Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"hey, banana? i want you to meet someone, okay?"

hannah nodded her head.

"alright, i'll bring them in."

"them? more than one?"

"no, i-i'll explain when they get in here."

webby?

yes, hannah?

is it more than one?

no.

but lex said they.

understood.

"uh, hi. hannah, right?"

hannah's eyes shot up at the stranger.

"hannah, this is ethan. ethan, this is hannah."

"you said they."

"i did, banana! but ethan's just the one person." lex kneeled down to explain to the sitting girl. "ethan's non-binary, so they're not a boy or a girl. when you talk about them, you don't say he or she, you say they."

"they."

"right!"

hannah looked at ethan. they wore a leather jacket that was a little too big on them. they had curly brown hair. their smile was uncomfortable, but hopefully, that would change. and they were tall. much taller than lex. hannah leaned away from the stranger. 

"is something wrong, banana?"

ethan is good. trust them.

i will.

"no," hannah said, smiling at the stranger - not the stranger anymore - ethan . "webby says ethan is good. to trust them."

"who's webby?" ethan asked, tilting his head towards the side.

"my friend," hannah said, speaking to ethan for the first time. "she likes you."

"and that's good?"

hannah nodded.

"well, i hope you like me as much as webby does."

hannah smiled knowingly at ethan. "i will."

"so hannah, ethan is going to watch you while i work my first shift tomorrow at the toy store, is that okay?"

hannah's eyes widened. she'd only met them today. now lex wanted her to spend a day with him? tomorrow?

ethan is safe.

"don't worry, banana-split. i won't hurt ya."

hannah smiled again.

banana-split. that's new.

kind. ethan is kind.

"yes, that's okay."

lex smiled.

ethan smiled.

hannah smiled wider.

family.

Chapter Text

she was about six when the voice started speaking to her.

hannah.

it would whisper in the night.

hannah. hear me.

“i hear you,” she would whisper back to a room filled with only herself and a sleeping lex.

think, don’t speak.

i hear you.

better.

“who-” hannah stopped herself from speaking. who are you?

the voice tried to say its name, but could not. from what hannah could hear, there was a “wuh” sound and a “buh” sound from somewhere in the garbled mess. wuhbuh… wuhbuh… wuhbuh?

hannah squinted her eyes in confusion. then, as if the moonlight shining through the window was casting a spotlight onto it, hannah spotted a spider crawling on the bedroom wall. the name popped into hannah’s mind. not sure of herself, she thought carefully to the voice.

webby?

a silence hung in the air. it wasn’t awkward. it seemed to hannah for some reason that the voice - webby, hopefully - was smiling to itself.

yes.

why do you speak so shortly?

my end. connection issues.

where are you from?

there was another silence from the voice. it was longer this time, and hannah feared that they had offended webby. she wondered if webby knew where she was from.

webby?

...black and white. between places.

how do you talk to me? lex and mom can't think to me like you.

gifted. lex is same but different.

and mom?

not mom.

hannah began to think. not to webby, but to herself. truthfully, she didn't know if webby could hear her or not. how do lex and i have things mom doesn't? mom has everything. even the house. why does webby talk to her instead of lex? lex was older and knew a lot more because of it.

older, not definitely wiser. lex cannot.

lex can't talk to you?

not like you can.

Chapter Text

a few months after webby started talking to her, hannah was put into mandatory education. she liked her teacher, mrs. davidson, very much. mrs. davidson was kind and had a gentle voice when she read stories to the class, not like her mother.

"once upon a time, there was a little girl named goldilocks. she went for a walk in the forest."

hannah shook her head and looked down. she had heard this story before. lex used to tell it to her all the time.

"pretty soon, she came upon a house. she knocked, and when no one answered, she walked right in."

that was always a scary part of the story for hannah. the other kids around her giggled, but a stranger walking into her house without knocking? that was terrifying.

"at the table in the kitchen, there were three bowls of porridge."

hannah, tired of her teacher's storytelling, started to tune the classroom noise out and focus on another noise she heard. she focused on the static that played in the back of her mind.

"goldilocks was hungry. she tasted the porridge from the first bowl."

the static was quiet at first, but as hannah focused more on it, it seemed to get louder.

"'this porridge is too hot!' she exclaimed. so, she tasted the porridge from the second bowl."

the static was getting louder now. it was loud enough to drown out mrs. davidson's voice, then loud enough to drown out the whispers of the students beside her, then loud enough to drown out her own breathing. too loud for hannah's liking.

"'this porridge is too cold,' she said. so, she tasted the last bowl of porridge."

hannah tried to stop the static getting louder.

stop, stop, stop! webby, help!

don't worry, hannah.

"'ah, this porridge is just right,' she said happily and she ate it all up."

webby's voice was a great comfort to hannah. now she could listen to webby talk instead of listening to the story she had heard a hundred times before.

goldilocks.

yes.

i remember. too much, too little, just right.

you've heard this story too?

just as much.

-

a couple days after mrs. davidson was done reading the goldilocks story, she pulled hannah up to her desk while the class was working.

"hannah," she began, "i've noticed something recently. it always seems like you're not listening when i read stories to the class. is that true?"

hannah looked up at mrs. davidson. lex had always told her that lying was bad, so hannah bit her lip and nodded.

"why is that?"

"heard them before," hannah said, which wasn't entirely wrong.

"but it seems like your mind is on something else when i read. do you want to talk about that?"

hannah's eyes widened. she had never told anyone about webby before. should she now?

"her name is webby," she said.

"webby?"

"a spider."

"your pet?"

"no. she's from the black and white."

"the black and white? where is that?"

don't.

hannah's words and heart stopped at webby's sudden intrusion.

"webby says i'm not supposed to tell you."

"webby can hear me?"

hannah nodded slowly. 

"well, i'm sorry that webby doesn't want me to hear her. but, i have to tell you, hannah, since you're not listening in class, i have to call your parents."

"no."

mrs. davidson blinked. she had expected screaming, crying, things she had seen from other students, not a strong, steady, one-word response from a six-year-old. "no?"

"call lex instead."

"lex?"

"my sister."

-

is mrs. davidson bad?

no.

then why didn’t you want me to tell her where you’re from?

black and white. secret.

how secret?

government secret.