing his concerns about what they were to Janus in a different room than Tiny was in, and doing so quietly- he didn’t entirely know how much Tiny understood at this point- when Janus spoke up.

“Y’know, I think there’s an old folktale about weird little tiny people, maybe that could give some insight,” he said, absentmindedly, as though this wasn’t information that might’ve been useful a while ago “I’m sure from what I remember that it matches at least a little with Tiny,”

Logan stared at him a few moments.

“And you didn’t tell me about this weeks ago?” He asked, barely concealing his annoyance.

Janus shrugged, checking his nails “Never came up,”

Logan groaned.

“Alright,” he said through gritted teeth, trying not to shout at him for deciding that this wasn’t important information. “I’m going to go to the library and look up different stories. You will stay here, okay?”

Janus looked up from his nails in disbelief.

“What? On my own?” He asked, with wide eyes.

Logan nodded, grabbing his bag.

“Tiny won’t like that,” Janus replied, with a forcefully smooth tone, which suggested that he was also nervous about the idea.

Logan ignored that.

“Then don’t bother them,” he responded shortly, beginning to leave.

Truth be told, he also wasn’t 100% on board with the idea of Tiny and Janus being on their own here, but he also didn’t like the idea of Tiny being actually alone. Patton was out for a while, tending to some plants for the day as a favour

It didn’t take long for Logan to fly to the library, luckily. He brought out three books of folk tales and began reading, searching for any mention of tiny people.

It took an hour or two before he found it, but Janus was right. It matched up. It was one of the less popular stories, and it was old.

The tale detailed a race of tiny people from another world. Non-magical, and fragile. There was an illustration of one of these ‘humans’ and Logan was almost startled by how similar it looked to Tiny. He carried on reading.

There was some kind of natural portal between the worlds, only activated by certain actions. And then he read part of the tale that had one of his questions answered, but left him extremely concerned.

Humans, according to all recollections of the tale, have no magic. But they do have something strange; something in them reacts with faerie magic, meaning that they can be controlled if you learn their name. Most humans in the tales couldn’t speak, so it’s supposedly hard to wrest the information from them, but they could become a valuable tool if you do find yourself faced with the fabled creature.

Logan read it and reread it again, trying to expel the sour taste in his mouth that came from the words and the implications of them. They could be controlled? No wonder they refused to say their name- they clearly knew about this. It certainly gave him an explanation as to why they got so nervous at the idea of it.

He silently checked out the book and put it in his bag and began flying back to Patton’s house.

Strangely, the rope ladder that Janus liked to use to get in and out of the house due to his lack of wings was down. He ignored that and entered the house

The first thing he noticed when he walked in was that Janus was nowhere to be found. The second thing was that Tiny was asleep on their blanket on the table- their sleep schedule had been very random since he’d first found them, and hadn’t much fixed itself. The third thing he noticed was a note on the kitchen counter

“Something interesting happening a little while away, I’ll be back soon,” he read under his breath, careful not to wake Tiny.

Logan grumbled slightly and watched out of the window for Janus’s return

After a few minutes, he did return, seemingly uncaring to Logan’s disapproving stare

“So, what was so interesting that you left Tiny alone after I specified that you were to stay here?”

Janus rolled his eyes

“Oh please, they were asleep when I left, I doubt they minded. But, you might wanna wake them for this,”

Logan furrowed his eyebrows

“Why,” he asked in a suspicious tone “What was this interesting thing you went out to see?”

Janus grinned and reached into his pocket with one of his hands, bringing out another tiny person. Another human.

This one had slightly paler skin, darker clothes, and different hair. They had strange smudges under their eyes that looked like some form of makeup. And they looked entirely terrified.

