Baby blue (eyes)

5

Within a minute, Caboose finds himself in what looks like a shoddy attempt at a kitchen, the orange man who'd swore from earlier completely quiet, looking just a bit like one of his sisters when he'd forget something important. The man is nicer, though, and introduces himself as Grif, but Caboose thinks he's already starting to forget the name, so he likes to call the man Orange, because orange is a pretty color and he likes how the word feels when he says it, and it's easier to say then the other name. The man is a lot like his sisters, the ones who weren't the oldest, who would let him hold their arms or hands whenever they walked anywhere, because he lets Caboose grab two of his fingers, the rest of the hand to big for the boy to hold with his smaller hands, and Orange doesn't gently nor quickly pull his hand away like some of the older sisters did whenever they were outside.

Caboose is very hungry, and is happy to hold food in his hands, but he waits, first, to see if anybody would ask for it.

Orange just grunts at him to eat, and turns to Pink, talking about babies, and Caboose thinks he's talking about him, because his sisters said that because he's the youngest, he's a baby, but Caboose knows he isn't, because he's 4. He says nothing, because mama would say he's a big baby boy, her big baby, in a voice he doesn't like and that the sister whose third youngest says she doesn't like neither, because she says it sounds like mama is making fun of them, but Caboose doesn't like it because it isn't mama's voice, he likes it much better when she speaks like she always does.

Orange keeps going, saying how growing up needs food and energy and Caboose doesn't know if that's true, but he keeps anyways, because he's really hungry. Orange then turns to him, and asks if he's still hungry, and Caboose nods. He gets more food, and he smiles a bit at Orange, whose face does something odd, like papa whenever he does his homework quickly and right.

He isn't hungry anymore, but he does want to go outside for play, and he wants to play tag with the younger sisters, or maybe hide and seek, because he's fast, and he's good at hiding, even if mama doesn't like him playing hide and seek; she'd told him it's because he's too good at the game, and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to find him or that he'd get lost. Caboose had told her he would always find home, though, and she'd smiled, but didn't stop crying, and he didn't feel too good for some time after that, not knowing why mama was sad.

Orange turns back to him, asking if he was still hungry, and this time Caboose shook his head no, but reached his hands out to be set off his chair. Orange helped him stand on the ground, and asked him what he wanted to do, but Caboose didn't know what to say, how to answer. He didn't get mad, but frowned like some of the people mama yelled at before telling him he could decide when he wanted to speak and that nobody could force him.

His sisters liked it, though, when he spoke to them, because they said he was very funny, and papa says he's smart, in his own way, even if it's not said in the same way that other smart people would say it.

His hands tremble, and he waves Orange down, before running to hide, rushing into the room where he'd woken up, and sees an oval thing - he freezes in his tracks, pokes it, feeling like he knows it, and isn't that funny? It whirs loudly at his poke, and he grins, drags it to Pink and Orange to show his discovery and his new friend to the two.

By now, the clothes that were just a bit too tight on him have been forgotten, but clearly the adults haven't forgot, because Pink is holding out pants, and oh, huh. Guess he hadn't been wearing pants, the sweater acting more like a slightly above knee length dress, despite it being sized for an adult - papa always said he was a big boy.

Once slightly more dressed, the two adults are much more amenable to whatever whims Caboose has; the main one, however, is how he wants to build, the moment he finds small rocks and compact dirt, having wandered outside whilst following a distracted Pink. Orange had gotten a bit frustrated, but Caboose had been made to promise he wouldn't run to far off, would stay by the base walls and entrance.

By the time an hour had passed, Caboose had built the starts to a child sized castle - Donut had claimed he needed a shower, to wash, and that Grif could watch him, and whilst Grif had planned to rest his eyes - a state that wasn't quite sleep, nor was it quite wakefulness, a skill he'd mastered during his time watching after Kai - he'd found himself just a bit distracted for maybe a few minutes by just how determined Caboose looked. Or, maybe determined wasn't the word; the kid had unfocused eyes that didn't seem to look here or there, though his hands moved with purposeful fervor.

Another hour had passed, during which Caboose had finished 3 fourths of his build, the structure around mid torso height. Another half hour saw Sarge passing by, getting affronted by the sight of a "Blue infringing onto our base!" but the old guy had left once it was clear Caboose wasn't paying attention to anything but building.

Then, it was done. The kid had gotten up, once and only once, to fetch big leaves of flat, strong objects to act as roof support, then finishing the little home with a rocky roof, and he crawled inside, happy as can be.

Grif, after another 2 hours of resting in such a way, finally got up to check on the kid; he was kind of impressed by the structure, and peered inside.

Within his creation, Caboose was peacefully asleep, as well as slightly taller, a few main differences being that the kid looked 10 whereas before he'd looked 4 or 5 years old, his brown hair noticeably longer now, too.

Grif grabbed the kid and lugged him inside the base, where he left the Blue on the couch that'd been unanimously temporarily lent to Caboose by now for the duration of his stay.

Lopez, who'd been probably poking at the Epsilon unit, was in the room, and Grif easily passed the kid to the mechanical being, ignoring the monotone yet angry spanish words that followed his exit to his room.