#IT DOES NOT MATTER THAT YOU ARE A DIVORCEE!! I MUST SQUIMSH U LIKE A PUPPY

[so-very-small]

giant, staring down at their tiny friend: *thinking about how oh my god they are so cute and tiny and I could just scoop em up and squish em and mess up their hair and snuggle them super tight and RAAAAHHHHH CUTENESS AGGRESSION MUST SMOTHER AND KISS*

the tiny, unaware of the giant’s thoughts, taking a drag of their cigarette and scratching their stubble, because they are, in fact, a grownass man: so Linda left me

[hopewriteszstuff]

Allow me to shamelessly post a fic I have wrote, inspired entirely by this post:

Even among the orphans, some were more orphaned than the others.

Little Treasures Orphanage, the only place Navarra and her siblings was able to call home after the death of her parents in a tragic accident, but was she even able to call it home? With everything she is seeing here?

She is almost thirteen, “no one will adopt a teenager”, said the workers,the teachers, and the caregivers. 

“And no one will adopt a lazy, disobedient child.”

So she has been acting as a mother to the younger kids around her, constantly checking up on them, feeding them, taking care of them even more than the caregivers of the Orphanage.

But she… wasn't she a child too? Didn't she deserve to be loved and cared for as well? Didn't she deserve parents? And comfort? A warm hug and a friend? 

Every time she went to her bed, she wrapped the blankets around her frail form and quietly sobbed, and just like that, another day had passed by.

But one day, it all started to change.

===================

Borrowers are known to be small, fragile creatures, creatures that couldn't be seen by anyone or it will endanger their lives.

But some break that rule, some of them shouldn't be seen by anyone, as they were, in themselves, a danger to the lives of others.

And so that was the case with Lumen.

While borrowers stood at an inch or two, he was a staggering seven inches, and as such he often asked himself if he was even a borrower at this point.

The answer that he got from how the borrowers reacted when they saw him was no, he wasn't.

And so Lumen led a solitary life alongside his brother, Arsen.

“Do we really have to stay here?” The younger of the two asked as he lifted himself and held to his cane.

“We have only been here for less than a year. Besides, the kids sleep early, there's plenty of food to eat, and there's no one else except for us”

Lumen replied as he prepared the few things he needed for each time he went borrowing, or more accurately, went hunting.

“Sure, sure, and it's not because you have this stupid idea that these kids are your responsibility and you have to be around to “protect them” or whatever…” 

“I have no idea what you are talking about, why would I care for human children?” Lumen leaned to the walls of their makeshift room that they built underneath the orphanage.

“You literally cried when that last kid got adopted, of course you don't “care about them”, not at all,” 

The older of the pair lifted his finger to say something, but instead went silent, for he couldn't deny that claim.

 “I will see you later…” Lumen sighed and adjusted his long black coat over his thin body, having nothing with him except for a rope made from threads and a makeshift knife.

“Be safe, and don't bring rat meat this time, we had enough of that.”

“We will see what I can get.” 

Lumen then started crawling through walls he knew better than the back of his hands, he could walk through these tunnels and passages blindfolded and he will still know his way through.

Yet something was different today, something that put his task to a halt… The sobs of a little girl.

He stopped at his place as he heard the quiet whimpers, a soft yet painful sound only his sharp senses could pick up, he slowly and carefully peeked from a hole in a broken electrical outlet that the workers never bothered to fix.

It was the newest girl to arrive, what was her name again? Navarra.

The relationship that the borrower had with the orphans was complicated, they never saw him or even knew that he existed before.

But he? He knew the children one by one, youngest to oldest, which toys they preferred and which foods they loved and hated. 

He had seen many of them from the nights they were left at the doorstep to the day they were taken by their new parents.

Never once did he interact or intervene with their lives, he shouldn't, he always told himself that. 

So when he heard the human girl cry to herself, alone and so late at night, he was filled with guilt and pity towards her.

What he was going to do was undeniably the stupidest, most dangerous thing he thought of in all of the two-hundred-something years he lived,but what was his other choice? Leave a little lonely girl to cry herself to sleep and never forgive himself for being able to comfort her?

“You alright, little one?” he called, then immediately facepalmed as he committed what is essentially a cardinal sin in the world of borrowers.

Also, Little one? He was the one who's little! The girl is ten times his size! But yet he could only see her as small and fragile, perhaps it was the way she was curled in her bed, hugging her knees and covered in her blanket.

He hoped she wouldn't have heard him but his hopes sank when she looked around her.

“Who's there?”

Her voice came shakey and heavy with her tears, which prompted Lumen even more to continue the conversation, but now he had to think of something since he couldn't just tell her he was a borrower.

