~FINALLY. I finished a sketch of Sam that I liked enough to share. This is just my interpretation of him, so let me know if it fits what you all thought he looked like! (Zoom in for better details on his face :))~
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Jamie woke up to a concussion.
He never told his parents what happened. Just that he came home from his trip earlier than them, fell over his luggage, and hit his head on the hardwood floor.
Jamie's parents were good people; they believed him with eager hearts and made sure he take a day or two off to rest his head. He took it with open arms. Jamie was tired, his head hurt, and most of all: He was confused.
A tall, scary looking man broke into his home, threatening him over something out of a fairy tale, and then attacked him when he didn't get the answer he wanted. Even worse, Jamie somehow ended up in his bed at the end of it, meaning the stranger had at least some bit of remorse in his soul.
Which meant that he might not have been beyond reason after all. Especially when Jamie found a black and orange book bag on the floor of his room that he hadn't touched since he first moved in. The same bag that contained no evidence of the little people the man was so crazy about, and yet Jamie couldn't get it out of his pain-ridden head.
The fact that there could've been a minuscule possibility that he kidnapped tiny people and took them away from their family...it didn't sit right with him. It was impossible, sure, but the way that man was acting only worried Jamie to the point where his head was throbbing at the missing memories from four years ago.
A storm was gathering clouds outside. The forecast called for nothing short of flash floods and a plethora of high speed winds, not to mention the insane amount of thunder in counties surrounding Jamie's. He heard from his mother, who then warned him that driving for the next day would result in him losing his car due to dangerous weather patterns, let alone the massive headache that resided within his skull.
Jamie was not a rebellious child by any means, but he always did what was necessary to cure his curiosity. And if that meant going against his mother's wishes, he would do so by any means.
If the whole thing was true, he didn't know what he would do. However, there was only one way to find out.
So Jamie sought out to find it.
~~~
"Did you talk to him? How was it?" Sam bounced in place, eager to hear the results from Elijah and Axel's conversation. If you could even call it that.
"Good," Axel smiled down at his feet, tail waving back and forth behind him. He seemed much happier now that he began the conversation with the human, not that Sam could blame him. It was hard to to be upset around Eli.
"Are you gonna keep texting?"
Axel bobbed his little head, the curls flopping about and Sam nearly cried with relief.
"You have to keep me updated! You like Eli, right? He's really good at making sure you're comfortable. Make sure you tell him if you don't like something, okay? Or else he'll feel really bad and-"
"Okay," Axel, for the first time in his life, had the courage to cut someone off. He never did that before meeting a human. He proposed the idea in his head that the sole reason was because he now had a human to back him up if anything went wrong, but maybe his confidence had something to do with it.
Before either of the brothers could comment on it, though, an odd notification on the phone rang out for the whole family to hear.
EMERGENCY REPORT
FLASH FLOOD WARNING IN THIS AREA UNTIL 11 AM EDT. AVOID FLOOD AREAS.
"That can't be good," Sam reached his hand out for Axel to grab, who had nearly jumped at the loud pang. "C'mon, we'll go to mama and papa."
When the two boys reached their parents, still in the process of packing, Sam was the first to speak up.
"There's a storm coming soon. It's supposed to be bad until tomorrow morning."
"And how do you know that?" Jack narrowed his eyes down at Sam, who stood even higher at his glare.
"The phone told me. It's useful."
"It's a human invention-"
"Jack," Drizzle's stern voice floated in, her light steps making it nearly impossible to tell she entered by his side. "Thank you for letting us know, Sammy. Do you want to go borrowing for us and gather some things before it hits?"
The opportunity to go outside the walls with his parents permission? Sam would take it in a heartbeat.
"No," Jack put his foot down before Sam could even agree. "Not if he's just going to see the humans."
"Papa, you can't be serious."
"I'm very serious. I don't know how well we can trust you to get us supplies when I know damn well you're going straight to your humans for help-"
"I am my own person, papa," Sam replied, giving himself a boost in height by standing up straight. He took a step forward and let go of Axel's hand, making himself as intimidating as he possible could against his father.
"And yet you hang out with them like a pet," Jack spat back.
"Jack!"
"They are what brought you here. If you can't be thankful enough to appreciate what they did for you, I'd much rather stay with them," Said Sam, in a manner that portrayed a calm facade. On the inside, he was practically screaming with fury.
Sam was not a pet. He was a friend to his humans, and to think any differently would be denying everything they had done for him.
"It's not about what they did," Jack argued once more. He crossed his arms and let his gaze turn to ice. "It's about what they are."
"What they are, are my friends, Papa!" He couldn't hold back anymore. Sam could feel the heat behind his eyes, yet he absolutely refused to let any tears shed and prove that he was not prepared to argue his case.
