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“Now what is going to ‘poof’ today, as the bean says it? I wonder what will annoy them the most?” Skeppy mumbled to himself while leaning over the edge of the bookshelf to survey the room. This was a fairly normal circumstance for the borrower. He had always been more on the risky side. Though that could be the main reason for lack of friends. Riskiness is not a good trait to most borrowers.
Skeppy however, thrived off of it, especially through the confusion he could create. It also became the reason he had been in so many houses. But while Skeppy would take the constant risks in his everyday life, he was still scared of actually being caught. He still made it a game to see how risky he could make it without being seen, so he’s very obviously been seen before. And caught once.
That was a memory that he liked to forget. It was terrifying to actually be held and thrown in a cage. He was just glad he kept different tools hidden in his clothes, so he was able to escape that night despite the bean taking the rest of his stuff. That was the fastest he ever left a house after being seen. He was not willing to repeat that situation again, so he became slightly more cautious.
But then he found the house he currently lived in. The bean lived here alone, which was unusual for most homes. When Skeppy first arrived, he thought he would have to move out quickly because of the human’s constant movement within the house and the sporadic schedule of leaving and coming back. But while the bean was obviously everywhere at once, they were the most oblivious human had ever lived with.
That wasn’t the biggest reason that Skeppy decided this was his favorite house though. No, it was how easily frustrated the human got. Skeppy realized very early on that this bean was very easily confused and agitated at everything, especially Skeppy’s antics. The human thoroughly believed there was a ghost haunting his house after Skeppy had been living there for a week. And Skeppy lived for it.
His most common, and most entertaining, trick was stealing different items from the human. He always chose a different room at random so the human wouldn’t notice, but he always took something that would inconvenience the human in some way, even for a couple minutes. The human never failed to get extremely worked up about anything. The borrower found it entertaining, so he kept doing it over and over.
So here he was, on top of a bookshelf in the human’s room deciding what he was going to steal today. Eventually his eyes landed on a small coil of wires on the human’s desk. The human would occasionally take those and stick one end into his device and the other two parts into his ears. He wasn’t sure what they were, but he knew that even if the bean didn’t look today, he was sure to miss them eventually.
Skeppy nodded to himself and prepared for his descent off the bookshelf to steal the strange mess of wires. He tossed his wire off the bookshelf and stuck the attached paperclip into the shelf for a sturdy climb down. Once he was sure the wire was secure, he began climbing down.
He was about halfway down when the wire suddenly jerked and he fell a couple inches. He looked up in alarm to see the paperclip had shifted and was now barely holding his weight. He quickly tried to lower himself before it gave out, knowing he wouldn’t be able to make it back up in time. But the paperclip slipped only a couple seconds later, leaving the borrower tumbling down and tangled in his wire with his struggles.
He grunted as he landed on a cold and hard surface. Skeppy groaned as he tried to flip over and sit up. He could barely move with the wire wrapped around him. As he sat up however, he realized he was not in a good spot at all. Tall walls surrounded him completely, all made of the same material as the floor. Skeppy was very suddenly alarmed.
He fell in that empty bucket the human kept in his room.
He tried to stand to make attempts at knocking over the bucket, but he kept falling back down, the wire constricting him too much. With a defeated sigh, he laid back down on the floor. He was going to be caught again. He closed his eyes and fell asleep right there. There was nothing to do but wait for the human to find him, so this was one way to waste time.
---
“Alrighty! Finally done with my work! Time to go to bed!” Bad smiled as he looked through his newly organized chest. With a proud nod he closed the lid and walked to his room, shutting the door behind him.
As soon as he reached his bed however, he stopped. Bad wasn’t sure why he did, but he felt that he needed to check up on Mr. Squeegee’s old bucket. It had been a month now, so Bad was unsure on why he wanted to. He gave in anyways and walked over to the bucket.
“I miss you so much, Mr. Squeegee. Maybe that’s why I wanted to…”
Bad stopped and his eyes widened. There seemed to be a small person laying on the bottom of the bucket and tangled in some wire, seemingly passed out. Bad barely thought in his panic as he reached in and scooped the tiny life into his hands. He quickly lifted the tiny being up to his face. He let out a breath of relief he didn’t know he was holding when he saw the tiny human’s chest moving up and down steadily.