“I'm…Your imaginary friend.” Another facepalm,he must have left his brain at home or something.

“My… what?” The poor girl was very confused.

“Your imaginary friend, the angel on your shoulder, your… uhh…Jiminy Cricket, the voice that tells you what's right and what's wrong.”

The girl's large, dark brown eyes blinked in understanding, she let out a soft hum and wiped her tears.

“But… but I think I'm too old for that?”

“You’re never too old for help, child,” He said with a comforting tone. “Why were you crying?”

“I wasn't_ I'm fine, really, nothing happened,” Navarra insisted, even as the tears fell on her freckled cheeks and even as her blanket was soaked with them.

He could see how this would go, and decided to not pry into it. 

“Then I will be on my way, little one, I might talk to you soon, or not.” 

He barely took a step before she called back.

“Wait! Wait.. Can you stay a little longer please? Please?”

A whirlwind of emotions hit him, his heart was fluttering and he couldn't stop it, and yet he also wished she hadn't heard him at all, and now he has to continue in this act.

Was that a good thing? Or a bad thing?

“Sure thing, little one, I'm here as long as you need me.” He found himself sitting down in the gap behind the outlet, still peeking from the holes.

“I’m lonely, I have no friends here, just bullies.”

“My brothers and sisters are too young, they need our mom, and I'm not her.” She sighed, those tears won't stop coming no matter how much she tried.

“I need our mom too,”

“I know, baby,I know you do” he thought as he listened to her, he fidgeted with the rope he was holding, and regretted not taking a cigarette with him.

“What's your name?” The girl asked all of a sudden.

“Who_me? You're asking me?”

“Yes, who else?” 

He contemplated for a moment, should he lie about that too or should he say the truth? 

There was an awkward, deafening silence for both of them.

“Lumen, you can call me Lumen.”

“Lumen,that's a pretty name,” the girl thought to herself.

“Mister Lumen… the kids often bully me, and say bad things about me… I don't want to hurt them like they hurt me… what do I do…”

“Good question, you talked to your teachers about it? And your caregivers?” 

“Yeah, they wouldn't do anything about it, they say it's boys being boys and I should just ignore them.”

“Tell you what, tell me which kids are bullying you…”

Navarra says a few names to her “Jiminy Cricket”, and wipes her tears one last time, she gets her large storm of curly brown hair.

“Thank you for listening to me.”

“Of course, dear, it's the least I can do.”

“But keep it a secret, okay?”

For the next few months, and the months after them, little miracles would happen to Navarra.

She would always find an extra cookie on her bed, in her school bag, on the shelf, it was always a well hidden place.

Whenever someone bullies her,hurts her, or says mean things to her, they would occasionally wake up scared, or they would trip over something, or they would step on something, like a lego.

And every night she wouldn't be crying herself to sleep, she would be instead talking about anything and everything to her new friend, whom she can't see but she can definitely hear and feel.

And Lumen had another reason to live and go on with his immortality.

“So have you ever heard about The Borrowers? That's actually my favorite book! It's about tiny people who like, take things and_”

Lumen choked for a second, but tried to stay calm and cool, she is just talking about her favorite book, surely she won't_

“So are you a borrower? Is that why I can't see you? Because you are actually tiny?”

Well Fu_dge

It's fine,he can absolutely handle this.

“I'm whatever you imagine me to be,speaking of which, what do you imagine I look like?” He couldn't lie, he was genuinely curious.

“Well you… sound old, not really old but… you sound like my dad or something.”

Dad? DAD?! The word was so simple yet it struck his heart, to the point where he found himself putting a hand on his chest, it's been so very long since he was this… alive.

“You kinda speak like him too, I can't really think of anything else for now.”

But it was more than enough for the ancient borrower, it was enough to draw a blood tear from his eyes.

“I'm glad I met you, Mister Lumen, But I wish you were here sooner.”

“I was always here, Little One, I think it's that you needed me now.”

The next few days weren't as pleasant.

As far as Lumen knew,she stopped talking to him all of a sudden.

He paced around in his room, left and right and left and right and_

“Sit the HECK down! You're driving me crazy!” Arsen demanded as he got dizzy from following his brother around.

“Why is she not talking like she used to? What did I do wrong?!”

“Trusting a human in the first place, for one, for all you know she probably found out what you actually are and she is snitching on you.”

“But it went well! Everything was good and right and well!”

“Hey, hey, quit panicking, stop it.” Arsen placed his hand on Lumen’s shoulder.

“I tell you what, try talking to her one more time, tonight, and if she keeps ignoring you, then that's the end of it.” The younger vampire suggested.

