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Panting heavily, Mapicc and Spoke looked at each other, the two brothers trying to recompose themselves after all that had happened in the past hour.
Mapicc’s helmet and boots had broken, and Spoke was still reeling from it all. The invisible mafia was still after them, and they had been fucking lucky to have MinuteTech appear when he did.
Not only that, but Minute had attacked Mapicc, even if it had only been one crit due to misunderstanding, it still made Spoke’s heart fall into his stomach and skyrocket as he watched Minute approach him, having to fumble to put on his armor and attempt to placate the pitch-black man, if only not to be attacked like he watched his brother be.
Now they were standing there as Minute droned on about something, some words about his past rung out, but they went in one ear and out the other. All Spoke could think about was his heart beating in his throat, the sound thrumming in his ears.
He felt off in all the worst ways. His thoughts felt thin, his mouth felt useless, he felt like his skin had melted off, leaving him raw and vulnerable in the wrong way. He wanted Mapicc. He wanted Mapicc alone, back at their house, together and alone where he could lay out his emotions, frantic and bare as they may be.
Spoke knew that if he showed Mapicc his wrecked and ruined self, if he showed him the most frayed, exposed nerve endings that he had to offer, Mapicc would treat them with care. His brother had seen it all from him. His highs, his lows, his mania, his bloodshed. All of it.
All he wanted in that moment was to be with Mapicc, safe to do what he wanted. And what he wanted was not to be this.
Not be repulsively tall and gangly, with arms too long and legs too far. He wanted to be small, cradled in someones arms, not big enough to feel the pain and torture of this wide world, not big enough to have thoughts that scared him, just small enough to be talked to with care and patience. Just small enough that people wouldn’t hurt him again.
Smaller.
Spoke wanted to be smaller.
Now wasn’t a time to be feeling this, though. He had to hold himself together. Usually, after a big, scary thing would happen, he and Mapicc would manage to get home, and Spoke was able to feel all these wrong emotions because Mapicc made him feel like they were okay. But Spoke knew better, he knew they were deplorable, unusual feelings that shouldn’t be indulged, but he loved when Mapicc indulged his so called smallness nonetheless.
Snapped back to reality, Spoke heard a voice from in front of him, and he focussed his eyes to see a finger snapping in his face.
“Hello?? Earth to Spoke, were you even listening?” Minute asked, and Spoke wasn’t sure if he sounded the same amount of annoyed or more annoyed than he already had been.
“Yeah- Yeah, I’m listening. What were you saying?” Spoke tried to quickly recover, opting to not think too hard on the way his mouth couldn’t quite cooperate with his brain, which seemed to take a few seconds just to form a simple sentence anyway.
Looking over, Spoke caught the glance of concern he got from his brother. Mapicc most likely knew what was happening, having witnessed Spoke’s habit more times than either of them could count, being somewhat consistent after they get back from high stress situations.
Without his permission, Spoke’s eyes started filling with tears. Maybe it was the emotional overwhelm, maybe it was the after shock of what had just happened, or maybe it was the fear. He wasn’t quite sure.
Rubbing at his eyes fruitlessly, he tried to get rid of the tears that flooded his vision, but to no avail. And just because things had to get worse, Minute noticed before Spoke could stop it.
“Spoke, are you- crying?” The older of the two void creatures asked, suddenly looking concerned for Spoke as he tried to make himself stop crying, only managing to further work himself up, leading to the sounds of his desperate sniffles and hiccups filling the room.
Minute stepped forwards, cautiously approaching Spoke, being careful as to not further frighten him or set off his brother, who was eyeing him closely, but letting this play out. “Hey, what’s happening?”
The response from Spoke was jumbled, he felt like he could barely make the connection between his brain and his mouth, and everything that came out was barely strung together sentences, making only just enough sense to be understood.
“Dont feel right. Hate being big.” Spoke muttered through sobs that suddenly wracked his body, catching everybody by surprise, even Spoke himself.