He quickly walked over to his desk and sat down, panic clear in his every movement. That didn’t look comfortable at all. Bad began untangling the small man as carefully as he could. He grabbed a small pair of scissors and carefully snipped parts of the wire to allow it to untangle more easily.
It took about ten minutes, but Bad eventually removed all of the wire from the tiny person’s frame. He did a quick once over and was also relieved that there was only minimal bruising and it didn’t seem to be Bad’s fault. The poor muffin must’ve fallen from the bookshelf into the bucket.
Bad began to lean back in his chair to wait for the tiny human to wake up when he suddenly felt the tiny life shift in his hands. Bad froze and stared at him in awe, finally completely realizing that this muffin was actually alive and Bad wasn’t going crazy from sleep. Again.
His amazement vanished quickly as soon as the tiny human saw Bad. He quickly tried to back up off of Bad’s hands. He quickly curled his fingers up so he couldn’t fall. The poor muffin looked terrified! Bad knew he needed to do something, and now.
---
Skeppy knew that when he woke up he would find himself in captivity. He didn’t think that he would still be in the human’s hands though. And as his back hit the human’s fingers he realized he was in almost the same situation as before. He curled into a ball to make himself smaller and awaited whatever atrocity that was sure to come next.
“Awe, you little muffin. No need to be scared. How are you feeling though? You were rather tangled up, though at least there was no bruising from the fall you must’ve taken. So there’s at least one positive here!”
Skeppy peeked up at the human before coming to the startling realization that he was no longer tangled in the wire. He unfolded himself a little more and was surprised to find no more injuries beyond the bruises from his fall. He looked up at the human astonished.
A couple moments passed of the two just staring at each other in silence, both with baited breath.
“You’re- you’re not going to hurt me. Are you?” Skeppy asked in realization. He had been living in this house for long enough to realize that the human didn’t have it in him to hurt him. He was the safest he has ever been, especially being with a human. It couldn’t possibly turn out like last time. Not with this bean.
The bean’s eyes widened at Skeppy’s statement.
“Of course I’m not going to hurt you, you numpty muffin! Why would I do that?”
Skeppy let a small giggle leave his mouth as he reached up to cover his mouth. “Numpty muffin? What is that even supposed to mean?” The human just stared at him, completely astonished.
“What does it mean? Really? You could ask anything and you ask that? You really are a numpty muffin!” Skeppy couldn’t hold in his giggles as the human continued calling him a numpty muffin and ranting on about how he could’ve asked literally anything else.
Eventually the human trailed off and looked at Skeppy softly. “Do you have a name? Or something I can call you? I’m Bad, if that helps.” Skeppy tilted his head.
“That’s a weird name.” All his fear seemed to have dissipated, which was nice actually. The human, now Bad, sighed.
“It’s short for BadBoyHalo. It’s less of a mouthful. And please,” he quickly cut Skeppy off as he saw the borrower open his mouth, “don’t ask me why that’s my name. It’s a long story.”
“So you’ll explain later?”
“Wait no-”
“Cool! You can call me Skeppy then!”
Bad stared at Skeppy for a moment before speaking. “And you said my name was weird. What does that even mean?”
“Hey! You said I couldn’t ask about your name. No being a hypocrite, you hear me, Baldy?”
“I’m not bald!”
“Suuuuuuuure.”
“I’m not- ugh, whatever.” It was silent for a moment before Bad smiled at Skeppy again. “Good to formally meet you Skeppy. I just got one more question, are you the ghost who has been stealing my stuff?”
“Good to meet you too!” Bad raised an eyebrow at Skeppy and Skeppy let out a nervous chuckle. “No hard feelings about that though, right? I returned them all eventually.”
Bad sighed and smiled again. “I guess you did, but no more stealing.”
“No promises!”
“Skeppy!”
Skeppy laughed as Bad started getting worked up again. He knew this was different and wrong to most borrowers. But good thing he wasn’t most borrowers. And this wasn’t last time. Things could finally be different. Bad was different.
And surprisingly, or not, Skeppy was okay with this.
It was going to be alright.