Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Guardian's ears prick up upon hearing a familiar voice.

"This has to be the worst day of my life." The voice groans.

"Maybe for you." Another voice chirps.

"Will you stop following me you annoying dog."

"Rude."

"You know one of these devices is quite lonely, want to climb on one?"

"Fuck you." The second voice grumbles and stomps out.

The door opens and Guardian's viewpoint of Lenny has changed after this discovery. The tall tubby obviously is ill tempered due to how pissed off he became at an orange tubby for taking his knife.

But now he looked ill tempered and into mad science.

He shuts the door with his foot then leans against it, staring straight at him. Lenny seemed to act that Guardian finding out his cruel experiments was just an inconvenience on his day. It's almost uncomfortable how long he has been looking at him.

"How tight are the knots?"

The white tubby is taken off guard by this sudden question.

"Why?"

Lenny doesn't answer, instead he squints at him in an angry manner. After a few seconds, Guardian realized he wasn't going to speak until he answered his question.

"Tight enough I suppose." He certainly couldn't loosen them, his claws wouldn't even be able to cut it.

He can't help but glance at the torture table. Lenny follows his nervous gaze.

"I'm not going to strap you to it if that's what you're worried about."

Guardian finally took the risk of making eye contact with him.

...

"...I told you not to worry about it."

That sentence was enough to send shivers down his spine in an unpleasant way. He was addressing why he's here.

"S...Someone screamed! How could I NOT worry?!"

Lenny raises an eyebrow.

"Where did the newborn even go?!" Guardian began to get frustrated that the indigo tubby wasn't responding vocally.

"There you go again, worrying about it." His face relaxed, shaking his head.

"Stop trying to ditch the subject!" Guardian glared at him, starting to get really frustrated.

Instead of getting angry like he assumed he would, Lenny repeated his eyebrow raise from before. Then the corner of his mouth twitched, he turns his body away. Making a quiet sound.

At first Guardian had no idea what he was doing, but he listened carefully, straining his ears. When he did catch it, he almost couldn't believe it.

The quiet noise...was Lenny chuckling.

"What the heck is so funny?!"

Lenny shakes his head.

"Sorry, but its hard to take you seriously when your fur fluffs up."

Guardian's face flushes in embarrassment.

"If you're not going to strap me down, then what is going to happen?"

The taller man has managed to regain his composure, "The captain has not decided yet."

"...Have you all really been in on everything?" Has he really made everything worse by contacting the military?

Lenny studied him for a few minutes, maybe thinking if he should answer or not.

"The real world is a tough one Snowball." Lenny heads toward the door, ignoring the annoyed expression.

Guardian sighed and could only wait. He must have fell asleep because he woke up to a door opening. He squinted tiredly.

He didn't get the chance to see the figure, he only focused on the sharp sting on his shoulder. Guardian didn't remember what happened next, the next second the room was bright and he could only assume it was a dream.

Though he strangely wasn't hungry, in fact he felt like he had just barely eaten.

It felt like it had been hours before the door opened again.

Guardian narrows his eyes waiting for a reaction.

The tubby takes his time shutting the door and focusing his attention on anything but him.

"How are the ropes today?"

Guardian sighed, "Same as yesterday, what makes you think it's changed?"

"I wanted to make sure they were tightened back up." Lenny looked down at the wide square thing he's holding.

"...What are you talking about?"

"It'll take too much time to explain."

"...Fine, what are you holding?"

Lenny looks at him then back at the object, "It's none of your business."

Guardian bites down on the urge to get angry at him for avoiding his questions.

"You're a complete dick."

"I've been told that." Lenny smiles slightly.

"Do you really expect me to just sit here and do nothing?" He groans.

"Well, you had no problem sitting in the sewers every hour and every day."

"That's different." Guardian huffed, uncomfortable shifting on his seat.

"It's more comfortable sitting in that chair compared to being strapped down." He smiles again, greatly unnerving the white teletubby. "It's like laying on broken rocks and between all the struggling they do...it hurts more."

Guardian stills.

"So I suggest acting a bit more grateful you're not strapped down." Lenny's expression morphed into an almost angry glare.