He could only see half of their face but what he could see was absolutely filled with fear. He looked away from them and back up to Janus

“What- where did you find them?” He asked desperately, adjusting his glasses

“Just a few minutes walk away from here,” Janus asked, dangling the new human in front of his face

Logan frowned

“I thought you learned from Tiny not to dangle them, it scares them,” he said gesturing for him to place the human down on the table, which Janus did. The human stumbled backwards, eyes flittering between them both with clear and pure terror

Logan and Janus talked between themselves for a few moments, discussing how best to go about this, before deciding to wake Tiny up (something Logan almost never did- he knew they didn’t sleep well), and put the other human on the table with them

Both humans stared at each other but Tiny began to speak, though the second one didn’t at first, still staring at he and Janus, as though they were scared of what would happen to them. Logan pushed his feelings down

He’d have a lot to catch Patton up on when he got back

—

Roman glared at Janus, who was now having a laughing fit. Ugh, he felt sick after that little levitation stunt. The fact that Janus was only laughing, and showing absolutely no remorse for their actions just made Roman feel…

For lack of a better term, blegh.

He felt blegh.

It was like every negative emotion was stacked on top of each other in one horrific sandwich. He was angry, he was scared, he was upset, he was jealous that the faeries had every advantage over him, and he was so, so tired of dealing with all of this.

Was it too much to ask that he be able to go home? Was it too much of an unreasonable request that he get put in a situation where someone, anyone even, would understand him? Just someone who he could talk to?

He pushed his head into his hands and leant backwards. He was sick of this, he was so, so sick of this.

The faeries were discussing something above him. He hated how loud their voices were. He hated that he had virtually no context to help him figure out any words- he hated that he even had to.

He hated that he had to be saved from drowning in what was pretty much a puddle, he hated how much attention Logan and Patton put into making him less startled- it was embarrassing.

On the flip side, he hated how little attention Janus put into the same- it was dehumanising to be treated like a simple plaything by someone so much larger than him.

He hated how he couldn’t even say anything to them. His little outburst had been the first time he’d spoken in front of them (other than when he was drowning, but that was special circumstances), and all it did was make Janus laugh. They could understand him only as much as he could understand them- less, even.

He knew their greetings, he knew how they apologised. They didn’t know this stuff about him.

He just… he just wanted to go home. He wanted to put this whole mess out of his mind and go home. He missed his bed, he missed his house, he missed his brother. He missed a whole lot.

He looked up at the faeries. All three of them were too close to him. Patton was saying something to Janus, who actually looked somewhat apologetic, for the first time Roman had seen. Wow, never thought he’d see the day, he thought bitterly.

Where was this sympathy before the torment that they’d subjected Roman to? He watched them go back and forth in conversation for a small while, before Janus, looking as though they had a gun to their head, turned to look at him.

“I’m.. sorry,” they said, with a vaguely apologetic tone, though it was clear that their words were being forced to be spoken. It was the same words the other faeries used as an apology, so the meaning was quite clear to him.

Roman re-crossed his arms, and turned away from them. Their apology was certainly not accepted. Especially not since they clearly weren’t giving it of their own accord.

He heard the chatter start back up again. This time he had no clue what was being said, but he had simply stopped caring at this moment in time- he couldn’t bring himself to care about anything while he was still thinking about home.

He couldn’t bring himself to care, when he was still shaking from being levitated and brought across such a distance in an instant like he was one of the mere objects the faeries did the same to.

He couldn’t bring himself to care when he was in such a position.

How would he even figure out what was said, anyway? He couldn’t just magically understand languages. He sighed.

He felt a light touch on his arm, and unwillingly flinched. It was just Patton, but the physical touch was startling to say the least. God, it had been weeks since he had a human near him, he missed it-

Quickly snapping out of his thoughts, he looked up at the faerie, who was staring down at him with that pity-filled face. He looked away, feeling his face heat up in embarrassment.

He knew full well how pitiful he looked. Hell, he felt just as pitiful. Perhaps more so. Didn’t make it any less infuriating. Embarrassing. Annoying? He didn’t know.

He grumbled under his breath, and looked back up again.

He was sure that they certainly felt bad for him, but he was fairly certain that they didn’t entirely understand the length of his sorrows. How much he missed of home, how undeniably scared he felt in their mere presence, how much power they truly held over him (how much more they could if he ever gave his name).

