#some-loozzr

After looking around himself again, Irwin carefully made his way up to where the girl stood. His feet stepping on fallen leaves didn’t make the crunching noise someone might expect; it must’ve rained recently. It seemed like it rained a lot in that place.

Irwin stopped right next to the girl, looking down at where her sad eyes pointed.

Two little graves. Too little to even exist. The man sighed to himself, all kinds of emotions going through his head and heart at once, but he needed to push them back. He couldn’t do anything for… them.

But he could try and help her.

“How are things going?” He asked, actually worried. The last time he visited it was almost three months before, which might seem a short period for an adult. But for a kid, a hurting kid, that might’ve seemed an eternity. 

The girl shrugged, not answering his question. So it wasn’t going well, he imagined. He let out another long sigh, mostly because it hurt him to see kids like that.

“How are you doing?” He switched the subject to the person he had right there, hoping that that new, personal question would get an answer.

There was a brief silence before he heard the girl finally reply to him.

“It hurts… it still hurts a lot…” She was about to cry, that was obvious.

Before he could do anything, the girl looked up at him. Yes, there were tears in her eyes, already.

“You said it would pass…”

“Yeah, I did say that…” And it was a big mistake; kids are not very good with patience and waiting.

“When does that happen?”

“... I’m not sure… I’m sorry…”

He saw the little girl’s eyes filling with more tears; he didn’t even know kids could hold so many in their tiny eyes.

Irwin sighed again and put a hand on her head, trying to somehow comfort her without being too invasive. Especially in that place where anyone could spot them.

“What are you doing?”

Talking about the wolf.

The girl quickly turned around to where the voice came from, involuntarily pushing Irwin’s hand away from her head. Well, he was pulling it away anyway after hearing that voice; the last thing he wanted was for her to be in trouble. Even if… it was a bit too late for that, now.

But he made sure to monitor the situation as it was going to unfold.

There was a short silence, and he didn’t dare to turn around just yet. 

“I… was just…”

“I told you to keep this place clear.”

“I was…”

“Then why is someone here? And an adult, of any people.”

The girl gulped, looking up at Irwin to find a good explanation for that. Irwin met her eyes and just nodded, as to give her permission to tell the truth. Something really rare around their sector in those times.

“He’s a friend… he helped us already, so I thought-”

“You don’t need to THINK.” The other kid replied, harshly. A bit too harsh. “I do that. All you need to do is follow my orders, and I ordered you to keep this place CLEAR from ANYONE!”

“But Tyler–” 

“It’s Numbuh 412.”

“No one wants to harm them anymore!” She tried to explain, her voice breaking from the words that just came out of her mouth. She stopped for a moment, actually realizing what she just said.

Was… that it? Was that why he was so overprotective?

The other kid’s face was filling with rage once more. It was the norm lately.

“What did you just say?” He asked in a low, menacing tone, which made the girl step back. 

Irwin reached an arm and grabbed her shoulder, as to somehow tell her she wasn’t alone, and she was ok. It hurt him to see her like that. You shouldn’t be scared of your leader.

“I… said what I said.” Here she was; the little fighter he met some months before. “None of the people who came here and STILL try to come here want to harm them. Carol, Aiden, Gianna, Reyna, Sector BI… They want to pay respects! They want closure, one last goodbye, l-like– like THE ONE WE STILL CAN’T EVEN GIVE THEM BECAUSE YOU–”

“Watch it!” The boy said, stepping closer to the girl. “You dare say another heresy and I swear things are not gonna end well!”

That was it.

Irwin turned around and stepped between them; his arms down his sides, ready to reach if necessary, his legs half closed so no one could sneak past them.

The boy had in front of him an imposing, unsurpassable mountain staring down at him with a cold, stern eye. 

“Move.” The boy demanded, but Irwin stood his ground between him and the girl who didn’t dare to step away from behind him. When he saw the man was not moving, the boy tried to push him away, without result.

“Move! I SAID MOVE! MOVE, NOW!!” he started screaming, pushing harder, but the man wouldn’t even budge from his spot, looking down at him- but his gaze was not sad.

He didn’t want to see kids like that. Hurting like that. Not wanting any help and not realizing they were hurting everyone else with their pain. As if the others weren’t hurting already on their own.

“Tyler…” he tried to call his attention, but the boy kept pushing and pulling, trying to move him from his spot. He tried to call him one more time, but nothing seemed to work.

“TYLER!”

