Archive of Our Own

Monomon hrmed to herself as she tapped her mask with the end of a quill. She has been working on the same chemical formula for the past few hours. Lurien had swore up and down that if only she could come up with some sort of...mild...explosive, that it could theoretically be used as a source of power. He had explained that using such a compound could potentially power a machine through sheer physics alone and keep going without the need of further input, at least until the compound ran out. Something about gears and pistons and other things...she didn’t quite catch it all through his ramblings. He had most likely stayed up for days again and is most likely now forcibly put to bed by his butler. Lurien may be hilarious when sleep deprived but she didn’t want her friend to up and die from lack of said sleep.

Still it was very interesting and even if the idea didn’t work, it was always nice to have a new type of explosive around. You know. For reasons. Not just for the good of the kingdom after all.

Before she could continue her musings or her notes, she was interrupted by the sound of sniffling and the tapping of tiny feet passing her door. This part of the archives was her private home, which meant that the only source of the noise would be her adopted son, now home from school. It was highly unusual that he just didn’t barge on in to yell about some new fact he learned or to show off his marks like most days. He is quite the excitable little pip and always happy to ask questions his teachers couldn’t answer.

She put down her quill in instant concern and floated over her seat, leaving her work behind on her desk. She opened the door to her study and poked out her head, listening.

Yep, she still heard the sniffling, but down the hall and behind the door covered in crayon drawings and book posters.  The door was also closed as well, another unusual thing. She held up a tentacle curled up the tip to knock softly once she approached, and waited for the answer.

“Sniff...come in.” The voice behind the door was so sad, it made her pseudo-heart clench as she cracked open the door.

“Quirrel, are you okay?” She regretted the question as soon as she asked it once she saw her adopted son. Little Quirrel looked absolutely miserable, tiny antenna drooping as he rubbed his eyes. He wasn’t old enough for a mask yet, so she could see that he must have been crying for a while. He was half curled up. Most likely he was fully balled up in distress before she knocked, which gave her a spark of pride that he trusted her to open up a little. A far cry from when she found him only a few years ago, all alone.

Monomon drifted over to gently sit on the bed with her little pillbug, wrapping a comforting tentacle around his small body. She used another to pat his head gently between the antenna, something that he always liked. She kept her outer self gentle as she wiped away tears and dried his face. Inside however, she was calculating how much acid she will need per volume to remove all traces of those responsible for making her dear little pip cry. Surely the kingdom won’t miss a few bugs here and there, right?

It’s so very hard to see such a tiny little child upset. What made it worse is that she doesn’t know exactly how old he is. The doctors estimated around six or seven now last time she took him in for a check up. Still, too small to be this sad, in her humble opinion. 

“What happened, my little scholar?” She had let him calm down a little before she decided it was okay to start looking for answers. She’ll give him all the time he needed to speak.

He hugged one of her tentacles and buried his face into the soft material. He didn’t speak for a moment,  grounding himself before he managed to choke out a short sentence.

“They ruined it.”

“Ruined, what, my dear?” She continued her cuddling and felt him relax a little.

“My project.” He freed one of his arms long enough to point to a smooshed box on the floor of the room.

She was big enough that all she really needed to do was to crane her head and look without having to stop snuggling her child. She couldn’t help but wince a little at the sight. She knew what that was. In the smashed up box was an equally smashed up mess that was once an intricately put together model of the White Palace. The numerous Popsicle sticks so lovingly glitter glued together was snapped to pieces. The fiends even crumbled up the little paper windows he so carefully cut out and glued into place. She had watched him labor over this project for a solid week, and if she remembered right, he was supposed to turn it in today with the rest of his class. She had to think a minute as her own teaching plans muddled into the ones Quirrel talked about having in school. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of it all.

“They meh—m--mashed it up cause they said I’m-m-m a show off and nobody likes show offs and that’s why no-nobody likes me in school and I make everyone else look bad to-to the teacher.” He was in tears again and she for a moment wondered just how much could be left in such a small little body.

“Listen to me, my little scholar.” She once again took on tear wiping duty, taking a second tentacle to tickle under his chin the way she knows he likes. “What those people are, are bullies. Nothing they say is the truth.”

“But...but they”

“They said the things they knew would make you feel sad.” She interrupted before he could begin one of his negative spiraling thoughts. “It’s what they want to do, to make you upset.”

“But...why?” Quirrel is such an innocent soul. Despite his past, he still can’t understand why someone would be willfully cruel unless he somehow caused it.

“For many reasons. Most likely for this one, they were jealous. They didn’t like that you made something they felt wasn’t as good as theirs so they wanted to punish you for it.” The look in her young sons’ eyes told her to continue with a little more elaboration. “Again, it wasn’t your fault. You did nothing wrong. You just wanted to make us all proud, and I will always be proud of you.”

He shuffled his feet a little, still unsure on how to take the praise, but she could tell it made him very happy.

“Even if it got all smashed up?”

“Even if it got all smashed up.” She tweaked his cheek pad lovingly. She suddenly had an idea. A no good, terrible idea. An idea that could help out both her little Quirrel and herself.

“Now, I want you to tell me or your teacher right away if this happens again. But, I think I have an idea to make them leave you alone, for a while at least.”

Quirrel looked up with his big wide eyes. “How?

She grinned back at him. “How about we conduct a little experiment?”

---

“Hey! Nerd!”

Quirrel paused, holding his box snugly to his chest. He slowly turned around to find his tormentors right behind him. These were three larger students that smashed his project the other day. He could tell they were angry. Even though he didn’t turn in his project yesterday, it seemed like they still got low marks...and now they were going to take it out on him. Of course, they cornered him in the alley, away from prying adult eyes. They always bullied him away from any sort of help.

“Whatcha got here, shrimp? Did you make your project again? Trying to show us up?” The largest bug demanded, deliberately bumping into the pillbug and making him stumble.

“I think he did.” The second and third bug closed in. “It must make him happy to make us look bad.”

“No! I don’t!” Quirrel protested. He stood up as straight as he could and puffed up a little, just like mama told him to.

“Don’t talk back to us, speck!” The largest bug grabbed the box and tossed it to the ground. “Come on boys, seems little Quirrly needs another lesson on what we do to know-it-alls around here!”

As soon as the big bugs stepped around the box, Quirrel retreated to a safe distance. The bullies were so focused on the box that they didn’t notice Monomon drift around the building to stand with her son, looping a tentacle around his shoulders.

“Watch,” She whispered.

Quirrel did watch, paying attention as all three bullies raised their legs at the same time and brought their feet down as hard as they could on the box.

There was a second where nothing happened, and then came a popping BOOM as the package exploded. Bright pink glitter and glue flung itself out of the box with the force of the explosion and utterly covered the bullies with a liberal coating of sparkles. Squealing in panic and fear, Quirrel watched as the three stumbled over themselves, tripping and rolling as they tried to escape. They finally flung themselves down the alley as fast as they could, still sliding around on loose glitter and glue as the fled out into the crowded streets.

It only took a moment to hear a roar of laughter echo off into the distance, most likely chasing the three bullies no matter where they tried to run.

Quirrel fell down, laughing so hard he couldn’t keep standing. Monomon looked down at her son with pride, trying to also keep her laughing in.

“Boom! That’s a victory in my book! Let’s see them mess with you again, eh?”

Quirrel nodded as he tried to hold in his giggles. He found himself being picked up and brushed off by his mother, setting him up on her shoulder.

“Come now, let's have a talk with your teacher, shall we?”

Quirrel nodded, and both mother and son left the ally, leaving their ingenious trap behind them.