Chapter Text
Jimmy really shouldn’t have been doing this.
What he should have been doing was gathering up as much stuff as he could and moving. He wouldn’t move out of the dorm building. He couldn’t. But it was big enough where he could move up a few floors and never have to even be near Grian and Joel’s dorm.
Moving is what he should have been doing.
What he was actually doing was heading back toward Grian and Joel’s dorm, hands fidgeting in front of him as he walked. It had been a couple of days since Grian and Joel had caught him and then let him go. And no matter how hard Jimmy tried, he…
He couldn’t stop thinking about them.
The beginning had been terrifying and he played that part over and over again in his head. The way their hands wrapped around him, trapping him, ignoring his fear, it had all been too much and it still left him shaking when he thought about it. But he also replayed what happened after. How they had stopped and apologized and fed him and let him go .
The more he thought about that part, the more Jimmy realized just how deep his loneliness ran. Because just that little bit of interaction with another person had Jimmy almost desperate for more. He wanted to talk, he wanted someone else’s presence around him. But Jimmy was the only borrower in the whole building. Maybe even in the state, or country, or even the world .
He didn’t know how many borrowers were left. But he knew that no matter what that number was, the likelihood of him ever meeting another borrower was very, very low.
And the more he thought about that , the more that deep buried loneliness of his felt suffocating.
It was mostly that feeling that led him back. He stared at his exit out of the walls, the one that would put him in Grian and Joel’s dorm. He shifted his grip on his bag slung over his shoulder and looked between the door and back toward the way he came. He could turn back now. He still had the chance to. But the more he thought about leaving, the more he realized he couldn’t. The more he realized he didn’t want to. And so he took a deep breath and entered the dorm room.
There was, thankfully, nothing blocking his way in. Grian’s bag was still under the desk but it was placed farther away from his exit. Jimmy briefly wondered if Grian had done that on purpose.
He tore his gaze away from the bag and looked around. Grian wasn’t at his desk but a quick look at the opposite side of the room showed Jimmy that Joel was at his. And from the slight shifting and creaking of the bed not too far away from him, he knew Grian must be on his bed.
It was pretty quiet other than the sounds of Joel typing. Jimmy didn’t know what Grian was doing but he hoped that whatever it was was enough of a distraction that they wouldn’t notice Jimmy right away.
He wanted to get higher up before revealing himself, put himself on a more even playing field. Even if he knew that was more of an illusion than anything, it made him feel a bit better at least.
He adjusted his bag and then ran under Grian’s bed from the desk and went to the edge. He couldn’t see Grian from where he was but Joel was fully engrossed in his laptop. Jimmy felt his heart thud in his chest as he realized he would be taking the same risk he had before. Except this time without the threat of being chased and grabbed.
He hoped.
Jimmy took in a deep breath before running across the room as swiftly and quietly as he could. Thankfully there were no sudden gasps or shouts this time and Jimmy was able to dart behind Joel’s nightstand without being detected. He let himself catch his breath from the adrenaline he just put himself through before carefully leaning out from behind the nightstand to try and catch a glimpse at Grian.
As he thought, Grian was in bed. He seemed to be on his phone, his thumb scrolling every few seconds. Jimmy couldn’t even begin to guess what Grian was actually doing on his phone but whatever it was had him engrossed enough that he didn’t see Jimmy. Which was all the borrower needed.
Ducking back behind the nightstand, he grabbed his hook out of his bag and started whipping it to gain more momentum. He didn’t have a lot of room between the nightstand and the wall but it was enough to let him throw his hook and watch as it snagged the edge of the nightstand. Jimmy gave it a little tug, just to make sure it was steady. It stayed firm despite his tugs and so Jimmy started the climb up.
He made it up the nightstand with no problems, hoisting himself up and onto it. He decided to leave his hook and line where it was as he ducked behind the lamp. From here, he could basically see the entire room and he peered out from behind the lamp to his left to see Joel a bit better. He could see that Joel must be working on some homework, as his screen was full of words that continued to appear the more Joel typed.
Unfortunately, it was at this moment that Jimmy was watching Joel that Joel leaned back against his chair and stretched, turning his head to the side in order to give his eyes a rest from the screen. As his head turned, Joel’s gaze subconsciously landed on his nightstand as something in his peripheral had caught his attention and it was then that Joel and Jimmy’s eyes met.
Jimmy gasped and ducked back behind the lamp just as he saw Joel’s eyes go wide. He pressed his back against the lamp, his breathing coming out faster and his heart rate spiking considerably.
“Jimmy?” Joel called out as Jimmy heard him stand abruptly from his seat.
