Chapter Text
Astra growled as she stalked up the stairs from the basement. The stupid overseer she just left in the dark had laughed when she demanded to know what they’d done, simply cackling and telling her that ‘she’d see’.
Astra hated cryptics as much as she hated overseers. Mix them together and you have a perfect recipe for giving her a migraine.
With a sigh, she pushed open the door to the foyer, quickly catching sight of Mara and Alexis, the only two other people seemingly unaffected by whatever the hell had happened. Alexis didn’t even look up from where she was talking to a small someone upon Astra’s arrival.
“Hey, can you go grab a trolley of kids' clothes from storage?” Astra blinked.
“Yeah, sure. Uh, why?” She asked curiously as she formed a portal to where she last remembered seeing old supplies. Alexis turned around and Astra blinked as she saw a small boy tucked into the other’s arms. The boy looked up to her and waved shyly.
“Hewo.” He smiled into Alexis’ shoulder, blue eyes sparkling even as he hid his face. Astra’s heart softened just a little and she didn’t ask any further questions as she stepped through the portal.
She could hear Mara asking why they had kid sized clothes, but she didn’t listen to Alexis’ response. She knew it would be something along the lines of ‘the Agency’s first floor was used as a temporary shelter during the war’, which technically wasn’t inaccurate, but it also brushed over the fact that several agents (or maybe just Diamos and Sterling) had a habit of bringing strays home… Astra shook that thought from her mind as she pulled a trolley of clothes behind her back into the foyer.
“Alright kiddos, do any of you know how big your clothes are?” At this point, a sea of small heads had popped up from what Astra had initially thought were her friend’s empty clothes. Astra was suddenly hit with a bad feeling she knew what was happening, and she did not like it.
“Imma twee!” A small voice called proudly from near Mara, who was sitting between two groups of kids. A boy with fluffy blonde hair and a smattering of freckles was standing in a sea of clothes, waving at Alexis. Catching her gaze, Mara offered Astra a small shrug, before squeaking as a bundle of clothes smacked into her face.
“Hey!”
“Help him get dressed.” Alexis said dryly, before two more sets of clothes hit Mara’s chest. The dark haired girl rolled her eyes before offering the clothes to the three kids clinging onto her. Astra looked closer with a pinched brow. The blonde boy with shiny green eyes, an older boy with dark skin and darker hair, and a little girl with strawberry coloured hair and pale skin.
“Are they…?”
“Benny, Vasilia and Champagne? Yeah.” Mara pulled a face as Benny pulled away from her, face scrunched up as she tried to wriggle a shirt over his head.
“Don’ like wed!” He pouted, lisp slurring his words. Mara sighed and looked helplessly over at Alexis, who took pity on her and offered a green replacement. Benny, thankfully, was happy to wear that one.
“Astra, can you help the littles? I’m better with, uh, older kids.” She gestured to the kid in her arms, who Astra now guessed was probably a toddler Sterling. With a nod, her eyes scanned the room, noting the gaggle of kids surrounding Alexis before her gaze fell to where Heath’s clothes were bunched up. Kate was the only one near him when the overseer had apparently turned them little, but she saw there were two even smaller kids near them.
She gathered a few sizes of clothes, including onesies and nappies before slowly approaching the group. She huffed out a laugh as she saw a babified Jake try to pull Ana out of Heath’s pocket, only to be stuck himself in a sleeve. She went to help the two before a little hand grabbed her leggings. She looked down in surprise to see a brunette girl staring at her. Astra squatted down and raised an eyebrow at the kid.
“Hello there. Imma gonna assume you’re Kate, am I right?” The girl’s brow furrowed.
“Nah. Kitty. Not Kate.” She glared at Astra. Astra just nodded easily.
“Okay Kitty. Do you want to put on some clothes that fit you while I help the two little ones here?” Kate frowned as she thought.
“Help?” Now it was Astra’s turn to frown.
“Do you need help?” Kate shook her head.
“Help. You help.” She pointed to Ana and Jake. Understanding dawned in Astra and she nodded.
“Of course. I’m not going to hurt them. I’m just going to get them dressed in these onesies, okay?” She showed Kate the items of clothing, smirking at the intense concentration on the toddler’s face.
“Okay. Me has?” Jeez, how old were these kids?
“You want a onesie?” A nod. “Okiedokie, I can get you one in your size.” She winked at the girl before turning to Heath. He looked especially tiny compared to his normal 7’ frame, but was probably a similar age to Kate. He was fast asleep.
Astra huffed out a laugh before leaning back to grab two toddler-sized onesies. She gave one to Kate, watching with intrigue as the girl was able to dress herself. Astra had to suppress a coo at how cute the kid looked with her calm expression in a bright pink unicorn onesie. Next to them, a soft gurgle and sob drew Astra’s attention, and she sighed as she saw Jake even more entangled than when she’d looked away.
“Alright kiddo, let’s get you dressed too, m’kay?” She silently thanked the hours she’d spent with the younger rescuees. When she’d first joined the agency, she hadn’t been great with kids, but they were the only ones who didn’t look at her like she was going to kill them. So, she spent most of her time letting kids play with her hair and horns and tail while she looked after them. She smirked as Jake reached for her hair.
“Go-wee!” He gurgled, small hands making grabby motions.