Without another word, he turned his back to him and seemed to be thinking. Then surprisingly left.

Guardian could only guess how much time had passed based on his hunger and how tired he got.

It started to hurt, it's not like he didn't eat underground, he'd quickly grab a bag of chips before quickly returning to his seat.

He had to wait, was he really to die of starvation in a chair? Guardian never believed in the thoughts of humiliating ways to die..

But dying like this would definitely be embarrassing, almost dying to infected and he dies like this.

He desperately lifts his head when he hears the door open.

Chapter Text

“You look more pale than usual.” Lenny observed.

Guardian was honestly too weak to respond, so the scientist continued.

“In prisons some teles use starvation as a punishment.”

“What…?” He shakes his head. “What the heck did I do?”

A small smile forms on his face. “Oh, nothing. I just wanted to see your reaction.”

The fluffy teletubby is stunned into silence. 

…WHAT?!

Then surprisingly, Lenny untied his wrists.

“Okay, get up, I’ll feed you at the cafeteria.”

Guardian seriously did not like how Lenny phrased that. It’d make sense if you said that to a child or a pet.

Which he was neither.

But his legs wobbled as he tried to stand up. And felt like throwing up.

He would have fallen forward if it wasn’t for Lenny grasping his hoodie.

“I was going to see how funny it would be to watch you fall but I can’t risk you breaking your jaw.”

Guardian just mumbled about how much of an asshole Lenny is.

His insides felt like they were shifting, because of how fast Lenny decided to pick him up.

Guardian forgets much of the time in where Lenny took him. 

And what he ate.

But next time he started paying attention again, he groaned at the sight of the chair.

He hated chairs now with a burning passion. He was painfully sore from that cursed wooden thing.

“Sorry, snowball, but you must understand why I don’t trust you off that chair unsupervised.” He begins the process of tying him back up. “You’ll run off and while you’re too weak to get away from soldiers or literally anyone, but you’ll also… annoy me.”

Then he lowered his voice, “ And someone in your position should avoid annoying me .”

Guardian tensed then Lenny just simply smiled before leaving the room.

Well he actually stopped at the doorway, “Before I forget, either I will wait for you to get some kind of sickness, or I will have to influence the process myself.”

“What?! Why?!” Guardian wondered what events could lead a man to being this insane.

“Well, I’m curious how your mind can handle being sick while dealing with sleep deprivation. Usually the transformed test subjects would rather go limp and wait for death.” He could hear the smile in his voice. “But, don’t worry, I won’t force you to be awake until I see a sign of something like a fever.”

Yeah, sure like that will help him calm down.

The next days were full of dread and every time three days would pass Lenny would drag him to the ‘public’ restroom to forcibly wash him. (like he did the first day Guardian came to the base)

“There is no way I’m tormenting myself by letting you smell and look the same way when you arrived here.”

“Yeah, thanks for your concer-ack!” He sputters as water from the hose gets in his mouth.

“I keep telling you to keep your mouth shut.” Lenny scolds him as if he’s six.

Guardian half covers his mouth, “Can you at least not turn it up so high, the water is too hot.”

Lenny raises an eyebrow. “High?” He puts a finger on the side of the hose, looking like he was about to raise the goddamn temperature.

Guardian almost slipped as he wrapped his arms around himself. “That’s not an invitation to make it worse!”

The scientist just simply smirked at him and did not remove his gloved finger making the white tele paranoid, hyper focusing on his hand.

Finally he turned it off and threw a towel at him. Guardian muffled a noise of annoyance but glad he was allowed to do one simple task by himself.

The second he was done drying his fur, his hoodie was thrown at his face.

“Can’t you just hand over items like a normal teletubby?” He grumbled, pulling it over his head.

“I suppose I could, but it’d be boring.” Like last time, Lenny was not gentle at all about brushing his fur, but it was less painful since the first time his fur was a tangled mess along with the remaining mess that the water and soap couldn’t get out.

Like…bugs, dirt and other gross stuff.

“If you hadn’t been so focused on drying every strand of fur, it wouldn’t be hurting.”

“Why didn’t you tell me then?!”

“Well, it’s more of an inconvenience for you than me, so I didn’t find it necessary.”