Out of pure instinct, Minute wrapped Spoke in a tight hug, cradling his head with one hand, and using the other to rub circles into his back. He could feel Spoke’s tears soaking through his suit jacket—he had quickly taken off his chestplate, for trying to comfort Spoke whilst wearing it wouldn’t have been very comfortable for him or the boy.
Minute felt Spoke shaking with sobs and cries as he kept the boy in his hold. He didn’t know what was happening for sure, but he had an idea.
Back during his time with the invisible mafia, there had been a couple soldiers that, after long, stressful days, would seek out to bunk with others, sometimes even asking to be told a story. Nobody was really sure why they did it, but they humored them regardless. Hey, being in the mafia was stressful, people coped in their own ways.
Within the mafia, the people who would do this were typically referred to as “Littles” for the way their mannerisms were small, like somebody little.
With this hunch in mind, Minute decided to bite the bullet and ask Spoke. “Hey, bud?” He got Spoke’s attention, albeit somewhat nervously.
At the sound of his voice, Spoke leaned back slightly so that he could see Minute’s face, staring up at the other voidborne with big, bright white eyes, brimming with tears that made them shine.
Maybe it was because they were just the same relatively rare species, maybe it was some paternal instinct he had buried deep within himself, but holy shit, he would die for this kid and his brother. In Minute’s eyes, the two boys in front of him may as well have been two primary school kids that he had to protect.
Spoke sniffled again, reminding Minute that he was supposed to be asking the kid a question, not just getting lost in thought. “Hm.. Do you feel younger, Spoke?”
Burying his face back into Minute’s chest, Minute felt a nodding motion against him. Well, that explained a hell of a lot.
Going on instinct and placing a hand on the back of Spoke’s jet black and ruffled hair, Minute lowered his head until he could feel the tips of Spoke’s hair that stuck out and up touching his face.
“Do you know how old you feel?” Mumbled Minute, his voice was muffled from the hair in his face, but Spoke and Mapicc heard him regardless.
Speaking of, Mapicc was now looking through shulkers on the other side of the room, seemingly trusting Minute with his brother—which Minute was eternally grateful for. What Minute wasn’t grateful for was the fact that he would have to later go through everything and make sure Mapicc didn’t steal anything major. God fucking damn tiny klepto terrorists.
Shaking his head, Spoke mumbled something into Minute’s dress shirt, but Minute couldn’t quite make out what the kid had said. “Hmm? What was that?” He prompted Spoke to repeat himself.
“Dunno how old..” Spoke leaned his head back a bit as he talked, too big hands gripping Minute’s jacket as he smushed his cheek against the older mans chest. “Mape usually knows.. He tell me, cus I never know.”
So this wasn’t a new thing, then. Beckoning Mapicc back over with a whistle and a hand gesture, the red-clad boy walked over, looking at Spoke with what looked to be worry on his face.
When he noticed his brother was there, Spoke immediately jumped to be in his arms, planting his face right in Mapicc’s neck, breathing in the familiar, calming scent of his brother.
He gave Minute a look. “So, why’d you need me to come back? Did something else happen?”
Mapicc was trying to pretend he hadn’t been eavesdropping, but Minute knew better than to even begin to fall for that. He could see the way Mapicc’s dog-like ears twitched at the smallest sound, even from far away. The kid clearly had very, very keen hearing, and wouldn’t let anything go unnoticed, especially not when his brother was involved.
In the back of his mind, Minute noted the soft swishing of Mapicc’s tail from side to side as he held Spoke, these kids were so adorable, they might just be the death of him and his damned parental instincts. Cuteness aggression was a very real thing, you know.
But he digressed. Looking over at Mapicc, Minute told the boy, “Spoke’s mostly okay. At least I think he will be? He told me he just feels younger, and when I asked how old he felt, he told me he doesn’t know, but that you usually do.”
