Chapter Text
Several minutes outside of town on a hill that backs onto a conservation area there is a quaint, two story house that's been passed down through generations. The current owners are an eclectic, decent couple who never seem to notice when things go missing.
Which is very good for the other occupants of the house.
x-x-x
"Mary Katherine! Mary Katherine!"
MK rolls her eyes, half fond and half exasperated, before turning to her father who's stumbled into their home under the floor boards with his usual lack of finesse.
"Welcome home dad."
Bomba seems even more excitable than he normally is after tripping around in the underbrush, which can only mean one thing.
He thinks he's 'found' something.
"You'll never believe what I found this time!"
She sighs. Her dad's obsession with the forest had been far more tolerable when she was younger and he'd only be gone for a day or two at a time. He would return with wondrous stories about the plants and animals he'd observed, and he'd Borrow paper and coloured pencils just to show her what he'd seen. Back in those days, when her mother was still alive, she thought that one day she'd start tagging along with him into the great outdoors.
All these years later and she's never ventured further than the yard.
Speaking of which...
"Did you remember to go through the garden on your way back in?"
"Wha- oh! Yes, of course. I dug up a carrot and brought in a bay leaf, I left them in the kitchen."
"Great, I'll get started on lunch then," She rolls up her sleeves and heads for the kitchen, her father clumsily trailing after her.
"Wait, I've got something to show you Mary Katherine!"
She unhurriedly searches through their makeshift drawers for the replaceable head of an exacto-knife and begins slicing the carrot into chunks to store away.
"Dad, I know that I've told you that I-"
"Go by MK now, right, but it's hard to change an eighteen year old habit."
He wraps his arms around her and pulls her to his chest. She drops the exacto-knife and leans into the embrace.
Even when she was younger there was always a worry that one day her father would never make it back home. It's intensified now that he leaves for longer periods, sometimes up to five days, so even though she hates that he's always leaving her behind the relief she feels when he comes home safe wipes most of her ill will away.
"Alright, what's this thing you've found, then?"
Bomba's off like a shot, stumbling towards his pack, and MK tries her very best to look interested.
He's brought things home before; dead twigs that look vaguely like arrows, two pieces of something that could have possibly once been a bow, the last time he'd been out he brought back the top of an acorn, swearing it was a helmet.
Today he pulls out-
-an animal skin.
"Dad, why would you bring that inside? Put it away, it's probably infested!"
"Don't be silly Mary Ka- MK! Look at it closely!"
She'd really rather not, she's already indulged her father's crazy beliefs enough as it is, but she dutifully steps forward, reaching out, and her father hands it over with far more delicacy than she thinks such a thing deserves.
Just touching it is enough to give her goosebumps; the fur is rough, the skull is attached, and it smells of decay. She wants so badly to just drop it, set a match to it and watch it burn. MK clenches her eyes shut and resists the urge to be sick. She's not afraid of heights or jumping from them, she's not afraid of getting caught or trapped or squashed, but holding this dead thing in her hands is enough to make her feel nauseous.
"Dad, I really don't think-"
"Look closer, can't you see? There are stitches."
She warily opens one eye and looks down to where her father's hand is pointing; her eye locks onto a small, uneven line of stitches. She opens her other eye to get a closer look because it is kind of strange, but Bomba takes it out of her hands and begins to put it on.
"Dad, stop that! You don't know where it's been!" She halfheartedly attempts to snatch it from him, but he's already shrugged it on like it's an elaborate cloak and she really doesn't want to touch it again.
"Look! They cut it and stitched it back up so that they could have sleeves. Isn't that cool?"
"No dad, it's gross, and you've got the skull of a dead rat on your head."
"I know, just think about it, I bet the bone acts as an even better helmet than the acorns." Bomba clasps his hands together, downright gleeful. "You know that river I've been telling you about? I went downstream instead of up this time and managed to find this."
"Dad," MK starts softly, but her father's already too far gone to hear her.
"I'm sure if I continued on downstream I'd find more evidence, maybe even a settlement! There are other people our size living in that forest and they are not Borrowers, Innies or Outies."
"That's great dad, in a couple of weeks you can go back out and search down there. Now take that thing off."
"A couple of weeks," he repeats incredulously, "Mary- MK, this is the closest I've ever been to finding these forest dwellers. I'm going back out tomorrow."
"What?" He never, ever goes out again right after he's come back.
"And this will probably be my longest excursion to date."
MK tries not to stumble back, but she feels like her strength is being sapped.
"Dad, you can't just-"
"Gosh, I'd better start preparing, I'm going to have to pack more than usual."
"Dad, please listen to me, I don't want-"
"Oh, I can't wait to set out again. The Beans still store their batteries in the same place, right?"
He dashes out before MK can stop him, let alone answer. The sudden stillness of the room makes her feel more isolated and alone than usual. She slowly crouches down, rests her forehead against her knees and lets out a frustrated hiss through clenched teeth.
It's at times like this that she wishes harder than usual that there were other Borrowers still living in this house. She can never get through to her dad when he gets going, maybe if there were more of them around they'd be able to hold an intervention, or physically bar him from leaving.
She stands back up and shakes herself out before turning her attention back to the carrot.
If she cuts it up with more force than necessary, well, it's not like anyone's around to see it.
Later that night MK swiftly climbs up through the walls, using bare nails as a ladder and occasionally jumping from one to another when the distance is too far for her to reach. She's been doing this for years now and she knows this entire house like the back of her hand, just like she knows how much force she needs to use when she pushes off so that she doesn't end up falling to her death.
Her first stop, as always, is the kitchen. She pushes back a panel of decorative moulding that had been turned into a doorway by others long before she was born and latches her fish-hook into a worn out groove in the wood. She looks around the room carefully to make sure there are no Human Beans in sight and after she ensures that the embroidery thread attached to her hook is secure she lowers herself onto the countertop.
Once she reaches the counter MK mentally goes over everything she needs and lets her eyes track over to their typical locations to make sure everything is where it should be.
"Alright MK, easy things first, then work your way up to the hard stuff," she reminds herself before dashing over to the sugar bowl.
The night goes as it usually has over the past year. MK is more than capable of Borrowing alone, but being on her own means multiple trips back and forth since she can't carry everything all at once. It makes her long for the still, quiet nights where she and her mother would work together and her father would sometimes tag along to be and extra set of hands.
Those days are long gone. Nowadays if her father goes off on his own to Borrow something, it's for his trips to the forest and nothing else.
When she finally brings the last of her haul home after spending hours scurrying around she flops down onto her bed, a small gift box that her mother had lined with cotton balls and scraps of fabric, and snuggles under a badly knit, failed attempt at a scarf that one of the Human Beans had tried to make last Christmas and had promptly forgotten about.
It feels like she's only just closed her eyes when her father shakes her awake, and though she's tired and grouchy she's somewhat pleased that he's at least decided to wake her up to say goodbye this time. She cracks open her eyes and sees that her father is once again wearing that terrible rat skin, so she snaps them shut again.
MK blindly reaches for him and manages to grab onto one of his hands, holding it tightly.
"Don't be gone for more than a week."
Bomba squeezes her hand back. "I'll try."
"Promise me dad, no more than a week, please."
"Alright." He leans in and presses a kiss to her forehead. "I managed to dig that old remote control car out of the garage. There's a fairly smooth rabbit trail I usually enter the forest through, so I should be able to shave off some time using that."
"That's good." She wants to stay up, but she can already feel herself going back to sleep. Her grip on her father's hand weakens. "Stay safe."
"I will."
"I love you."
"I love you too, Mary Katherine."
Then he lets go.