Chapter Text
Skwisgaar hated his mother.
Serveta was gone again, no surprise, leaving her ten-year-old son home alone. Skwisgaar was used to it at this point; she’d started staying away for days at a time when he was around seven years old. The longest she was ever gone was a week, and during that time, little Skwisgaar had to teach himself how to use the oven and get ready for school on his own.
Serveta’s hobby was hooking up with younger men, getting wasted and wandering around the city in broken heels. It’s no wonder she doesn’t know who Skwisgaar’s father is, half her life has been one big black out.
Fall was turning into winter and Skwisgaar sat on the couch, staring out the window at the flakes of snow cascading down from above and creating piles on the ground. He sighed and wondered if he should build a fire, as he was getting cold. He decided that he was far more tired than anything, so he neglected to make a fire and took himself up to bed.
The young boy felt much older than he was as he climbed the stairs alone. Skwisgaar dressed himself for bed and brushed his teeth. He studied the messy blond tresses that hung to his chin and ruffled them with his hand. He didn’t feel like brushing his hair, and there was no adult to make him.
Skwisgaar walked to his bedroom window and stared outside at the billowing trees coated with layer upon layer of snow. He didn’t usually mind the cold, but he was beginning to hate it. He hated living there, with or without his mother.
He climbed into bed and shut his eyes, willing sleep to take over and bring him to a different place, a better place.
THUMP.
Skwisgaar shot up in bed and looked around. He hadn’t been asleep for more than a few moments when he heard a crash resound from somewhere inside the house. His heart was racing, his mother never returned in the middle of the night.
Skwisgaar hesitantly slid out of bed and crept as carefully as he could to his door. He pulled it open cautiously and poked his head out, looking for an intruder. All he saw was pitch blackness on the upper level, but he could see a small flicker of light from the stairs. He summoned his courage and walked slowly over to the landing.
He tried to hide when he saw movement. He crouched down as low as he could and peered between the bars of the railing. There was definitely someone in his house. The figure below in the Skwigelf’s living room was small, like Skwisgaar, and was tooling around a flashlight and rummaging through things occasionally slipping an object or two into his rucksack.
Skwisgaar’s eyes widened, he was being robbed by another kid. He stood up and descended the stairs quickly and quietly, sneaking up behind the intruder. The child bent down to grab something off the ground and Skwisgaar pounced on him.
The boy gasped and yelped when they hit the ground. The flashlight went flying out of his hand and landed a few feet away. They were left in darkness, and neither could see the other. He wriggled beneath Skwisgaar as the other pinned him to the floor, sitting on him to still the movement.
“Vad gör du?” Skwisgaar growled into the boy’s ear, leaning in close.
“What?” A much higher pitched voice asked.
Skwisgaar became confused, “Doesn’t you speak Swedish? What ams you doing?” He didn’t loosen his grip, but waited with interest to hear the criminal’s story.
“I didn’t knows anyones was home! I’m sorries!” The boy twisted and writhed wildly to break free but Skwisgaar held firm.
“Oh, rights. So that makes it okays then, huh? Pfft. Yous trying to steal things which ams mine. Too bad I caught yous.” Skwisgaar chucked darkly, feeling powerful.
The kid huffed and with a great heave, pushed Skwisgaar off and wrested him onto his back. The boys tussled and brawled for a moment, trying to claw each other’s eyes out or pull on hair and ears. Eventually the stranger pinned Skwisgaar on his back and crawled over him.
Skwisgaar’s head had fallen back into the beam of light left from the discarded flashlight. He was then able to see the intruder’s face. The boy that loomed over him had straight brown hair that fell to his chin, and was softly mussed up from the struggle. He had icy blue eyes and gentle face, which was set into an almost comically stern expression. His clothing was tattered and dirty, hanging off his body as he was far too skinny for it.
“I’m going to leaves now, just let me, okays? I’ll puts yous stupid stuff back, it probablys wouldn’t haves gotten me much monies anyway.” He hissed slowly and quietly.
“Who ams you? Whys you doing this?” Skwisgaar had a lot of questions. He couldn’t fathom why such a young boy would commit a robbery, or why he needed money in the first place. He wanted to know about this kid’s backstory, he was very intriguing to him.
The kid rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter who I ams. I ran away and I need monies to keep going. I didn’t sees a fire or a light, so I comes in here. Happy?” He pulled his bag off his shoulder and held it upside down, shaking out the contents onto the carpet beside Skwisgaar’s head. Out came a couple wadded krona notes, some of his mother’s china, and assorted jewelry.
The boy climbed off of Skwisgaar and bolted to the door. He left without looking back or shutting the door behind him.
Skwisgaar sat in stunned silence while the cool night air came through the door and blustered across his face.
___
The intrusion had him feeling uneasy all the next day. He didn’t sleep all night and thought the next night would be similar. It wasn’t necessarily fear that he was feeling, more like… jealousy?
He wanted more than anything to get away from his mom. He was tired of being ignored and feeling lonely. This kid was able to get away, why couldn’t he? It would be easy. She wouldn’t even notice.
Skwisgaar stood abruptly and with purpose from his bed when he realized what he had to do. He marched over to his closet and selected a backpack. He packed the moss green canvas bag full of clothes and snacks. He wandered into his moms room with the bag secured on his back, and found her ‘secret’ box where she hid cash. Skwisgaar never knew where she got it from, or what she had to do to get it. However it would generally disappear pretty quickly to fund her intoxicants.
