Chapter Text
"Look how tiny he is!"
"What? The cat cut your tongue tiny"
"Come on, tiny we just want to play"
ZAAP!!
A strong electric current came from behind the group of four boys, in sync all four of them yelled in responde to the shock, with the blue light flickering from behind them to all the way around their bodies.
Once the shock had wore off them, they turned to see a tall redhead teen wearing a long black trench coat leaning by the doorframe of their shared bedroom, they stood frozen as if the electricity shock never left their bodies.
"Boo!!", the oldest teen leaned forward stompong his foot hard on the ground jump scaring all of them, resulting in them running away from the scene, he leaned more into the door frame giving now the rats scattered boys look like a window to escape, running pass him and out of the room.
The room fell into silent as it wasn't much, what you would expect from a low funded orphanage, it was the biggest room in the place yes, but over cramped with bunker beds side by side to wall from both left and right till the end of the room, enough beds to host exactly 12 kids, that made it very small with little room in the middle
Speaking of the middle of the room... the older teen carrying in his hand what looked like an egg, definitely not a normal egg, despite its size and color, a normal egg doesn't shock people (and make them dance in their place), took slow long strides and leaned forward at the young boy who is still curled up in a ball into himself.
"If you want to survive this place, you gotta be stronger than this young one".
The boy looked up from his ball and tilted his head.
"I'm not going to be around for long, so don't take me as a protector nor savior, I helped you, now you own me, that's how things work here"
The boy only stared confused
"You understand what I'm saying?"
The boy not looking older than 8 still looking with full confusion at him, and with the sun ray beaming from the window hitting his back, made him almost look like an angel of some sort.
His eyes only snapped away from him when the woman who had brought him into this room not few minutes ago, walked back into the room in a hurry only to take few steps away standing at the door frame, like she is scared to get any closer, but even with that she only had fury in her eyes.
"IVO GERALD ROBOTNIK!!! WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU AND YOUR GAMES!!!"
She yelled at the older teenager, not even bothered to look back at her, only a roll of his eyes is all she got.
"lucky for us, since you turning 18 soon we won't have to put up with you anymore".
She yelled once again taking few steps back before slamming the door shut with daggers for eyes was the last thing the boy saw before the door shut shaking the entire room.
"See what I mean by 'Im not going to be around for long'"
The so called Ivo now, said his last sentence with air quotes going back to stear down at the boy who is sitting on the floor with his knees tucked to his chest now. When did he move like this?
Yet again a moment of silent filled the room, what broke the silence was a big sigh coming from Ivo as he crouched down to be eye to eye with the little boy.
"Got a name?"
Ivo asked both elbows restings on his knees with his hands cupped in front of him, his body looked as if its fighting such a position keeping him as study as possible, he looked a bit uncomfortable being in such position but didn't care much.
The little boy just stared back at him, tilted his head once more in confusion
"So a cat did cut your tongue?"
The boy only darted his eyes away from his face to move and look at the egg in his hands.
It seemed as if he recognized the words he had heard from the other older boy, looking at the egg that shocked him and his other friends as he finished saying those words.
"Incredible isn't she?"
Ivo fidgeting the egg out of his hands to hold it in front of the boy to only be met with a flinch and eyes shut.
Ivo retrieved the egg away from the boy's face.
"She won't hurt you, that is unless I tell her so". Ivo said sarcastically with a grin on his face, but the boy still had his eyes shut.
He can recognize words, but not understand them nor respon to them, hmmm, Ivo thought to himself, he's either mute or probably doesn't speak English!!
"Wie heißen Sie?"
The boy buried his face between his knees in response to the more rough accent that was thrown at him.
Not German I see.
As the sun's ray moved away from the boy, moving up to blind Ivo slightly making him grunt and shut his eyes, as it continued going to his side, Ivo opened his eyes and took a better look at the boy.
