Chapter Text
Ari had left his room as quietly as he could, making sure his parents were sound asleep before setting out. Every step was full of tension and anxiety, and his mind swam with excuses. He could just say he wanted to try borrowing, right? Surely they’d find that preferable to the truth.
He slipped through the crack under the cabinets in the kitchen and out into the humans’ house. The countertop towered high above him, teasing foods and spices that his father often would bring home. He hadn’t seen all of his father’s borrowing tools, but nothing came to mind that would allow him to climb that high...
Putting those thoughts aside, Ari continued on. He ran as fast as he could, hoping to be back home within an hour. Precious minutes had passed by the time he reached his destination in the human’s bedroom. Out of breath, he slowly walked towards the dollhouse.
Ari had practically grown up alongside this human. He was a few years younger than it, but he’d watched it grow up, and he was glad that the human had never really gotten around to boxing up this old dollhouse. Maybe it had been some form of nostalgia or just pure laziness, but the fact it was still here meant Ari could enjoy himself.
He slowly pulled off his dull shirt as he snuck into the dollhouse, still feeling anxious. Ari never cared for the traditional lifestyle his family held dear. He cared about appearances and comfort, and believed that there was more in life to strive for beyond survival. The first time he’d challenged that traditional mindset was when he wore one of his sister’s dresses. His parents tried to explain why it was “immoral” and how they had to “follow tradition because it protects us and helps us remember what’s right.”
Nothing about that felt right to Ari. Restricting a person from harmless activities felt nonsensical, and Ari felt the need to question every tradition his family followed. The only one he truly understood was avoiding humans. They were terrifying, like strange, scaled-up imitations of borrowers.
Ari looked inside the wardrobe in the dollhouse, and pulled out a soft, blue dress. He hurriedly changed into the dress, leaving his old pants and shirt on the floor. He ran to the full-body mirror in the human’s room, and admired himself as he would every few nights.
He smiled wide at his reflection. The black straps of the dress hung on his shoulders, letting the dress cascade down his body. It was tied with a dark blue ribbon at the waist, giving it a cutesy feel. He felt his soft, fluffy black hair as he looked in the mirror. His father often borrowed bits of shampoo and conditioner, and Ari usually had to “borrow” some conditioner from his sister, as his father had so often told him “men must be tough and hardy, women must be gentle and delicate” every time he openly asked for it. His father said it was to make men and women work better for different jobs that were necessary to survive, but it sounded like garbage to Ari. Why should something uncontrollable affect the jobs you’re trained for?
Soon enough, Ari’s train of thought was derailed as he heard a voice above him.
“...what are you?”
He slowly looked up in the mirror and saw a human directly behind him, crouching over his miniature form. He turned around, his every movement sending a spike of fear through his body, and let out a faint gasp as he took in just how massive it was.
Despite how often he went out, Ari never saw a human this close before. They normally were all asleep, and he could simply sneak by and avoid having to interact with them at all. This one should’ve been asleep, why was it awake?!
As much as Ari tried, he couldn’t respond. He could barely even breathe as he did his best to form words. He slowly backed away from the human until he touched the mirror, then managed to whisper “I-I’m sorry...”
The human reached for Ari, and all he could bring himself to do was let out a pathetic squeak and start running as fast as he could. He hoped he could get somewhere the human couldn’t reach, like under the dresser, but his hopes turned out to be pointless as the human scooped him up.
Ari felt as though he was going to throw up as he was suddenly lifted high above the ground. He feebly curled up in a ball in the palm of the human’s hand, hoping he wouldn’t fall.
He had never been told *what* exactly a human would do to him if he was caught, but his imagination had run wild with scenarios, from being kept as a helpless toy to having his head ripped off with the same ease a human removes a bottle cap. He struggled to try and come up with some way to bargain with the human, but his mind was too full of worries to have any sort of coherent thoughts.
Finally, the human spoke to him.
“You didn’t answer me before,” it began. “What exactly are you?”
Ari’s heart was pounding out of his chest, it took all of his willpower to even force out a single word as he stood up, struggling to stay on his feet.
“I’m... a borrower...” Ari managed to say, unable to look the human in the eye. He was isolated on its warm palm, and transfixed by how massive it was. Its blonde hair left messy strands cascading down its curious face as it seemed to study him. Ari tensed up as he saw it narrow its huge green eyes at him. It faintly smiled before sitting down on its bed and setting him down beside it.
