Chapter Text
Chapter One
Sage walked into their bedroom after a long day, ready to collapse on their bed and act dead for a few hours. They were stopped however, when they saw their mother, sitting on their bed, holding a box they'd been trying to hide.
"[Deadname], what is all of this? I thought we taught you better," she sounded disappointed. Sage froze, unsure how to react, when their mother continued. "You have ten seconds to explain yourself before I call in your father."
They hesitated, stumbled over their words, and the ten seconds had passed.
"If that's what I think it is, you'd better be out of my house in 10 minutes, you can't be my child and resort to this," snapped their father.
Cyrus was just getting ready to start closing the CaFae when he noticed a young human walk in.
"Hi, welcome to Caf— whoa, kid, are you okay?" he asked, noticing their tear-stained face.
They looked up, confused, then put on a smile and told Cyrus they were fine. He looked them up and down, unimpressed.
"Kid, I know what 'fine' looks like, and you are not 'fine', I'm pretty sure you're actually the opposite of 'fine'," he told them, wondering why on earth kids these days couldn't just be honest. The kid rolled their eyes and asked for whatever would keep them up the longest.
"I… I can't do that for you kid, first off, it's almost eight pm, if i give you any caffeine you won't sleep. Second, our most caffeinated drink would probably give you a fucking heart attack."
"I don't need sleep, and honestly, a heart attack sounds a whole lot better than this, the whole point of coming here was to get something to avoid sleeping," retorted the child.
Cyrus sighed, and told the child to sit at one of the tables while he finished cleaning the cafe. Once he was sure they weren't going to leave, he went to the back to tell the boss.
"Hey… boss, we got a kid up front asking for 'whatever will keep me up the longest'"
Bob sighed, looking over the counter, and saw the child had taken out some pencils and a sheet of paper, probably drawing she thought. She considered asking Cyrus to check on them again, but decided against it. The kid would get annoyed at the nagging, so she went up front herself.
"Good evening, I noticed you sitting out here alone, are you doing alright?" She asked.
"Of course I'm alright," the child scoffed, "what makes you think I'm not?"
Bob looked at them over the edge of her imaginary glasses, trying to figure out why a child would need to stay up all night. No better way to find out than asking, she told herself.
"Why do you even need something to keep you up all night?" Bob asked, hoping the child would answer honestly, or answer at all.
"Well," started the child, "some people don't always have access to a bed, and it's safest to be aware of your surroundings when you're one of them." Bob looked up, concerned.
"Do you… have somewhere to go home to?"
"Well, I would, if i hadn't been kicked out for—" they cut them-self off abruptly, not wanting to tell the Faerie too much about their life. Bob stood up and told the child to stay put. She then went to the back to talk to her ward about their next steps.
"We should take the kid home with us. They're clearly not okay and won't say anything about it." Cyrus told his boss when she came back. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"I agree, they told me they'd been kicked out of their house, probably accidentally given how abruptly they cut themself off. You will go notify them, I will go home and begin preparing dinner."
The fae went their separate directions, one went home and the other tried to convince the child to come home with him.
"Hey kid, the boss told me you didn't have a home to go to for the foreseeable future, right?" The child nodded, and Cyrus continued. "How do you feel about coming home with me?"
The child looked up anxiously, "how do I know you're not going to try to hurt me?" they asked nervously.
"Kid, I promise you, the boss and I will never try to hurt you," he said, dropping his glamour. "I'm a faerie, so know that I am incapable of lying, neither I, or the boss will ever try to hurt you, okay?" The child nodded, relaxing a bit.
Cyrus brought them to his car, guiding them with a hand on their shoulder. They leaned into the touch, surprising Cyrus. He had expected the child to move away from his hand, not do whatever this was. He ignored it though, the child looked slightly less nervous and that was his goal. Neither of them spoke on the short walk to the Fae's car.
"So, kid, what's your name? I can't keep calling you 'kid', that's gonna get awkward pretty soon." Cyrus asked as he drove.
Sage eyed him, "I've been told not to give the Fae my name," they answered.
Cyrus nodded, and told them again that neither he or Bob would use their name to hurt them, and that he didn't need their real name, a fake one was just fine as long as he wasn't constantly calling them 'kid'. Sage thought about it for a minute, before accepting his words and giving him their name. Cyrus hummed and continued driving. The rest of the drive passed in silence.
The house they stopped at was small but had a nice garden. When they stepped in, Sage saw the manager from the CaFae in the kitchen, making food. Most likely it would be for the three of them, but Sage didn't feel like getting their hopes up for something that might not happen.
Cyrus gave them a tour of the house, Sage found it to be quite spacious given what they saw on the outside. The fae showed them his room, Bob's room, and the guest room, which he told the child it belonged to them now. Sage didn't know how they felt about that, they were pretty sure they would just get kicked out once the owners of this new home found out about why they'd been kicked out of their last one.
Sage ended up being invited for dinner, and when they tried to help clear the table and do the dishes, they were shooed away and told to get ready for bed. So they did, well they tried to at least, but when they realised they had only brought the clothes on their back, they gave up, and went to sit on their bed.
When they were almost done cleaning up the kitchen, Cyrus went upstairs, expecting to hear Sage in the bathroom, showering or brushing their teeth, and was surprised when he didn't hear anything. He went over to the guest bedroom and knocked on the door, hoping the child was in there.
"Hey Sage, you in there?" He heard a hum coming from the other side of the door.
"Can I come in?" Another hum came from the room. Cyrus took it as a yes and warned the child he was coming in, then opened the door. When he stepped in, he saw Sage, sitting cross legged on a still perfectly made bed.
"So, kid, you have a reason why you're sitting here? You already set for bed?" he asked, already knowing they'd say no. If they had been ready he was pretty sure they'd be under the covers, not sitting cross-legged on a perfectly made bed.
Sage rolled their eyes, "Well, I don't know if you noticed, but I don't have anything to get ready for bed."
"Oh shit, sorry Sage, I was convinced I saw you come into the Cafae with a bag, I'll get you something."
Cyrus came back a few minutes later with everything the child could possibly need and put it on the desk. Sage thanked him and began getting ready for bed. They were fast asleep by the time Bob and Cyrus came by to say goodnight.