The boy had a more obvious brown skin now with the sun being gone, as well for a very dark hair, not to also mention the doll brown eyes he had on him for sometime now.
"Cómo estás¿"
No responde from the boy, his body started shaking, whether it was from fear or cold since the ray of sun perhaps had kept him warm.
Okay that also didn't work.
"!!مرحبا"
With a singular word which Ivo was sure he didn't even pronounce the right way, but it made the boy snap his head back up, doll eyes back looking at Ivo, only now they had red to them, with tears traces down his cheeks whom got puffier and had more pink to them.
"!!م-مرحبا"
"AND HE SPEAKS!!!"
Ivo jumped back standing taller than ever as he threw his hands up to each side victorious, he looked down at the boy.
The poor kid was startled by the sudden move he was knocked back down, his hands behind him keeping up, with his legs now stretched in front of him.
Ivo's eyes only widened, he had only seen the boy being curled up into himself thus far, thinking thats what made him seem small, but even now the boy looked small, Shit he really is tiny.
Ivo started pacing in front of the boy with his hands to his hips, taking three to four steps and then taking a full turn in a very robotic way to take more three to four steps and then turn again, the zzzt zzzt zzzt noise he made at each turn was the only noise in the room, that is until-
Giggles escaped the little boy, obviously amused of how the Ivo's very robotic moves and noise that followed.
Ivo snapped out of his thinking to take a look at the source of the noise, as soon as he does though, the boy is quite again, tucking his knees back to his chest, but keeping his eyes on Ivo.
Ivo sighed a sigh yet again as he walked back to the boy, fully sitting down this time next to him to his left, on the hard floor crossed leged.
He nudged the little boy with his shoulder.
"أسم؟"
Yet another simple word had gained him a new reaction from the boy, as he turned his head fully right with a smile.
"أسمي أبان ستون"
That's progress.
Ivo shifted himself، lifting his crossed legs to fully turn to face the boy, who now is Aban Stone, tucking the small taser-egg in his lap, hiding it from sight not to scare Aban with it again, this time only offering his hand free, open, ready.
"اسمي أيفو روبوتنيك"
Aban freed himself to also turn to be facing Ivo, sitting now cross leged like him, he took his hand, so small and soft in contrast to the rough surface they made contact to.
Aban's smile only grew wider.
Ivo smiled back at him, still thinking of his next words to use, he knew studying more than one language was a necessity if he wanted to be the smartest man alive.
But even with that, he was still learning Arabic, hes vocabulary still surface level, still having troubles to pronounce some of the letters, perhaps I should've learned it before any other language!
Ivo let go of the Stone's hand, looking around them in the room, still trying to figure out his next words. He knew what he wanted to say, is finding the words themselves in another language what was difficult.
He looked back at Aban, the boy still had a smile on his face, the tears traces fading away, that's a good sign, and the clear patience the boy had was even a better sign, giving Ivo his time to put his words together, and sure he did.
"!!لن أبقى هون وقت طويل"
Ivo cringed a little at the way he said that one very annoying letter, Qaf, if he is not wrong its called.
Aban didn't respond, instead moved his head down facing the floor, clearly fighting tears, as he sniffs away the incoming flood.
"مش مشكلة"
Clearly a lie that seemed to not work in comforting himself with it, as the flood of tears came storming, his eyes leaked acid to the floor, trying his best to wipe them away.
Ivo just froze, he definitely wasn't prepared for this.
When he had heard a new kid came to the orphanage, to be his replacement as he was leaving soon, he wanted to make the most of his time before leaving thus place.
By making the new kid his personal assistant, help him pack his things, and his many many books, bring him the right tool as he works in the basement to update his machines, tricking the kid to be his servant for exchange of protection from the other boys, but this, this is not what he expected at all.
But he saw something in Aban, when he walked out of the basement seeing it's show time to be the savior of today, he knew he let the other boys have their fun, now its his turn, when he made his final turn to be standing right outside of the room, he saw the small figure on the floor and it hit him.