Skwisgaar said his final goodbyes to the only home he’d ever known and headed into town to buy essentials for his journey.
He passed many people on the streets of town that he’d known growing up. They nodded and waved at him as they’d always done, not knowing what Skwisgaar had just run away. Skwisgaar just plastered on a fake smile and greeted everyone as to not arouse suspicion.
He rounded a corner to go into a grocery store and passed an alleyway. He stopped in his tracks and peered into it because a heap of fabric had caught his eye.
It seemed to be some homeless person bundled up in slumber. Skwisgaar thought that he too would need to have a blanket. He began to panic slightly, he didn’t want to have to sleep outside, and he didn’t want to go hungry. Just before he turned away the person stirred and looked over at him.
It was the boy that broke into his house.
The kid widened his eyes at the sight of Skwisgaar and scrambled to stand. He quickly looked around only to realize it was a dead end and he had nowhere to go.
Skwisgaar raised his hands in silent surrender but it did no good. The boy bolted towards the exit but Skwisgaar blocked his path, grabbing his shoulders and once again tackling him to the ground. The kid whimpered and tried to maneuver himself into a position of power.
“Hey, stops that!” Skwisgaar grabbed the boys flailing arms and pushed them into the snow dusted concrete.
“I’m sorries, I’m sorries!” The kid repeated, frightened.
“I don’ts care that you tried to rob me! I wants to talk to yous.” Skwisgaar near growled with effort to suppress the boys thrashing.
The child stilled. “You ams not mad at mes?”
“No.”
The stranger took a deep breath and waited.
“I’m going to get off yous now okay? Don’ts go runningsk away, I’ll catch you.” Skwisgaar dismounted cautiously, ready to grab him again if necessary.
The kid rolled out from under Skwisgaar and sat up. He stared at Skwisgaar still looking nervous. “Yes?” he said softly.
“What ams your name?” Skwisgaar asked pleasantly.
The boy squinted suspiciously. “…Toki.”
Skwisgaar grinned. “Hey, Toki. I ams Skwisgaar.”
Toki looked at his hands shyly. “Skwisgaar.” He repeated quietly.
“You ran away?”
Toki nodded.
“From where? Where ams you goingsk?”
Toki looked up at him thoughtfully. “I ams from Norway, I wants to go to America.”
Skwisgaar looked confused. “Wells, then you ams going the wrong way.” He said matter-of-factly.
Toki scowled. “No, I’ms not, look.” He crawled over to his discarded bag and pulled out a piece of folded paper. He unfolded it to its maximum size, revealing a map of the world. He indicated Norway on the map. “Sees, look. I need to go to Sweden first so I can cross into Denmark-“
“Pfft. The Dutch.”
Toki looked at Skwisgaar quizzically before continuing, “…And then I can go downs to France and hopefullies have enough monies for a boat rides to America bys then.” He dragged his finger across all the points on the map. He smiled at Skwisgaar when he was finished, excited.
Skwisgaar thought for a moment. It would certainly be easier to run away if he had a friend with him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the wad of money from his mom’s stash. “Is this enough?”
Toki’s eyes doubled in size and he gasped. “Oh my gods, Skwisgaar where dids you finds that!”
“Doesn’t matter.” Skwisgaar shrugged and put it back in his pocket. “Why did you run away?”
Toki’s face relaxed. “Doesn’t matter.” He grabbed a corner of his blanket and began to roll it up. “Are you sayinsk that you wants to help mes?”
“Not really, I wants to join you. I wants to run aways, too.”
Toki tucked the blanket and map into his bag and pulled it onto his shoulders. He looked at Skwisgaar seriously, “It’s not any fun. I’ve been doing this for months, I’ve lost count…”
“Anything ams better that livingsk at my house. Please, Toki? Can I come with yous?” Skwisgaar pouted slightly and hoped.
Toki stood up and offered his hand to Skwisgaar. “If you can keeps up.”
Skwisgaar beamed and grabbed the other boy’s hand, pulling himself up. They began to walk together out of the alleyway and into the grocery store adjacent. Skwisgaar grabbed a couple bottles of water and looked at Toki. “Do you know where yous wants to go in America?”
Toki shrugged and shook his head.
“How abouts Florida? I hear it’s really warms there, all the times. Insteads of freezing like Sweden.”
Toki smiled. “Ahh, okay. Yeah, it ams reallys cold here. Rule one: Always have a blanket.”
Skwisgaar trailed after Toki as he began to walk again. “What’s rule two?”
Toki stopped and stared at him. He looked all around and leaned into Skwisgaar’s personal space. He grabbed the bottles of water from Skwisgaar and whispered. “Rule two: Run!” Toki turned on his heel and took off running. He bolted out of the store and Skwisgaar stared with his mouth agape. He ran in the same direction as Toki and found him catching his breath a few blocks down.
Skwisgaar stared, frightened, at Toki. “What… was… thats??” He panted.
Toki grinned with furrowed brows, “Rule threes: Don’t… gets… caught.” He tossed a bottle at Skwisgaar and they both took a sip, exhausted and afraid.