“Jerk.” Guardian mumbled, ears folding back.

It reminded Lenny of his cat when he would hear Miles’s loud voice.

“You look like a cat.”

“What the heck is a cat?”

Lenny ignored his simple minded question.

It even hurt when the tall tele put his long fur back into the ponytail.

“Ow! Why do you have to be so rough about it?!”

“God, you complain so much.”

By the end of it Guardian’s scalp hurt, he hated the chair, but he hated the fur treatment more.

He wouldn’t even dream of trying to get out of Lenny’s dragging grasp, as anyone would be, he was scared of Lenny’s temper snapping.

And doubted he could get anywhere with military personnel everywhere.

Guardian screamed in response to hearing a roar of rage and malice. He didn’t have time to run, he for some reason turned.

Laa-Laa’s clawed hand pinned his throat, her good eye glaring angrily at him. He tries to pry her arm away, but him touching her angered her even more.

The second she felt his touch, she screamed and scratched at his neck with her free hand while using her now taller body to keep his form from escaping.

Guardian shrieked and choked on his own blood, tears wet his face as his body filled with pain and self loathing.

I-m sorry but please stop.

P…Please stop!

Guardian’s scream shifted from painful to…muffled? Something soft was moving on his face. He didn’t know what the other sounds around him were at first.

“Shh, it’s okay, you’re just having a nightmare.”

He began to realize what was on his face was a hand caressing.

“It’s not real.”

He opened his eyes, but he couldn’t really see anything. Probably because his head was being held against something warm.

Guardian shakily lets out a breath, the heartbeat was as soothing as the voice.

That’s…right. He never ran into Laa-Laa, he sneaked past her. And while his throat did ache, it didn’t hurt like someone had torn through it.

The hand moved to brush against his forehead.

“Now, snowball, don’t fall asleep again. Despite that you had a nightmare, you’ll probably appreciate them after the experiment.”

The voice dropped the calming tone to a more familiar casual one.

One that made him freeze and slowly look up.

Even though he was wearing a gentle smile, Lenny’s words filled him with dread.

Chapter Text

Tisa winces as she hears a blow horn from the room she’s approaching.

A cry of pain follows it. 

She opens the door with her shoulder. Lenny is leaning against the wall, next to the chair the white teletubby is once again tied up to.

He’s looking down at the iPad-like device that he uses to keep an eye on all the test subjects. A blow horn is sitting on the empty experimentation table.

She spares a glance at Guardian who looks like the exact definition of miserable. His face was flushed from the fever that was getting worse. Despite the fact that washing did help teles with things like fevers, not having a healthy sleep cycle would still not help you get better.

He would occasionally cough roughly. His ears were folded back from the loud pain of the horn.

“Did you really have to hurt his poor ears?” Tisa put a smile in her voice.

“I got bored of poking him with pins.” Lenny droned, half listening to her.

“Not to rain on your fun, but don’t you think someone should have a quick look at him?” She was a bit concerned with his appearance.

Lenny glances over at the fluffy teletubby who was trying to find a comfortable position while holding back tears. He also moved his head a lot, probably trying to get that comfortable as well.

He puts the device down next to the horn, he stills his head movement and tilts his head back until it can’t go any further.

Guardian’s face is wrapped up in discomfort, clearly not liking this position of his head.

“Sorry, is this uncomfortable?” Lenny asked as if Guardian could even understand what the taller was saying.

No test subject ever remembers what happens after this test and is unable to even understand anyone. Words are a distorted mix of sounds especially when it comes to Lenny’s methods to keep them awake.

“You’re probably going to miss being sick.” He ruffles his cloudy colored fur then lets his head move freely again.

“Yeah, maybe you will.” Tisa scoffs.

“I just prefer no complaining and he happens to do that every second he breathes.” 

She once again looks at Guardian’s face, “You sure you won’t accidentally kill him?”

Lenny huffs. “Tisa I always take care of what belongs to me.”

“Alright, fine.” She shuts the door behind her and walks off to leave a note for Gary when he wakes up.

Guardian tiredly opened his eyes but not as tired as he had been.

“Morning sleepyhead.” 

Despite being tired, he’s still startled by Lenny already in the room.