He smiled, unsure of his exact emotions (he was still feeling blegh) but knowing it was always better to put on a confident mask than to show his weakness.

Patton’s hand was still close to him, twitching as though they wanted to grab him. He ignored that, taking a deep breath; Patton was always good at making sure he wasn’t grabbed without his consent.

That wouldn’t change (hopefully. He didn’t want to think about anything like that) but the way their hand was lingering there was making him nervous. He looked at it, and back at them a few times, feeling like he was trembling.

But he shouldn’t have been. He was just being scared for no reason at this point.

Their hand retracted with a small apology to him, and he nodded.

——

Patton had not been very pleased with his cousin after they had pulled such a stunt with Tiny. To be quite honest, he wasn’t pleased after Janus had first met Tiny, either.

The problem seemed to him that it was Janus’s lack of understanding of Tiny’s point of view, and why they were as scared as they were. Not even Patton knew everything that was going on with them, though he could piece together bits and pieces from their reactions.

They were scared. They were scared of Patton, they were scared of Logan, and they were terrified of Janus (and after their first meeting, who could blame them?).

They were small. They were afraid. They were fragile. They didn’t seem to have magic. They didn’t understand anything Patton said to them.

Patton could barely resist the urge to scoop them up into his hands and hug away their negative emotions.

Over the past few days of them living with him, he’d made progress on that front, actually. He’d been allowed to hold them in his hands a few times (only if he was able to find a way to get their consent, of course. He really, really didn’t want his guest to be uncomfortable).

They were… light. Like he was carrying barely anything at all.

Apparently, that rang true for how easy it was to levitate them as well, based on Janus’s smug grin at the way they were now sat on Patton’s kitchen counter.

Patton stared for a few moments as Tiny clearly took in their surroundings. They looked slightly paler than usual, which Patton knew tended to be a bad thing. Before he could say anything, Tiny crossed their arms and in a tone that sounded half angry, half upset they said something.

Patton hadn’t heard them speak before, except for that first time he and Logan had found them. Unfortunately for them, their moment of bravery in finally speaking (though it wouldn’t have been understood either way) was undercut by Janus beginning to laugh.

Patton couldn’t help the way anger began to rise in him- Tiny was going through a lot, why didn’t Janus see that? Why didn’t Janus understand how much he was upsetting them?

“Janus, what are you doing? Why would you do this?” He asked, as Tiny was sitting with their head in their hands (luckily not crying this time- Patton didn’t think he could handle that heartbreak again)

Janus’s laughter calmed down

“Oh, come on, I barely did anything!”

Logan was staying silent right now, but Patton could almost sense the glare that he was giving to Janus. Patton took a deep breath

“Janus. Have you ever once stopped to consider this situation from Tiny’s perspective?” He asked, though he already knew the answer

Janus, like he often did, rolled his eyes, and crossed one set of arms, the others resting on his hips

“What’s there to consider? It’s being pampered, and fed, and you two dote on it all the time. It’s got a good life here,” he said, but Patton just shook his head

“We don’t even know where they came from, Janus. But we think it must be far away; can you imagine being in their position? Somewhere unfamiliar where you’re smaller than everyone, and you can’t understand anything people around you are saying, and they can’t understand you. Just think about how frightening that would be,”

Janus was beginning to look somewhat remorseful, but Patton pressed on

“Now imagine that while you’re just starting to be less scared, a new giant starts tormenting you every chance he gets. Does that sound good to you?” He asked, crossing his own arms in return, his wings flapping once in emphasis

“Alright, alright! I’m sorry or whatever,” he said

Patton nodded his head in Tiny’s direction

“I’m not the one who you should apologise to,”

“Seriously? It won’t-”

Patton cut him off

“They,” he said pointedly

Janus sighed “Okay, they won’t understand me,”

Patton just stared at him until he turned to look at Tiny, who was staring at all of them with wide eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Janus said reluctantly.

They all watched for Tiny’s reaction. They crossed their arms and turned away from Janus, which wasn’t that shocking all things considered

Janus happened to have a bit of a grumble about it though.