“What does a ‘borrower’ do?” The human asked, looming high above Ari. Its voice was beautiful, every word it spoke seemed to beg Ari to listen and lose himself in it, but he felt far too afraid to relax at the sound of it.
“I-I take food and medicine and other things I need that you w-wouldn’t notice... and I use them t-to survive...” Ari felt pathetic, unable to even say a full sentence without tripping over his words. Maybe some part of him just hoped that if he seemed worthless enough, the human would let him go.
From the blue pajama pants and green t-shirt it wore to its messy blonde hair to its sleepy green eyes, everything about it seemed so... borrower-like. Just massively scaled up, and much more terrifying as a result. Ari had never been told why borrowers and humans shouldn’t interact, so maybe this was just another faulty tradition that his family refused to break?
“W-will you let me go..?” Ari asked, anxiously holding his own hand. The human smiled much more warmly this time, causing some of the tension in Ari to lessen.
“Of course,” the human replied, “if you just answer one question for me. Did you take that dress from my old dollhouse?”
“Y-yes,” Ari replied. “I thought it looked really nice, and...”
He trailed off, unable to find a way to justify taking it.
“I suppose that’s okay,” the human responded. “You said you take things you need to survive, and we all need some comfort and beauty in our lives to get by.”
“W-wait, you’re just going to let me have it?” Ari asked, tilting his head slightly in confusion. The human nodded, leaving Ari in complete disbelief. There’s no way borrowers would hide away for so long if humans were actually this kind. Paranoia crept into his mind, making him step back slightly as he wondered what the human could be planning to do with him.
“You can take the first one for free,” the human noted, “but I can’t just give them all to you.” Ari whimpered quietly as the human felt his little arm between its thumb and forefinger.
“I make clothes for dolls by commission and sell them,” the human explained. “You’re about the same size, roughly three or four inches tall... If you want more from me, just help me see how the clothes would look on an actual little model. I’ll let you keep any from a selection of them, as payment for helping me with my work.”
Ari thought for a moment, unsure what to do.
It wants me to be like its doll? Ari thought to himself. No, no, it just wants me to be like a little model... And it would let me wear so many cute outfits...
“I’ll do it,” Ari blurted out, trying to make a decision before his family realized he was missing. “I can’t promise I’ll regularly be here, but I’ll come out any night I can.”
“Thank you,” the human said with a gentle smile. “My name is Damien.”
Ari supposed he should’ve known that humans had names, but it surprised him to know this one’s. Humans seemed so distant and dissimilar from borrowers that he simply never thought about them having their own names. He had seen them more like beasts than people.
“I’m Ari,” he stated, staring up into Damien’s leaf-green eyes. Damien gently laid his hand beside Ari, allowing him to climb on.
It... He’s so much like me, Ari thought. He’s not a monster or an animal or something, he’s just like me.
“It was really nice to meet you, Ari,” Damien said, Ari finally able to embrace the sound of his voice and relax with it. “I can’t wait to talk to you again.”
Damien gently set Ari down on the floor beside the bed, towering over him. Oddly enough, Ari felt slightly comforted by that. Damien wasn’t a threat that wanted to kill him, he was letting him go and even offering help for him.
“You too!” Ari exclaimed, finally letting his excitement show. He no longer had to hide his tastes from everyone, he had someone he could confide in and enjoy himself with.
The borrower gathered up his previous outfit, but elected to stay in the dress as he made his way home. He cheerfully strode across the carpet, across the tile floor, through the crack in the wall beneath the cabinet, and finally through the long halls hidden between the walls of the human’s house until he reached his room. He dropped into bed with a quiet sigh, and decided he’d go to sleep in his new clothes.
He wrapped himself up under his blankets, then slowly started to drift off to sleep...
...however, his rest was interrupted as he heard footsteps walking by in the hall outside his little room. There was more weight to it, so it must be his father. He was sure his father was here before he left, did he go out for borrowing without him knowing?
Ari’s door creaked open, and he quickly shut his eyes and kept himself covered in the blankets. He heard his father let out a heavy sigh before closing the door and walking back to his and his mother’s room.
Does he know? Ari asked himself. Did he see me out there? Are we going to have to leave? I don’t want to leave, I just finally met someone who understands me...
Ari’s mind was plagued with anxious thoughts, leaving his night nigh sleepless.