The Forest

-14-

Lucius stared up at the ceiling. It was stone. Grey, not unclean but not painted over, so it gave a kind of hard, industrial feeling. Actually, it kind of reminded him of the boarding school. That shitty old prison he had run away from. Everything there was funcional, but nothing was made to be pretty, nothing nice about the soulless brick. Hollow rooms with hollow people. Cold even when every window was shuttered and the heating was on full-blast.
He had spent a good few hours of every day just staring at ceilings and walls there, just like he was doing now. Wishing he was anywhere but there.

Things really weren't much different if he thought about it. Because he was stuck in some room, staring up at the ceiling, and the only reason he wasn't making more of fuss about it was because he had tiny people whose lives now depended on his ability to un-fuck the situation and get them home.
The only different between the then and the now was the place and the people, he supposed. The now was here, in this stupid cold police station with Viridis and Brianna hidden away in his sleeve. The then... well, Lucius actually kind of preferred the then, thinking about it. Because the place had been the boarding school, just as cold and a whole lot more unpleasant than here, but the person he had always had tucked away in his sleeve was Lyn. Lyn, back when her hair was short and she still wore that white dress everyday. On reflection, it seemed funny how the two of them had only ever had each other, and yet he had never felt lonely. Looking after her was the one thing that had made him happy. If not for her, he would have gone crazy.

Lucius suddenly realised just how much he missed having her fall asleep in his hand. Being stuck in some room that was trying to emulate the feel of the boarding school put her absence in glaring, bold letters. Everything was the same as it had been before running away, but this time, she wasn't with him. 

"This is such a fucking joke." He muttered at the ceiling. Voicing his thoughts. Partly because it was an absolute fucking joke, mostly because he didn't want to think about Lyn anymore.
"Humans are astoundingly stupid." A little voice agreed.
Lucius smiled despite everything. He tilted his head slightly down but kept his eyes on the wall, covered his mouth with the sleeve of his free hand, "Shh. They'll hear you."

He couldn't help but glance down into his lap despite knowing it was risky. It was a miracle the police never found these two when they searched him for weapons and whatnot, so Lucius wasn't chancing anything now. The police were probably watching him still. Cameras, one way glass. Something. Hell if he knew. Anyway— even if they weren't, better not to take chances.

He could see the two little figures peeking out of his sleeve. Brianna, still wrapped up in her scarf, with her puff of blonde curls bunching out in every direction, and Viridis leant against her. The boy still looked pale. He was hurt, Lucius could tell just by that look on his face, but he was also trying to hide it. Maybe that face would have worked on Lyn or Azure. But Lucius had faked a smile through a throbbing punch-bruise enough times to know what it looked like.
The two of them weren't trembling or nothing though, so that was good. They had calmed down since the car.

Lucius glanced at the door, to make sure nobody was peeking through the window. Paranoid. But he would rather be paranoid than careless.
"How is he?" He murmured.
"I'm okay." Viridis said.
Brianna smiled at the scout and answered the question truthfully, "No more bleeding, so that's good. He's far from okay though." And though he wanted to, Viridis couldn't protest to that. Even speaking made the gashes on his chest throb as if they meant to continue splitting and splitting until it tore him right in half.
Lucius was very aware of the boy's injuries despite Avery's bandage-clothes. Not being able to see the blood-stained plasters made it seem like the injury had healed or magically disappeared, but he knew the gashes remained.
Lucius swore under his breath as he looked up. Nothing in the room aside from the chair he was sitting on, one left adjacent just opposite him, and the table they went with. Nothing to help him open the locked door that stood a few steps away, and nothing to ease the tiny scout's pain.
"I'll get you guys home soon," he muttered, "Don't worry."
Brianna patted his thumb with her tiny hand in response. She had become more sympathetic after the recent events. But Brianna was pretty strong considering her size, and Lucius knew that if she truly believed him, that touch would have been far firmer.