"Jack, leave him alone," Drizzle intervened with a deep sigh. The white strip in her hair stood out more than ever, and she attached herself to Jack's arm to calm him down. "You're both obviously upset. Axel, why don't you go with Sam and help him borrow. Papa and I will stay here."
"Why would you let-"
"Axel isn't going to visit any humans. And he's safe with Sam, so we might as well prepare for the storm while they go borrow." She reasoned with her husband, who's face was only slightly flushed with anger now.
Axel, for his part, was not a big fan of being pawned off like some object to win his fathers approval. He didn't speak up, regardless.
"I'll take him," Sam said. "If it means you let me go, I wanna take him with me." Sam said it with venom on his tongue, but it was only noticeable with the burning glare he used against his father.
Axel felt as if this was not a family he wanted to be a part of for the time being, and so he nodded along to Sam's request, eager to leave the argument.
"Go ahead, boys," Drizzle shoo'ed them off with the wave of her hand, wrapping the other one around Jack's waist. "Your father and I are going to have a talk."
Sam, not exactly willing to witness his father get yelled out, took Axel's hand in his own and began down the hallway within the walls. His first priority was borrowing, sure, but all he really wanted was to take the first exit and come from underneath Leo's bed, getting to reunite with his humans.
As it was, Axel was dragged along to do the necessary tasks. It was more important to come back with the necessary items, just to make sure Sam's parents didn't get overly suspicious. And if it took too long, he planned on chalking it up to his first run with Axel. He didn't know how well the little borrower knew the ropes, after all.
They tip-toed through the walls together, hand in hand, sneaking around as if they were scavenging mice on a hunt.
"We're getting tin foil, first," Sam declared, making a turn in their path towards the exact place he knew it to be; in a supply closet directly beside the guest room, where Elijah currently resided. "Then cloth, and that should be it. I stocked up on food not too long ago."
"You're not-t-t planning on s-seeing the humans, right-t?" Axel whispered back, his tail stiff as a board. The little one was having a terrible time trying to catch up with Sam, despite being dragged by his hand. With the bad limp in his leg and horrible posture, it was no surprise Axel wasn't cut out for swift borrowing trips.
"Maybe..." Sam responded, putting a finger to his lips as he stopped in front of an entrance.
To the naked human eye, there looked to be around three tubs of glue against the back of the supply closet wall, but to a borrower, it was an entrance point to get whatever necessary that trip. While squeezing past the tubs wasn't the easiest part in the pitch black, Sam's eyes were able to get used to it fairly quickly.
Axel followed far behind, beyond scared of the dark, but again not willing to speak up about his fears in the middle of an important task.
Sam made Axel stay where he was at the bottom of the bookshelf containing multitudes of helpful items, while he climbed up using the fishing hook that he hadn't been able to use since what seemed like forever ago. Once he found what he was looking for, he threw it to the ground and prayed Axel wasn't caught in the crossfire.
Elijah could've sworn he heard distant thuds from outside his bedroom. He decided to blame it on the medicine he was given, and rested his head against the pillow once more.
"Good?" Sam asked Axel when he touched his feet the the safety of the hardwood floor. The tiny brother only nodded in response, gripping Sam's hand in the dark in an attempt to warn off his paranoia. The humans could've easily heard the tin foil tube fall to the ground, or the scuffling of little feet in the hallways. Unless they had gotten incredibly lucky, Axel feared he might be caught.
"Just relax," Sam reassured him, allowing him to hold a piece of cloth to calm down. "One more trip, and then we're done."
"You s-said we only needed these things-s-s...?"
"I know. I wanna go see my friends," Said Sam. Axel's heart beat increased with a velocity he didn't think possible.
He wanted to say no. He didn't know why, especially after learning that at least one of the humans had a kind soul, but Axel wasn't ready. It was supposed to take longer, allowing him to build up enough courage and see the human on his own. Not be reduced by Sam, who couldn't even give him the time of day to notice how poor he was trembling.
But the longer he was dragged on, the longer Axel's confidence faded, and he found himself rendered incapable of speech. Surely, Sam must've been able to feel the shaking in his hand, but ignored it out of pure excitement to see his human friends.
"You feel comfortable with Eli, right? I'll drop you off with him since he's closest, and then go find the others," Sam didn't even allow Axel the time to answer his question. Not that he could even if he wanted to; his lips were glued shut with anxiety.
Right up until the moment Axel was forced to climb the wire surrounding the bedside table of the human being in the room, he felt on the verge of passing out. He wouldn't have even scaled the stupid thing if it weren't for the fear of being left alone in the same room as the giant, and so he followed Sam's movements until he reached the wooden countertop and nearly stopped breathing at the sight.