“Huh?” Grian let out a noise and snapped his attention away from his phone and toward Joel. “Is Jimmy here?” Grian asked and Jimmy could just barely see Grian scrambling out of bed and moving closer to Joel, to Jimmy.
“I-yeah. He’s behind my lamp.” Joel said and for some reason, having Joel actually put into words that he saw him and knew where he was had Jimmy’s heart racing even faster.
He placed a hand on his chest and tried to force himself to calm down. He was fine . He was the one who decided to do this. And Grian and Joel had already let him go once, he didn’t think they would keep him or do anything like that to him now.
It was just so nerve wracking putting himself in the presence of humans again. His instincts, fear instilled into him since he was little, screaming at him to run and get away. But he stayed put and breathed through it.
He wanted this.
Jimmy took his hand off his chest and before he could second guess himself, he leaned back around the lamp, revealing himself to Grian and Joel. He looked up at them, still using the lamp as some sort of comfort as he gripped the side of it and tried to stop his body from shaking. Joel and Grian stared at him with wide eyes and Jimmy cleared his throat, preparing to say something.
“Um…H-Hey.” He winced at the stutter in his voice. Thankfully, Grian and Joel didn’t comment on it. Instead, they just seemed really surprised.
“You came back?” Grian asked, despite knowing the answer. He seemed in awe that Jimmy had come back at all and the question was only said to convey Grian’s shock. Jimmy nodded and with another calming breath he fully came out from behind the lamp, putting himself fully in the humans’ line of sight.
“Yeah, I mean…you did say I was welcome back, er, right?” Jimmy asked, fidgeting with his hands a bit.
“Well, yeah, of course!” Grian answered, putting Jimmy’s mind more at ease.
“Yeah, we just…well, we weren’t really expecting you to take us up on that.” Joel chimed in, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean, we didn’t really have the-the best first meeting.”
Jimmy winced as his earlier thoughts were brought up. Good thing he had already thought this over at least a hundred times before coming back here. “Yeah but…it wasn’t terrible. I mean, you guys fed me and let me go…”
He watched as both of their eyebrows furrowed. “Well, yeah, we were never going to keep you here.” Joel said with a small frown. As if the idea of forcing Jimmy to stay had never even crossed his mind.
He said with such confidence too, such casualness, that Jimmy really had no choice but to believe them. That and he had seen them let him go first hand. The more Jimmy stood there on the nightstand without being grabbed, talking to the two humans, the more he realized he hadn’t made a terrible decision in coming back here.
“Speaking of food…” Grian said, glancing at his phone before looking back at Jimmy. “You’re actually just in time for lunch. Did you…want to stay for it?”
Before Jimmy could answer, his stomach did it for him, releasing a loud gurgling noise. Jimmy’s cheeks became red as he realized that was loud enough for even Grian and Joel to hear. The two humans blinked before Grian let out a small laugh. Joel chuckled as well, though he at least had the decency to hide it behind a hand. It didn’t stop the red in Jimmy’s cheeks from spreading though.
“I’m gonna take that as a yes.” Grian said, tapping some stuff on his phone that Jimmy could only assume was to order said food. “Any requests?”
Jimmy blinked. The only thing that came to mind was pizza, which he would for sure be happy to have again. But a part of him wanted to try something new as well. He decided on shrugging. “I’m okay with anything.”
Grian nodded and tapped some more stuff on his phone. “How do some burgers and fries sound then?” Grian said, looking between both Jimmy and Joel.
“Sounds good to me.” Joel said with a grin.
“Me too.” Jimmy said, barely even knowing what burgers and fries were. He thought he might have had a fry in the past but he couldn’t be sure. And if he had, it had definitely been old and cold. Not fresh like he knew this would be.
Jimmy honestly couldn’t believe he was getting another chance to have fresh and warm food. He also couldn’t believe this was going so well. Here Jimmy was, purposefully putting himself within reach of two humans and they hadn’t so much as reached for him. They actually seemed to be keeping their distance, neither one of them had moved any closer than where they were now. Which was a good few feet away from where Jimmy was.
As Joel listed off his order for Grian to put in, Jimmy found himself relaxing more and more. Maybe being here was against the borrower code. And maybe being here was risking everything he ever knew. But Jimmy didn’t care.
Jimmy sat down, hanging his feet over the edge of the nightstand. Grian and Joel’s sizes were still intimidating and it would take a lot to get over that, if he even could, but he knew there was a line of trust forming. A trust that Jimmy could believe in.
Maybe he was wrong before. Maybe he didn’t have to live in another world where Grian and Joel were also borrowers in order to be friends with them. Maybe, just maybe, they could be friends in this one as well.
Jimmy was glad he came back. Because he, at the very least, now believed they could be.