Choosing not to question how Minute already knew about the whole age regression schtick, Mapicc looked over at his little brother, whose breathing was gradually getting slower, indicating he was calming down, with only the occasional sniffle or hiccup being indicative of his consciousness as a whole, confirming he hadn’t simply fallen asleep in Mapicc’s hold.
“Well, he usually has tells as to how old he’s feeling. When he’s being super quiet and clingy, that typically means he’s feeling younger, but when he’s all hyper, running around, talking your ear off, and asking a million questions at once, he tends to be feeling older than not, but not by much. I’d say his overall age range when he’s regressed is probably 2-8? It really just depends on the situation, and why he’s regressed.”
There was a lot of information for Minute to mull over. He didn’t know this had a proper term—which was apparently regression. He always just referred to it as littles, but it’s helpful to know otherwise, now.
As for Spoke.. He would do anything to make Spoke feel better right now, and with that thought, Minute realized he was completely and utterly fucking cooked.
God, Minute barely knew these kids, but he already knew he’d do anything for them. Spoke looked no older than 16 or 17, and Mapicc no older than 18, maybe 19 at best. What were these kids doing being hunted by the invisible mafia? What could they have possibly done to warrant that? Minute duly noted in the back of his mind that he’d need to get a contact to talk to Ash about hunting down fucking children, but that was for later.
Realistically, he knew he should be wary of the two boys. They had followed him back to his base without him even knowing it, and it was no small feat to be targeted and hunted by the mafia—they must have done something heinous to get the attention of Ashswag himself, who typically thought himself too important to be preoccupied by anything less than extreme.
But, in all honesty, Minute didn’t give a fuck about any of that right now. His instincts were telling him that he needed to protect these kids, and he was no better than a void creature born to follow its natural instincts.
Yup. Completely cooked and done for.
God forbid a man has instincts.
Nevertheless, Minute hummed and nodded before looking over to Spoke again. Damn his instincts, screaming at him to protectprotectprotectprotectprotect-
He thought for a second before asking Mapicc, “Do you think Spoke would mind if I go back to holding him for a bit? And, uh, do you mind?”
Mapicc looked at Minute, suspicion evident. “Why? What difference does it make between me or you holding him?”
Shit. Minute just hoped to god Spoke had maybe explained a bit to Mapicc about how void beings instincts worked. Or, on the other hand, Spoke may just not know anything about it, looking not of age to even feel them in a way that would be picked up on as unusual.
“Well- It’s kind of a species thing?”
After just one sentence, Mapicc looked skeptical. This was going just oh so well!
“Us void creatures have heightened parental instincts to other void creatures. It’s mostly due to our kind being so few and far, and often being hunted. If we just instinctively have a need to take care of our own young, then they’re less likely to die. Most species have this, it’s just much more prominent in void beings, and notably equal in both male and female.” Minute explained to him, hoping that the older of the two brothers would believe him.
Leaning down, Mapicc brushed away the stray strands of hair that fell into Spoke’s face, tucking them behind his ear as he talked. “Hey, bud, wanna go back to Minute?”
Spoke nodded, clearly awake but somewhat slow in thought and movement.
“Mhm.. He’s like me, Mape. Haven’t seen anyone like me..” He spoke in a whisper, his words not quite enunciated, but understandable nonetheless.
Minute may have just fucking combusted on the spot. He gripped the fabric of his dress shirt where his heart was, it would crumple, but he didn’t care, he felt like his heart was gonna explode from—he didn’t even know exactly what it was he was feeling, but it was certainly good, and relating to how adorable Spoke was.
Crouching a small bit to be on Spoke’s level, Minute asked him, “Buddy, wanna go somewhere a bit more comfortable?”
He got a nod in response, and right as he was about to take Spoke’s hand to walk him over to the relatively big bed he had, Spoke extended his arms out at Minute, making a grabbing motion with his hands at him. Minute took the hint and picked the kid up with little effort, easily carrying him as Spoke hooked his feet around his back, and his arms around his neck.