“Yeah, it’s green.” She let him grab at it, her runes spinning as she pushed her hair to grow longer. It made her resemble a bush, with brown roots and green tips thanks to the rushed growth and the lack of sunlight, but it was fine when Ana also started playing with the fluff, giggling. Kate was watching curiously from where she was sitting next to Heath.
“Do you want to play with my hair too?” Astra asked as she spun Jake to button up his onesie, much to his disappointment. Kate let out a soft eep! before she covered her face with her hands. Astra decided to let her be, untangling the two gremlins tugging at her hair and placing them next to Kate before moving onto Heath. At the small hands touching her hair curiously, Kate looked up and then down at the babies surrounding her. She looked a little overwhelmed, but willingly sat still while the two explored.
“How are you so good with kids?” Astra looked up from where Heath was starting to squirm to see Mara-
“What happened?!” She cackled as she saw Mara’s hair an absolute mess with Vasilia clinging to it like it was the only thing keeping her alive, Champagne next to her on Mara’s shoulder, with Benny crying and trying to reach them, babbling. All the kids looked like they’d been crying.
“I don’t know! I was trying to keep them entertained, and dressed,” She muttered the last part, “and suddenly they were fighting! It’s not even a full moon so why are they-”
“Mara.” Astra halted her progressing spiral. “Have you asked them what happened?”
Mara stared at her like she was some kind of kid whisperer. Had the younger woman seriously never looked after kids before?
“Uh.” She blinked.
“Here. He’s sleepy, so just rock him and don’t drop him.” Astra passed Heath over to Mara as the boy tiredly sucked his thumb. Astra reached up and gently detangled Vasilia from Mara’s hair.
“Hey, kiddo, you can’t stay up there, but I’ve got somewhere a bit safer for you to sit, alright?” Vasilia struggled until she was placed on Astra’s own head. She immediately began playing with the already messed up hair as Astra tried to calm the screeching child on Mara’s shoulder.
“No! No! No! NO!” The boy chanted as he tried to kick Astra. Unfortunately, that unbalanced him and he tumbled toward the ground, leaving him open to Astra’s quick catch and successful prevention of both escape and brain damage.
“What’s wrong?” She asked softly as she held the kid in a tight hug. The boy tried to bite her shoulder, but a quick transition to scales stopped his small teeth from doing any real damage.
“Yuk.” He pulled a face, then glared at Astra.
“Do I have something on my face?” She asked lightly.
“Who are you?” He whined. Astra mentally smacked herself. Of course they were confused. She sighed and placed the kid down in front of her, squatting to be at eye level. She brought Vasilia down at the same moment, and smiled softly at them.
“I and these two lovely women are your friends. You’re currently being affected by an ability that makes you much smaller than you normally are. It makes sense for you not to trust us, but we really do just want to help you.”
Vasilia still looked confused and scared, and a thought suddenly hit Astra.
“Hey, can you understand us right now?” The girl looked up at her with wide gold eyes. Astra sighed again, running a hand nervously through her hair. Jeez, this was a mess.
“Okay, okay…” Her fingers danced over her arm, runes floating above her skin for barely a moment before she turned back to Vasilia.
“[Okay kiddo, can you understand me now?]” The girl looked shocked, but nodded.
“[You American but know russian?]” Her confusion was evident.
“[I’m full of surprises.] Hey Alexis! The lil’ kitten over here doesn’t understand English anymore.” A small tug on her leggings.
“[I can understand. But… can’t?]” Her face scrunched in frustration at her inability to explain what she was experiencing.
“[Okay, that’s okay. Would you prefer I speak russian or english?]”
“[Russian. Please.]” Astra nodded then updated the other two. Mara looked like she was going to respond when she suddenly froze, her head snapping to the hallway across from the front door. A few heartbeats later, Astra could hear what had gotten her attention. Soft footsteps. Instinctively, she moved in front of Mara and the kids near them, tail springing from her back and curling to keep the kids behind her.
“Uh, hello?” A cautious voice called, followed by a boy, around 7 if Astra had to guess, looked around the room, shifting uncomfortably at the tense atmosphere. He was wearing a too-big shirt with a belt tied around his neck as a make-shift tie to keep the shirt from falling off him.
“Who the heck is that?” Mara asked, confused. Astra blinked, then froze. No way. No way-
“Um, I’m Dresden. Dresden Oakland. Do you know where I am?” He winced. “That’s a stupid question, you clearly know where we are, um, where are we? And do you have a phone I can borrow to contact my parents? ‘Cause they’re probably… worried…” He trailed off and stared at them for a moment, before tensing.
“Wait, did you kidnap me? Have I been kidnapped? Is this what kidnappings are like? Oh fuck- I mean shit- wait no-” He stammered over his words. Astra barked out a laugh.
“No, kid, we didn’t kidnap you. You just have been affected by something that’s messed with your head a bit.”
“Did you drug me!?” Alexis sighed, looking like she’d be rubbing her head if she had a free arm. As it was, Kayla was sitting on her shoulders, Charlie curled around her shoulders like a cat, Sterling was still in one arm while Tayrun was hanging from the other. Instead of soothing her likely building headache, she turned to Astra with a long-suffering expression.
“When is this going to wear off.”
“Uh…” Astra shrugged sheepishly.
“In a few hours… to a few days.”
Alexis blinked slowly before letting out a long, long sigh.
“Great.”