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The boot crashes down on the ground just a few feet in front of the porch that Kipp has managed to shove his body beneath. He holds his breath, watching as the giant kneels and looks around the neighborhood he’s cornered him in.
Kipp had been looking for a place to spend the night (what was left of it anyway, at about four in the morning) when he’d come across what appeared to be an abandoned town, made of mismatched houses spread out across a swath of land otherwise desolate. There’d been obvious signs of giants, but he’d thought that surely he could find an empty house and hunker down in it for the rest of the evening before anyone caught him–but no. He’d gone from door to door, shocked to find them all locked when he tugged on the knobs on both the front and back doors, and that was when he’d been spotted.
Kipp had just kicked a door, hard in his frustration, when he heard a booming, ‘ hey !’, rumble like thunder above him. He saw the blond giant, then took off running, throwing himself off the porch of that house and running deeper into the odd little ‘town’, launching his thin body across the ground as fast as he could manage. The aches and pains he knew he’d be feeling later would be preferable to being killed by a giant.
He’d only managed to (temporarily) lose the giant by sliding beneath a truck after running around it. His next step had been to run to a house with a crawl space beneath its porch, and shove his body into the narrow space. He finds himself shuddering now, peering out and up at the giant from between the steps on the porch. He wishes he had a gun, or even a knife better than the dull one he uses as a tool more than a weapon, but he’d been looted (and thankfully left alive) by raiders just a few days earlier.
The giant has tousled blond hair, mismatched eyes (one green, one blue), and two thin scars over his lips, and he’s probably in his 20s or 30s at the oldest, if Kipp had to guess. He would be beautiful, if Kipp didn’t know that the worst giants usually are. Kipp sinks back when the booming footsteps recede, not moving until he can’t hear them anymore. He slips out slowly, looking around, then freezes, staggering back at first at the sight of another giant. This one is older: gray hair, kind eyes, and an expression between surprise and concern on his face. He and Kipp stare at each other for a moment, the giant looking unsure, before he raises his hands–as if in defeat–then lowers himself down to the ground on one knee.
“You alright?” The giant asks him, slowly lowering his hands back towards the ground, and Kipp hesitates. He’s beautiful too, even if he’s a bit older than the other giant had been. So many giants are though, and they use it to get what they want out of naive humans. Kipp has seen what happens to naive humans.
Kipp hears booming in the distance, then practically sprints up to the giant.
“ Please,” he shouts up at him, “Please, there’s another one, he’s going to kill me, please get me away from here,” he says, barely able to breathe.
The giant’s brows furrow, and he looks around, confused. “Another what-… Another giant? Shit,” he grumbles out softly. The look that he casts down at Kipp then is almost apologetic, like he hates what he’s about to say.
“I need to get you somewhere safe, okay? I’m not going to hurt you, but just stay still for me,” Kipp stays still only because he doesn’t have much time to react before he’s being gently scooped into the giant’s grasp. The giant keeps his fingers gently wrapped around Kipp’s body for just a moment before sliding him slowly onto his opposite palm.
“Don’t move, alright? I’m going to walk and I don’t want to risk dropping you. Are you comfortable?”
Kipp can’t respond at first. He’s never been in a giant’s hand like this before. It’s unnatural, is all that he can think. He can feel the warm palm beneath him, the faint pulse beneath the skin, and he almost wants to cry–an unnatural reaction for him, to say the least, but it’s overwhelming. He manages to nod, at least, saving himself some embarrassment.
The giant smiles warmly down at him. “You’re doing great. First time being picked up?”
“Yeah,” Kipp breathes out as the giant walks towards the opposite end of town. Kipp is so distracted by the way the giant’s breathing rumbles in the chest he’s held just in front of, the way his words are so smooth and calm and reassuring despite the obvious concern in his voice, that he doesn’t notice the other giant until he’s right there in front of them.
“Oh fuck,” Kipp gasps quietly, backing up until he almost tumbles off of the giant’s palm and into his chest.
The older giant gently nudges him back towards the center of his palm, trying to reassure him that it’s fine, but it is clearly not fine.
“There’s another giant around,” the older giant tells the blond one. “Found this guy trying to run away from him.”
“ Shit, ” the blond giant hisses out quietly. “Sorry,” he apologizes quickly to Kipp (for his language?). “I was just looking for a human I saw back on the edge of town. I didn’t see any giant leave, but he could be shrunken down, hiding. Better find that human before he shows his face, then.”
Kipp can’t do anything but stare up at the two in horror now, trembling softly on the older giant’s palm. This doesn’t go unnoticed by either of them.
“Just put him in your pocket,” the blond one suggests. “You’ll be safe in there, I promise, Rowan’s a careful guy. I’ve heard his jacket is cozy, too. You look like you need some sleep.” He speaks so calmly, so evenly, down to Kipp that for a moment Kipp thinks it can’t be the giant who just chased him across town.
Rowan hesitates, then nods. “It’ll be alright,” he tries to reassure Kipp, but Kipp feels his whole body growing tense, as Rowan starts to move him towards his jacket pocket.
The space inside is cozy, but not tight or restrictive, lined with a smooth, soft fabric that feels good against Kipp’s skin. Maybe it’s just cleaner than things he’s worn before, but it feels so nice. He can hear their voices above him, muffled only slightly by the fabric around him, Rowan’s voice vibrating his whole body from his spot in the pocket. He’ll probably have to tell them that the blond giant was the one he was running from, but he can do that later. For now, he leans back and slowly starts to relax, dozing off finally in the warm pocket while the two giants search the town.