Snorting at this, Mapicc shook his head at Spoke, “lazy ass kids, bro..” He taunted, only to have raspberries blown at him the moment Minute turned his back, leaving Spoke, who was being carried by him, to face Mapicc.
Mapicc stuck his own tongue out at Spoke in retaliation, squinting his eyes in a glare before flipping off his brother. Now that he knew he didn’t have to be completely in caregiver mode, Mapicc let himself let down a bit, being a bit more carefree, allowing himself to be a bit more of the asshole older brother that he typically was when his little brother wasn’t so little.
“Stop bickering, you two.” Minute said as he walked ahead, Spoke in his arms and Mapicc hot on his heels. Neither of them paid any mind to him, continuing to antagonise each other, despite claiming otherwise.
“We’re not!” Mapicc lied straight through his teeth, as Spoke simultaneously responded “He started it!”
Is this what being a single father was like? It must be.
Well, at least Spoke seemed to be feeling better, and based off of what Mapicc had said 10 minutes prior, the kid seemed to be feeling a bit older, too.
If only based off of the fact that he was now going back and forth with Mapicc, the two of them saying “Am not!” and “Are too.” in circles. Minute didn’t know what started that particular circular argument, and frankly, he wasn’t too keen on finding out.
Now, within the many (around 10) seconds that had passed, the conversation had taken a turn, and now the boys were debating something else. Something or other about who was taller. Mapicc was insisting it was him, but Spoke was declaring it was himself, and that Mapicc just wanted to think he was taller. Although Minute had assumed Spoke would be taller, he was surprised to find out he wasn’t—albeit only by a couple centimetres.
Finally making it over to his bed on the other side of the room, hidden away in a secret room, withholding his bed and all his other private things—such as his clothes and his personal belongings that didn’t pertain to the war, or otherwise conflict and violence.
Luckily for him, Mapicc knew better than to go snooping here. Or he didn’t know better than to, but he wasn’t stupid enough to do it right in front of Minute. Another thing added to the mental list of things to check up on later, now that his base has become some second home to two stray children.
Funnily enough, Minute thought as he settled Spoke down onto the bed, watching as Mapicc clambered up next to him, he kept on referring to Mapicc and Spoke as ‘kids’ or ‘children’ in his internal monologue, when, in reality, they were probably closer to 16 and 18, or 17 and 19, or potentially even 18 and 19. Although Minute highly doubted the last possibility.
Whether his perception of the boys, painting them as kids in his eyes despite their true age, said more about the way they were perceived by Minute or more about Minutes own age—he wished not to say.
“Minute?” Spoke whispered, tugging at his jacket sleeve as he looked up to Minute with those big, white eyes.
“Yeah? Whats up, bud?”
“Mape seems different.. Think he’s regressing too!”
Oh, shit.
He took a moment to think. What was he gonna say? What was he gonna do? Usually, back in their bunks during his mafia days, the littles would just ask to sleep with him, and maybe even have him tell them a story. And whilst he has instinctual intuition for Spoke, what if he fucks up things for Mapicc?
As much as he was hesitant and afraid to fuck something up, he was doubly determined to make sure these kids were safe, sound, and most importantly, happy.
Taking a deep breath in, Minute forced his nerves to subside, for as long as he followed his gut instinct, everything would be alright. And so, in a calm tone, he responded. “Thats alright! Has he ever regressed before?”
Nodding, Spoke smiled a toothy grin. “Mhm!! And it was lotsa fun too!!!! And, and he was all small, but I was a super good big brother, Min!” The boy talked fast and excitedly, clearly happy to have a play mate.
Speaking of, as soon as Spoke finished his sentence, he scrambled back over to the soft carpet on which he and Mapicc had been sitting. While Spoke was talking to Minute, Mapicc had been waiting, sitting quietly as he pulled at the loose strings of the sleeves on his hoodie.
