Making up for yesterday's prompt by letting Sawyer be the comforting tol this time. A short drabble that's part of a mystery Trust AU... goes with this... shhh....
Sawyer was doing the dishes when the loud noise came from outside. There was a thud, and then a cascading crash of something metallic and hollow bouncing down the outside stairs of the apartment complex. It was enough to startle Sawyer, and the dish in his hands slipped a bit, clattering against another in the sink.
“Dude, I thought you had it!” a voice came from just outside the door.
One only slightly further away yelled back, “I was going down the stairs backwards, I obviously did not have it!”
But Sawyer wasn’t worried about them. He quickly dried his hands on a dishtowel and looked towards the counter to his right, where Subby had been sitting out of the way.
Subby — short for “subject”, which wasn’t really a name but nonetheless was the only thing he responded to — was… well, Sawyer wasn’t actually all that sure what he was. Subby was an impossible little creature that looked like a person, but couldn’t really talk, and only understood a few command words like “no” or “stay”. Sawyer had rescued the little guy from a lab on campus and was doing his best to take care of the poor thing.
Mostly because Subby had levels of anxiety that far exceeded his tiny stature. Sure enough, that lanky little body was tense and alert, miniature dark eyes wide and staring in the direction of the door. Sawyer could see that slim little chest heaving for breath, and when he offered his newly-dry hands, Subby all but scrambled over to them, spilling into Sawyer’s palms with shaky desperation.
Sawyer wasted no time holding the little guy close, feeling more than seeing that trembling, teeny body curl up even smaller. “Shh, shh, it’s alright,” Sawyer muttered, a soothing tone that he knew would get across even if Subby didn’t understand his words. He cupped his hands, sheltering Subby from the outside world, and felt the teeniest tap as Subby leaned up against his chest. “I know, that was a loud noise. It probably startled you, huh? But it’s okay now.”
Sawyer slowly walked towards the couch, trying to jostle his tiny passenger as little as possible, and carefully settled in. He could still feel Subby trembling, and so he kept talking, knowing that it would eventually help the poor thing calm down. “I’ve got you. You’re okay.” One of his thumbs gently brushed against the curve of that tiny back, a fragile little arm.
“It’ll be alright. Just listen to my voice.”
theartofmadeline
gummygunk