“I might try… I might.”

And so on that night,he went to the same outlet he always goes to, with a cigarette in his hand, one that he made by taking a normal sized cigarette, cutting the paper and pouring some of the contents into something he could smoke.

“Still giving me the silent treatment?” He asked into the air with a half joking, half heart-broken tone.

“I just want to know what made you angry with me all of a sudden.”

He looked through the outlet and noticed how she was looking at his direction.

Wait, his direction? 

“Did something happen?”

“...” Her broken expression wasn't a good sign.

“One of the kids snitched at me… Said I'm talking to ghosts… That I'm crazy.”

“The caregivers knew, and they told me to never do it again, or they will put me in an asylum.”

“You're my friend, and I care for you but… but I don't want to be crazy…”

“You're real, right? I'm not crazy, right?!”

The pain and fear in her voice was tearing Lumen into shreds, and he decided that the secret shouldn't stay a secret anymore.

“Let me show you the answer.”

He has checked earlier, as he always does,that the kids were either deep asleep or weren't in the room.

He kicked the outlet and it pathetically fell down to his strength.

Navarra softly gasped as a tiny person crawled out of the outlet and swiftly jumped to the end of her bed.

There stood before her, a man as tall as a pencil and almost as thin, clad in black, with white bandages all across his face, and the most gentle pair of gray eyes she had ever seen.

He smoked a cigarette in one hand, and stood casually as if nothing was weird or wrong about all of this.

“There's your answer.” He said to her as he leaned on the wall.

Navarra blinked, once,twice,then she laughed.

“You're real! I can't believe my eyes! Oh my god oh my god oh my god!” 

Lumen regretted everything that led to this point when the hands of the human reached at the speed of light to grab him, and he wasn't quick enough to react.

So like a sad helpless doll he was picked up in the loving arms of a girl whom he was ready to burn the world for, and perhaps that's why he didn't try to run away from her.

He sighed and allowed himself to be hugged, even if the hug was so strong he heard and felt his bones being rearranged,the cigarette has already fallen from his hand into who knows where.

He also allowed her to pet him as if he was a kitten, even if he was a whole grown up man.

“Did you know? I'm going to be adopted soon! And all of my siblings too!”

“For real?” He asked while trying to adjust himself in the arms of the human girl, not running away, just adjusting.

“Yeah! And that's why I stopped talking to you too… I was scared the kids would snitch on me and tell them I was crazy! But it doesn't matter anymore because you're real and you were there the whole time!”

“I'm happy for you too, Baby.” he calmly patted her, even if he sounded a little out of breath.

She hugged him even tighter, which began to hurt at this point.

“Too tight, little one.” He very gently said, as if not to offend the sweetheart, she was very well intentioned after all.

“Ah, I'm sorry!” Navarra set the borrower back on her bed.

“But that means… I won't see you again…” She frowned, a tear forming in her eye.

“I'm going to miss you so much… Thank you for everything you did to me…I wouldn't have made it without you…”

Lumen smiled at her, but he was just as broken, only now did it hit him that he was a borrower and she is a human, and she deserves a family, a real one.

“You're the bravest kid I have ever seen in my whole life, Navarra, and I know you're going to have a great, wonderful life, with or without me.”

Navarra gave Lumen another gentle hug, and he leaned into the warmth of it.

“Goodnight… and Goodbye…”

“Goodnight, Dear.”

Before they broke the hug, Lumen gave the girl one gentle kiss on her cheek, and caressed it with an almost microscopic hand and with a blood tear in his eye.

“You be good out there, okay? Make me proud of you.”

“I will! I promise!” She stuck out her pinky, and awkwardly he shook it.

“Atta girl.” He waved to her and slowly he climbed downwards, and back to the outlet he came from he went.

Next morning, Navarra met a gentleman and his wife, who agreed to adopt all her siblings with her. 

And along her siblings, two other kids were adopted with her, A grumpy boy who named himself Falcon, and a cheerful girl who called herself Bee.

To this day she often thinks about Lumen and the short yet wonderful time she knew him at.

Lumen took time to recover from the loss, even thought about leaving the Orphanage for good, but realized eventually that he would want to give this experience to other people, he wanted to love and be loved.

Perhaps soon, he would. 

giant, staring down at their tiny friend: *thinking about how oh my god they are so cute and tiny and I could just scoop em up and squish em and mess up their hair and snuggle them super tight and RAAAAHHHHH CUTENESS AGGRESSION MUST SMOTHER AND KISS*

the tiny, unaware of the giant’s thoughts, taking a drag of their cigarette and scratching their stubble, because they are, in fact, a grownass man: so Linda left me