When he heard Spoke even start to move, his ears perked up at the sound, turning to the direction of it as Mapicc’s head went up, grinning once he spotted Spoke approaching him.
“Spoke, Spoke! I had the best idea for something..” Mapicc said before launching into an idea for…. god knows what. Regardless, it was good to see that both of the boys were in a good mood.
Minute was content to let the two kids sit and talk within themselves for a while, chattering away happily whilst Minute could get some stuff done. It was nothing interesting, really. He was mostly brewing potions, sorting items, making a list of everything Mapicc stole, and reorganizing his armor.
He was out in the main room grabbing more shulkers to bring back to his room where he could keep an eye on the kids, when he heard a voice yell out.
“MINNNNN!!” Came Spoke’s higher pitched than usual voice. With a sigh, Minute readjusted the shulkers in his hands before walking the short distance back to his room, where the two boys were sitting, now on the bed, somehow with toy cars in their hands.
“Whats wrong? And- How’d you get those cars??” Minute was frankly flabbergasted at how in the world the boys could’ve gotten those, but it all made much more sense when he remembered the factor of e-chests.
Spoke’s stomach grumbled particularly loudly, making Mapicc snicker. Crossing his arms with a pout, Spoke glared at Mapicc. “Don’t laugh at me!”
“I’m laughing at you.” He taunted, only seeming to make Spoke more ticked off.
Should Minute have stopped it there? Yeah, probably. But he was a curious guy, and he wanted to see where this would go.. It was entertaining and amusing, sue him.
Sadly, the bickering quickly turned sour, and Minute deducted why Spoke had called him over.
Before the boys could somehow break out into a brawl, Minute stood between them, clapping his hands to make himself the centre of attention between the two as he spoke. “Alright, enough of that!! Now, who’s hungry?”
To nobodies surprise, Spoke leaped up, grabbing Mapicc’s hand and dragging him out the door before pausing and yelling back. “Min? Wheres food?”
Minute couldn’t help to laugh at Spoke’s overeagerness. Once he let his barriers down, Minute found the kid to be very excitable, and very quick to forget his inside voice. Which he frequently had to be reminded of.
On the other hand, Mapicc was much calmer, but this could not be mistaken for peacefulness. Spoke and Mapicc were devious as all hell together. The two were like troubling twins, but now more lanky and with the experience of teenagers that have seen too much shit and set too many traps.
And, worst of all, pulled off too many successful pranks.
Multiple times now, Minute has had to interrupt a conversation and gently guide the boys to a new topic because he overheard them planning to egg someone’s house—which wouldn’t end well for anybody involved, but mostly for whoever’s house was being egged.
How the boys could be simultaneously regressed and this mischievous went right over Minute’s head. The type of littles he was used to would seek out reassurance through touch and tales, and whilst he can see Spoke is still very touch orientated, he and Mapicc aren’t anything like his old bunk mates were.
Jesus, Minute really needed to work on not getting distracted by his own inner monologue whilst trying to get things done.
Leading Spoke by the hand over to the makeshift kitchen he had, Minute thought about what the boys might eat. He sat them both down on the bench next to him, not really trusting either to be out of his sight for too long.
“Miiiiin, me and Mape are hungry!” Spoke whined as he kicked his heels against the cabinet, making a dull thud with each kick. Mapicc sat next to him, mostly quiet as he, once again, pulled at the loose threads in his sleeves.
Noticing this, Minute placed his own hand over Mapicc’s, effectively stopping him from pulling the thread any further out. “Hey, bud, don’t do that. It’ll ruin your hoodie, and then you’ll be sad!” Minute reasoned, metaphorically crossing his fingers in hope that he would be listened to.
After a moments consideration, Mapicc nodded, seemingly agreeing with Minute as he stopped pulling at the thread, still not saying anything directly to him.