First, he didn't expect his new servant to be this young, second...he reminded him of...himself, and his first day in the orphanage, four kids surrounding him just like the four right now doing to the new kid, him being on the floor curled up, just the same way he was, he was even in the same exact spot, the same words he had been told are being said again, as if they only echoed through time and bounced back of the walls.
The only difference between him and this new kid, is the fact Ivo had no savior.
Once he snapped himself from his thoughts, he didn't even realize when the arms wrapped around him made contact with him, or even when he himself wrapped his arms around the small boy to comfort him, or how he could have allowed for this kid he had only met 5 minutes ago to rest his head on his chest as he felt the tears being wiped against his favorite black turtleneck and trench coat.
Part of him wanted to throw Aban across the room for being this close to him and staining his clothes with tears, but for once he doesn't listen to that part of him.
He resented humanity, most people he knew did nothing but hurt him, throw him away like he was nothing.
Even the ones who want him, like this Walten guy, whatever his name is, who he will be leaving this place alongside.
Walten had seen his bright brain, promise him to get him in the best colleges and a position to work for the government, the way he explained it was clearly to make it sound cooler than it actually was, the same way idiots on TV would try to trick you into buying their useless products.
Obviously Ivo wasn't stupid, he knew in reality he will be treated probably no different than here, at least with the government he would have more access to technology than he could dream of; Working for the rest of his life for them, never to let him go, to be their lab-rat per se, was a small price to pay to continue in expanding his work.
There is... however, only one person he could say he found more tolerable than most, it was the nice old lady, Linda, who owned the small library from across the street of the orphanage, he would have found himself spending his time there more than here.
She even offered him his first job ever, it was simple enough to just organize books in their right shelf, helping people find the book they're looking for (he hated that part of the job, why won't they just rub the only two braincells they had together and find it themselves), but he needed the money to buy the parts he needed for his "BadNiks" prototype as he called it.
He would have stayed in the library reading books before, during and after his shift, he really was truly practically living there, "knowledge is power" and damn well he had all the knowledge he needed to turn it into power.
He would remember the times Linda would have brought him something to eat as he was deep in reading, when he would have woken up after sleeping face buried in a book still sitting at his assigned seat in the corner, with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, he knew who left it there.
How she would allow him take with him back to the orphanage more books than it is allowed, while everyone else called him "Robotnik", only being called by his full name if he had gotten himself in troubles, Linda always called him by his first name.
It broke his heart when he had heard about her passing, it was peaceful they told him, but he saw nothing peaceful about the feeling it gave him.
They wanted to change the library to a Cafe, what a joke, and they were planning to just through literal gold in some dumpster, he asked for all the book to be donated to the orphanage, it's what Linda would've wanted, and surprisingly they did so, of course, the ma'am of the house was furious as to why on earth would they need all of these books, he didn't pay her any attention and moved them all down to the basement.
He knew growing attached to another person would mean he would have to experience that feeling all over again, that's why he found machines to be his better companion, absolutely loyal to him and only him, never to fear being betrayed by them, could never die, hell they will outlive him for all he cares, and if broken can be put back together, so here's to never worry about being left behind again.
So now, Why? Why is he hugging Aban tighter then he was before?
Aban was the first to pull away from the hug, wiping the remaining of his tears, gosh, he looks even smaller now, his whole body shaking even harder.
"لا تروح"
Aban looked at Ivo with the saddest puppy eyes he could ever imagine, it made his heart...ache.
no، no, no, no nononono, he told himself, he shouldn't, he WON'T grow attached to another human for this very stupid feeling he is feeling right now.
okay! OKAY! Let's not panic you have 319 hours and 34 minutes left to figure this out! Not enough time to grow attached to him, but enough time to help him adjust her..wait help? Why should I help! It's not my job! Fuck! Damn it Ivo how are you going to be the smartest man alive like this?