Patton gently touched their arm with his fingertip, forcing himself not to marvel at the fact that his fingertip was the size of half their arm. He felt his heart breaking ever so slightly at the way they flinched

They stared at his hand for a few moments before looking up at him. Patton felt so bad for them, his hand lingered for a few moments before he noticed how nervous it was making them

“Sorry,” he apologised quietly, bringing his hand away

They nodded, and he took in the way they were smiling. He doubted it was a real smile

—

Much to Roman’s dismay, the snake-ish faerie was sticking around. He didn’t like the idea, and it seemed like the reasons why were complicated, considering how Logan glared at them a lot

Obviously, there was a reason they were staying. Roman just hoped he’d never be left alone with them. They seemed too… sadistic, to be honest. And Roman was quite scared of them.

He was scared of all of them, but with Logan and Patton, it had dulled down to only a mild sense of instinctual fear, whereas with the other faerie, it was a sharp knife, reminding him how much power they held. He had a feeling that they were doing it mostly for their own amusement rather than plain malice

That did absolutely nothing to make him feel better. He had already considered the idea of being basically a toy to someone of that size, and he didn’t want it to be proven correct, and he didn’t want to experience that power imbalance (again)

They had laughed when they were dangling him. Like Roman’s life was worth just a small bit of amusement. He hated it. It had been a day or so since that. He hadn’t slept, but the faeries had. He’d been too scared.

Over the next few days, there were no incidents. Roman still held absolutely no trust in the snakier faerie (now known as Janus). The fact that they were never in the same room as him unsupervised made him think that Logan and Patton held also at least a little distrust for them as well

They were sat on the other end of the room, using one of their too-many hands to hold a book open, one of their others to sip a cup of what looked like tea, but obviously made with the blue leaves that decorated the trees they were in, one of the others to write something down

The other three hands were doing laying in their lap

Roman glared at them from his seat on the other end of the table, closer to where Logan was reading their own book.

Logan and Patton made a point to greet him every time they entered the room. Roman presumed that it was an attempt to make headway on language learning. Roman knew what the greeting was, but the way his throat closed up at the thought of speaking to these giants prevented him from ever greeting them back

Janus never greeted him. Janus only ever acknowledged his presence when they’d look at him and grin, like they were planning something. Roman hated it very much. His suspicious glaring at them was interrupted by Logan beginning to stand up next to him

Roman stared at them with a spike of panic; were they leaving him alone with Janus?

They looked down at him and stopped for a few moments, saying something directed at him, which he had figured from earlier uses was likely an apology of sorts. Which, go figure, did absolutely nothing to calm his nerves.

Afterwards, they’d said something to Janus, but Roman obviously had no clue what. He hoped he wouldn’t be left alone with Janus, either way.

He’d made some actual progress with the actually nice faeries. He’d even let Patton carry him once or twice- it was scary but they were gentle, and they didn’t just grab him with no warning; instead, they placed their hand out and waited for him to get on of his own accord. They held him in a much more secure position than Janus had

He’d rather not be carried in general, but it wasn’t too bad.

With Janus, however, he’d made a total of zero progress, nor did he want to change that. As far as he could tell, they still seemed to see him as a source of amusement, and he didn’t want them to mess with him again.

His fear of being left alone with them was thankfully unfounded, as they also got up, and both faeries left the room. Roman was left alone on the table, just thinking in silence

He looked out of the window. He wished he could listen to music while he was here, he was definitely suffering from the lack of his Disney music and show tunes. He sighed dramatically and flopped into a lying position.

He would love to watch a Disney movie right now, but he couldn’t, because he was an idiot who went for a walk in the woods in the middle of the night. He rubbed the scar on his hand, and sighed.

He wanted to go home. He didn’t like being tiny, feeling this powerless against anything someone could do to him.

The faeries re-entered the room after a while of him staring at the ceiling, this time with Patton as well. Roman sat up and watched them. They were on the other side of the room, where the kitchen portion was

They were talking, incomprehensible to him, but he could recognise that the conversation had something to do with him, based on the way they kept subtly gesturing towards him. He saw Janus roll their eyes and make a gesture in his general direction before he found himself levitating.