But he had heard him talking before? So why just not to Minute? Was it something about Minute, or did Mapicc simply not talk to anybody except Spoke when he’s regressed? Who knows, he supposed he would find out eventually, anyways.
As Minute thought and mulled over all the things there were to think about, he got himself busy making the boys a sandwich each, not wanting to find out about exactly how they got when they were hangry.
Finishing up the sandwiches quickly, Minute put them on the bench before lifting each of the boys up and making them sit at the bench, rather than on it. Or, at least, thats what he wanted.
“Min, I don’t wanna sit on the chair, I wanna sit on the bench!” Spoke demanded with a stomp of his foot. Mapicc snickered, whispering something suspiciously close to “brat..” as he watched Spoke.
Spoke’s head whipped around. “I am not!” He shouted, flicking his brother’s fluffy ears to make a point (and be a dick), only making the ear twitch, and Mapicc shake his head like a wet dog.
Glaring at Spoke, Mapicc called out. “Minute, Spoke’s being a shithead.”
Lovely. The first time Mapicc says anything to Minute whilst regressed, and it’s to call Spoke a shithead. Fucking incredible.
Sighing, he put the sandwiches on the cold stovetop behind him. “Boys, stop arguing. Mapicc, don’t call your brother a shithead. Spoke, you can’t eat sitting on the bench. capeesh?”
The two boys nodded reluctantly, albeit still grumbling over it, mostly Spoke, though.
He didn’t know why he didn’t expect Mapicc to question the no swearing, especially considering he was still technically a grown teenage boy, even if his mental age clearly didn’t fit the mould.
“Why can’t I call Spoke a shithead? He’s my brother, I always call him that! Spoke, you’re a bitch. See? I call him that stuff all the time, and he doesn’t even mind. Right, Spoke?”
“Mhm!! I don’t mind usually.” Spoke said, his words muffled through the mouth full of food he was speaking with.
“Spoke, don’t talk with your mouth full, it’s impolite.” Minute lightly chastised the younger of the two before turning to Mapicc. “Because it’s a swear word, which you shouldn’t be saying to other people, or probably at all right now, considering how old you seem to be at this moment.”
“But- How’d you know I was regressed?? I didn’t say anything, thats unfair!! And I’m big enough to say swear words! I’m not that small..” Mapicc spluttered, somehow having not expected Minute to pick up on the fact that he, too, was regressed.
Laughing softly, Minute crouched down to be at Mapicc’s level, putting a hand in the kids hair and giving an experimental scratch at the base of one of his ears, which Mapicc leaned into as Minute talked. “Sure, you’re big, buddy. But can you tell me exactly how big you feel right now? I’d guess Spoke is probably 5 or 6, so are you his older brother right now, then? Hm?”
Looking down at his hands which he splayed out, as if he were using them to help him count, Mapicc thought long and hard, and Minute momentarily stopped the scratching at his ears, letting him think about only this for a second without distractions. “I’m bigger than Spoke!!! So I’m, um, 7..? Or maybe 8? Or- something between, I dunno!!” He sounded sure of himself in the beginning of his sentence, but that confidence quickly wavered into uncertainty.
“That’s alright, bud. 7 is a pretty big age, after all. Now, how about you apologise to your brother for calling him names, and then you two can eat your sandwiches sitting at the bench? Does that sound good?” He offered, hoping Mapicc wouldn’t be difficult.
Thankfully, the boy nodded, letting Minute take a huge sigh of relief. Now all he had to do was deal with Spoke..
Thinking on how he was going to get Spoke to cooperate, he figured he might just have to bribe the kid. “Spoke, if you get off the bench and stay off it, I’ll see if I can give you a cookie later on. Okay?” He wasn’t quite sure how Spoke had gotten back up on the bench by himself, but it was whatever for now.
Quicker than ever, Spoke scrambled off the bench and onto one of the stools. Mission success.