Guardian squints his eyes at him, not out of any anger though. Lenny seemed to be closely examining something with a liquid inside.

“What is that?”

“I liked it better when you didn’t ask questions.” He murmured but loud enough for Guardian to hear.

“Excuse me?!” What the heck happened while he felt like hell and barely there?

“Sorry, didn’t mean to let that slip out.” The tall teletubby smirked slightly, letting Guardian know he fucking did.

“Can you just tell me what it is?” The white tele grumbles.

“We seriously need to work on that annoying behavior of yours, but let’s say if I poured this on you, you would get really bad burns, it would even show under your fluffy fur.” 

His annoyance quickly dipped into pure terror as he tried to melt into the chair.

Lenny just laughed at his reaction, “Oh calm down snowball, I’m not going to hurt you.”

He walks over to him and pets his fur, “Unless you give me a reason to.” He raises an eyebrow as if asking if he was going to.

Frustration at the situation mixed with him still being tired, he shakes his head around.

“Okay, snowball, you need to calm-” Lenny went to still his rapid head movement, but cut himself off when he felt teeth grip onto his wrist.

He stared down at the exhausted teletubby for several seconds. Then his arm. The air was tense, Lenny didn’t react the way Guardian expected him to.

He didn’t show any sign of pain, let out a sound.

He smiled.

It wasn’t one of his normal ones, this one was strained, it was strange.

Lenny’s gentle touch on his head shifted into an angry tug as he yanked his head back.

The fluffy tele shrieked as his head hit the wall. In these painful seconds, his smile had vanished and was replaced with an outraged expression.

“ Do not bite me as if you’re some rabid dog or I will treat you like one, do you fucking understand? ” 

It felt like his blood had turned cold. The grip tightened when he didn’t answer.

“Are you FUCKING deaf?!” Lenny slams his head backwards, causing him to cry out. “When I ask you a question, you answer it!”

“Y-Yes!” It was hard to talk through the pain.

“Yes what ?”

“Wh-” Guardian screams again as his head is tugged again.

“Have you forgotten how to speak in full sentences? You’ve been doing it for your whole damn time here!”

He got the sudden terrifying image of Lenny pouring that liquid from earlier on him.

“Y-Yes I-under…unders…understand!”

He nearly cried in relief when the tugging stopped and was replaced by tender massaging at his throbbing scalp. But yet some parts of him weren’t aware the pain had even stopped.

Lenny couldn’t help but pity the poor thing, all he did was whip his head around and he already was very affected.

He kneels down so they’re at eye level, he takes off one of his gloves to caress his face. Guardian tensed at first, but slightly relaxes when he realizes this touch isn’t meant to hurt him.

“Look snowball, I’m sorry I hurt you, but certain actions have to be punished. Especially if you decide to bite.” He smiles a bit at the white tele’s sleepy expression. “I can see you’re still tired, so I’ll let you off this once.”

Lenny stands, slipping his glove back on as he did. Already missing the softness of his face before he ordered himself to get rid of the thought. He shuts off the light as he left.

Guardian groans in slight annoyance when someone wakes him up by ruffling his fur.

“Wake up sleepyhead unless if you actually want to go without food again.”

He forces an eye open to see Lenny was eye level with him smiling.

It was strange since the scientist hours ago was pissed off with him and now he’s all smiles again. Better than the outraged look.

“What time is it?” Guardian mumbles, looking around the still dark room.

“It’s about nine o’clock. PM.” Lenny unties his arms and pulls him off the chair.

Guardian stumbles and grabs onto the other’s lab coat for balance.

It strangely goes silent and Lenny seems to…pause. He looked up, the tall teletubby was staring ahead at the wall. He appeared as if he’s confused and thinking.

Then he shakes his head.

“There’s no weapons or keys in there if that’s what you’re looking for.” His tone was a mix of confusion and suspicion. 

“My legs are just shaky, it's your fault for tying me up to a chair.” 

“Would you rather be on the floor?”

Heck no, that would be humiliating.

“I’ll look into this shaky problem of yours that won’t involve me breaking your legs if you attempt to run off.” Lenny pulls him along while Guardian shudders.