He yelped in surprise

He knew that the faeries could levitate things; they did so often. He didn’t like the sensation of himself being levitated. Janus made a gesture, and Roman found himself moved across the room at a high speed

He was, a matter of seconds later, sitting on the counter in the kitchen. He sat in shock for a few moments, taking in the experience for a second.

It sucked and he’d rather never do that again. He crossed his arms and said the only thing that came to mind

“What the fuck was that for?”

——

Janus found the strange little creature terribly amusing. It was certainly very reactive

He could barely resist the urge to mess with it- the way it tended to freeze like a rodent caught in a trap made him chuckle. It didn’t understand any words, as far as the others had told him.

If it understood or spoke any other language, Janus had never heard it. It was usually pretty quiet.

He was banned from getting too close to it, and he was unable to even be in the same room as it without Patton or Logan there to “supervise”

He rolled his eyes. Just because it was dramatic and started crying after a little teasing. He sat down at one end of the table, sipping his tea and reading his book

He wrote some stuff down, mostly notes on how the author of his book could improve (which he would anonymously post to them, to vastly improve his own reading experience)

Janus often (and no matter what others claimed, this wasn’t a flaw) inserted himself into situations where he was not strictly needed, usually for the amusement and enjoyment it granted him. Hence why he was sat at his cousin’s kitchen table pretending not to be watching the hilarious way the little thing was glaring at him

He stifled a laugh.

On the other end of the table, Logan closed his own book, and began to stand up. The little creature had immediately turned around with a startled look on its face. The other two had begun calling it Tiny, since they didn’t know it’s actual name (if it even had one, Janus thought to himself)

With how easily startled it was, Janus didn’t know why the others had blamed him for it getting startled. That seemed to him like it was barely his fault.

He watched as Logan turned to Tiny and murmured an apology for startling it. Janus didn’t really know why, of course; it couldn’t understand them, had never spoken to any of them, and there was nothing really to apologise for. It got startled all the time, so there was probably nothing to apologise for

There was something in the back of his mind- he was pretty sure that there was some old folk tale about tiny people like it, but he couldn’t remember any details. Perhaps he should look it up

Logan looked up at him, and with a slightly less soft look on his face started to speak

“You’re coming with me, Janus,” he said

Janus rolled his eyes but got up anyway

“Why? Don’t you trust me with your little pet?” He asked, looking about as innocent as he could

Logan didn’t often show emotion, but he did get angry when Janus said stuff like that. The way his fist had clenched was proof enough

“They’re not a pet,” Logan said in a pretty neutral voice, as though they were trying to hide their anger

“Oh? But you do feed it, house it, carry it around, you’ve named it, and Patton’s always squealing about how cute it is- tell me again how it’s not a pet?”

He knew it wasn’t a pet- all this was purely to get a reaction. But Logan was barely giving him anything

“You know that they’re not a pet, and they are not an it,” he said, taking a deep breath as they walked

The rest of the time that Janus was being “supervised” (which was stupid and totally unnecessary) was uneventful.

When they got back, Patton had joined. They were in the kitchen, under the watchful eye of Tiny, who had scarcely moved since Janus had been gone

He rolled his eyes

Patton was making food for everyone, and Logan and Patton were discussing what kind of fruit that Tiny would eat. Janus rolled his eyes

“I can bring it over here if it’s that important,” he said, sick of hearing the discussion

“Might I remind you that you’re not allowed to get too close to them?” Logan said

Janus rolled his eyes. He wasn’t gonna get too close to it. He needed to practise his levitation, anyway

He gestured in its general direction and hovered it above the table, before bringing his hand closer to himself, and bringing the little thing across the kitchen and depositing it onto the counter

He smiled smugly, looking at the little thing

It sat for a moment, before crossing its arms and saying… something in its strange language

Janus laughed. He was not sure what it said but he could tell by the tone that it was either some kind of insult, or even a swear of some variety. That was the first time he’d heard it speak and this is how? Hilarious!

—