Over the next short while, Mapicc and Spoke ate their food, leaving Minute to, once again, have a bit of time to sort through his various shulkers, idly listening to the bickering in the background. It was almost like white noise at this point.
By the time they were finished with their food, Spoke was yawning, and Mapicc was trying to hide his own yawns. “You two tired yet?” Minute asked, half expecting them to lie about it.
Because they can never let Minute be fucking right, they went 50/50. Mapicc shook his head, confidently saying that he wasn’t tired (he was), and Spoke nodded slowly, once again reaching his arms outwards to Minute, who complied and picked him up again. He managed to (mostly) comfortably settle the kid on his hip, still keeping two hands supporting the bottom of him as Spoke wrapped his arms around Minute’s neck, slotting his head on his shoulder.
With a small grunt and a small bit of effort, he managed to shift the weight of Spoke onto one arm, extending his other arm out to Mapicc, and holding out his hand, signalling for Mapicc to hold it. Once he was holding Mapicc’s hand, he walked back over to his hidden bedroom, where he let go of the kids hand so that he could grab Spoke from his underarms and safely place him down onto the bed, which he had peeled the blankets down halfway on.
To get Mapicc to sleep as well, Minute would have to somehow trick him into sleeping.. “Hey, Mapicc?”
The aforementioned boys ears twitched, his head turning to the sound of his name. “Mm?”
“I know you’re not sleepy, but I think Spoke would sleep better with you beside him.. So, would you mind lying with him whilst he sleeps, like a nice big brother?” Minute knew he was pushing it with the ‘nice big brother’ part, but surely it’d be fine.
He seemed to think for a moment before climbing into the bed, and sitting next to where Spoke was, adorably tucking in his brother before lying down for himself. “Kay.. But only cus it makes Spoke feel better!” Mapicc defended himself, as if sleeping needed a defence.
Minute nodded solemnly, clearly agreeing that, yes, obviously a 7 year old Mapicc wouldn’t be tired in the slightest after being chased by the invisible mafia for like an hour. Of course not!
“Would you like to be tucked in as well?” Minute offered, watching as Mapicc considered the offer for a few seconds before cautiously nodding, letting Minute tuck the blankets around him, and giggling when he scratched at the base of his ear.
Minute could hear the soft thump of Mapicc’s tail hitting the blanket and the mattress. And, funnily enough, he could see the outline of Mapicc’s tail through the blanket with each wag.
Adorable.
Soon enough, Minute could see the boys eyes drooping. Spoke was already fast asleep, he had been since shortly after he was laid down, the poor thing must’ve been completely and utterly exhausted, especially after the long day he’d had.
As his eyes eventually fell shut, the room was filled with more snoring than it had already had, but that was okay. Minute was just glad these kids were getting some rest.
Jesus, he barely knew the two and he was already getting attached. It really wasn’t like Minute to get attached so quickly, but one of them was a child of the void and the other was his brother. How could he ever turn them down?
Walking out of the room and switching off the lights as he closed the door, he ran a hand down his face and groaned.
What in the ever-loving fuck had he just gotten himself into?
Did this make him some kind of single father?? He loved deeply cared for these kids, but he wasn’t quite sure he was ready for parenthood.
Maybe in another universe. Maybe in a universe where he wasn’t juggling running away from his past as a mafia member, and trying to keep these kids safe from said mafia, he would have been able to adopt the boys.
But that wasn’t the reality here, and wishful thinking gets you no where in a life like his. He learned that the hard way.
Well, whatever. Nothing helpful he could do now. What’s the point in dwelling and spiralling over his own issues with attachment, and planning for when he’ll likely have to let the boys go?
No use thinking about it now, where he can’t do anything about it. The boys were happy and safe and asleep right now, and that’s what matters right now.
And so, with a heavy heart and a heavier head, Minute went back to sorting his shulkers, hoping that the boys could stay a little longer, and that, when all of this is over, he could maybe help the boys live a relatively normal life.
But that was all just wishful thinking, right?