Chapter Text
Malleus went out of his house to find his blue-haired friend. Well, they didn’t know that they were friends, and Malleus didn’t know how to make them stop being scared of him, but that was another issue. For now, he just needed to find them.
Idia didn’t like themself. It’s not their fault. Their mama didn’t like herself either, and neither did their dad.
It doesn’t matter now anyways. The baby brother they raised is missing, their parents don’t care, and the boy across the street keeps staring at them like they’re smoked meat.
The first time Malleus had seen Idia was when he was five years old, and Idia was only four and a half.
He was walking with his grandmother to the grocery store that Idia’s parents owned, when he noticed that a little boy, maybe two years old by the looks of it, was toddling around on the streets with no shoes.
Malleus had picked him up, and returned him to a child who looked pretty similar. Idia. Long hair and big eyes and shiny teeth. Long arms and a big heart. A heart for Malleus.
At least, that’s what he kept telling himself. He knew he was in love with the boy who wouldn’t speak to anyone but their.brother, but he couldn’t tell if Idia felt the same way.
No doubt, Idia was probably scared off by him, the way they were with so many others. Malleus still remembered the day after the first day of kindergarten, when he had asked Idia why they didn’t go to school like the rest of the kids in their suffocatingly small town.
Ortho answered for his big brother. “She’s scared of people.”
She. Malleus only knew Idia wasn’t a ‘she’ anymore after he had muttered it to him the other day. Ortho had been dead for eight years by then.
Malleus walked into Idia at the grocery store.
Idia was trying to help. Their father was sick, and their mother was still out there with her buddies. This meant they were in charge of the store. Because of course an almost adult who was unable to care for themselves, or have a basic conversation with their own parents, would be able to manage a store for a while. Yep.
So here they were, shivering in the light of the fridge door, as theI tried to restock the milk.
Malleus approached him. “Hello, Shroud.”
Idia jumped, suppressing a scream. They let the milk carton fall from their hands, and spill onto the floor.
Both of them started at it. Or, Idia stared at it, cheeks burning up. Malleus was looking at Idia. He’s probably judging me, Idia thought, why do I have to be so freaking stupid? You should go down a bottle of prozac as soon as you go home, you freak!
“Shroud?” Malleus whispered his time, trying not to panic Idia again. Idia looked up at him, mute. “If you want, I could pay for the carton. It is my fault it spilt after all.”
Idia started to shake his head, but Malleus just handed them a twenty. “My grandmother also needed a carton of eggs. Do you have any?”
Idia looked at the twenty, then at Malleus, back to the milk spill, then at Malleus again. “If—if you w-want, I-I can get you a f-free one if you c-c-c—” They stopped for a moment, then tried again. “Clean this up for me, p-please?”
“Certainly. Do you have a rag, or something?” Malleus asked. He didn’t take back the twenty Idia was trying to hand to him.
Idia nodded, then gestured for him to come with them.
Idia opened the closet where all the cleaning supplies were held. Malleus began rapid-fire asking questions, as if this was a game show.
“Do you enjoy being here? Would you ever come back to school? We miss you. All the kids say that they found you really sweet. Why are there so many different cleaning supplies? I don’t clean for myself, you know, we have a maid come and do it since Grandmother finds it tedious. Do you talk to your grandparents often?”
Then,
“Would you run away with me if I asked you to?’
Idia whipped their head around to see Malleus clasp a hand over his mouth, as if he didn’t know he was going to say it.
They made eye contact, both of them blushing like twin roses, before Malleus ran out the store.
Grandmother was furious when Malleus hadn’t brought the eggs, and had given him a through tongue lashing to express her displeasure.
But Malleus paid no mind.
He kept wandering back to the image of Idia, standing in front of the refrigerator light, like an angel standing in God’s rays.
Shaking hands, and flowing skirt, and long, long sweater covering their even longer limbs.
And he had run away from it.