Another voice joined the group as another boy ran up to them, seeming a bit restless. He stopped as he saw the scene, not understanding what was going on.

“Uhm… Tyler…” he tried to call again, and finally, he got his attention.

“IT’S NUMBUH 412!!”

“N-numbuh 412…” the other boy corrected himself, trying to keep the situation as calm as possible. “We… g-got another… call… from Moonbase… they’re asking for a report on our… situation…”

Finally, the kid stopped his useless fight and calmed a bit, standing up and looking at his… friend? Were they even friends, anymore?

“I told you I don’t want to talk to them.”

“I know… but they’re insisting on this… please…”

The leader growled, frustrated, starting to walk in the direction of the other boy and the big treehouse towering over the whole place. But before entering their headquarters, he turned around, pointing at Irwin and his "little sidekick".

“I WANT HIM OUT OF HERE! THIS IS AN ORDER!” and with that, he got inside.

The other boy looked at the girl, exchanging a mutually understood feeling, then turning to Irwin and mouthing an “I’m sorry” before following his leader inside.

Irwin let out his fourth sigh of the day. That was gonna be hard to explain to his superior.

“Are you gonna tell on us?” The girl asked with a weak, shaky voice.

And there came the fifth sigh. Almost a record.

“Tell who?” The man asked, trying to keep his play up. But it was over, at least for that Sector. He couldn’t hold up that stupid “kid in an adult body” lie around them anymore.

“... other adults…” the girl quickly grabbed his clothes, holding on to them as to stop him from going anywhere. “I don’t want to lose them as well… they’re all I have left… please…”

Sixth.

“I can understand your feelings. But you need to understand that this is NOT okay. This is NOT healthy for any of you kids.”

“Please Tito…” she tried again, holding tighter on him.

Seventh.

“I…” what was he supposed to do? He understood their feelings, he understood the need to solve things alone. He went through that, even if it was different circumstances.

But they didn’t realize how bad it was around them. How many people were hurting and how things were getting worse by the day because of their actions. Well, mostly because of the actions of one of them.

Their leader.

Eighth.

He finally turned around and knelt down to look the girl in the eyes.

“I will do my best to… maybe invent some story and give you more time to calm down, talk, and find a way out of this mess. But if things get worse… I need to think about the other kids, as well, you understand?”

The girl nodded slightly.

“It’s not fair to make other people suffer because you are suffering. And I think you know that too well, right?” He nodded back at the treehouse, clearly addressing her leader. He finally put a hand on her head, slowly rubbing it.

“You’re strong. I know you are. And I know your friends are, too. You do what you can, Phoebe, but don’t allow anyone to step on you and your feelings because of their pain. Stand your ground.”

“B-but what if I end up losing them?”

“It might be necessary, but it will be temporarily. I’m not saying to step away from them if you don’t want to. You can keep being with them if you feel it’s right. One day they will understand, and they will get back to you. But if nothing around here changes, if YOU don’t start changing… it’s impossible to move on.” He smiled warmly, noticing then one of the vases on the graves behind her had fallen over at some point, spilling the water inside and scattering the flowers on the ground.

He stood up and walked next to it, not doing anything for it, but looking down so that the girl could notice it as well.

“Think of yourself like this vase. You are down, everything spilling out, and flowers seem fine but they are already missing water. You can stay like this. You can stay down and just wait for someone to pick you up. But can flowers wait for that long?”

He watched as the girl looked at the vase, probably thinking about what to do. As he expected, it didn’t take long for her to go pick the vase up and put the flowers back in, making sure they had enough water. Satisfied with her work, she looked at the grave she had put the vase back on.

It was hers.

She smiled sadly; of course, she would do that to help her.

Irwin smiled at her. “Pick yourself up, kid. I don’t think your friends here like to see your guys like that, too.”

“He won’t listen to me…”

“Then make sure to scream loud enough for him to finally listen. If needed, pick his vase up and show him you’re there for him.”

Without another word, Irwin found those little arms hugging him, and he couldn’t do anything but do the same with her. He could feel his shirt getting wet, but he didn’t care.

It was going to rain again pretty soon.

----

Ahaha, what a nice, short 5 pages fic, right guys???

Anyway, of course, it was for @artsygirl0315, who actually already read this but now it has COLORS!!!

CREDITS:

Mourning AU by @artsygirl0315

Carol and Aiden by @kandykatz

Gianna by @numbuh-72

Reyna by @numbuhinfinitys

Sector BI by @some-loozzr