A human, sitting in bed, seemingly fast asleep.
The vast expanse of his body went on for miles under the covers that could easily warm a thousand borrowers. His eyes were easily double the size of Axel's head, and the hands that lay at his side had the power to squish him without a second thought. Axel might've talked to this human before, but seeing him in person was a whole other ordeal.
He was brought back to inside he cereal box, crying at the sight of such large teeth being directed at him. The way that human loomed over like a little kid interested in some weird bug to take home and keep as a pet until it inevitably died from the lack of care...
Axel ran behind Sam, continuing to shake like crazy. Sam was either too infatuated with Elijah to notice, or he simply just didn't care. Either way, he ignored Axel's silent pleas, and cupped his hands up to his mouth to wake Eli up.
"Eli!" Sam screamed at the top of his lungs, bouncing back and forth on his toes.
"Hm?" The giant responded far too quick to be asleep.
"Wake up! I have Axel here with me!"
Elijah most definitely heard the two borrowers scrambling up the wire, but figured the most careful route to take was one that required him to fake being asleep. If it helped Axel feel more safe, Elijah would comply in a heartbeat.
A little drizzle was forming outside, the soft pattering of the rain could be heard from the glass windows, but Elijah was only focused on one thing.
Nothing could've prepared him for the sight of the little borrower, once again in his field of vision, yet hidden behind Sam's much larger figure.
He just looked so...tiny. The way he felt when he saw Sam for the first time, but somehow amplified in the sense that something even more protective washed over him. Especially when said borrower was currently quivering in fear behind his older brother.
Eli made sure he sat up extra careful, though it still resulted in a flinch from Axel in the process. Sam only looked up in pride at his human, twitching his tail back and forth.
"Hi," Elijah whispered down to them. When he witnessed Axel's response, he refused to say anything more.
"Where are Leo and Skip?"
"Probably upstairs or in the living room, why?"
"I'm gonna go find them," Sam announced, and began making his way to the edge of the table. Axel looked to all the world ready to follow in his footsteps, but it seemed his legs wouldn't work, and he was paralyzed with fear from the human in the room.
"Hang on, Sam, Wait-" Elijah knew better to reach out and stop him, and instead leaned forward to capture Sam's attention. Axel finally shook out of his catatonic state and slunk back a few steps with terror in his eyes at the creaking of the bed. "Sorry. Do you think that's the best idea?"
"Axel knows you, it's okay," Sam was already halfway down the wire with his speed and eager attitude. Nobody would stop him from seeing his humans, apparently.
"Well, don't you think he might be uncomfortable?" Elijah pressed on, his eyes avoiding Axel's. "He's never met a human before."
"He met you online. And I got used to humans pretty quickly, I know he'll be okay. Right, Axel?"
Axel, for whatever reason, shockingly nodded his head yes to accompany the trembles in his little body.
Elijah didn't believe it for a second, but figured he wouldn't be able to change Sam's stubborn mind when it came to seeing Leo. So, he let Sam go, and leaned back once again onto his soft bed.
The first few minutes were incredibly awkward.
Axel was scared out of his mind, shaking like a little leaf out on the cold wood of the table, and he wasn't able to speak even if he wanted to. The human being right in front of him, looming over everything without even trying, was like a monster to him.
Yet, Axel couldn't hate him entirely. If this was the Elijah from the texts, he felt almost a little bit safer in his presence, especially as he watched him argue for Axel's comfort. Still, humans were scary, and Axel continued to be afraid at the figure before him.
He didn't know how Sam could be so oblivious to his obvious state of fear. Either he truly didn't care about him lie Axel thought he did, or he was too ingrained in the other humans to take notice to someone who was supposed to be his brother. Axel didn't know which one was worse, but he did know it hurt him to his core at the thought of being betrayed like that.
When Elijah started to hear tiny sniffling, he knew he needed to speak up.
"Hey," Eli turned his head and finally was able to look Axel dead-on, with no consequences following. The little borrower had his head down and used his hands in an attempt to cover up the obvious tears that were falling. "Hey, it's okay. Don't cry."
Elijah was feeling some sense of Deja Vu, from the first time he met Sam all those days ago.
"Axel, you don't have to be scared. I won't do anything, okay? Please don't cry..."
Unable to hold Axel the way he held Sam, Elijah didn't quite know what to do with his hands. Instead, he kept them in his lap and felt twitching fingers every now and then, but generally avoided the itch to scoop Axel up and hold him closer.
"Look, I'll even turn around. Will that help?" He swung his legs up and positioned himself so that his back was facing the table, and began to talk once more. "See, I'm not even looking. If you wanted to leave, you could go and I wouldn't even know."
The little rain was beginning to pick up outside, but it wasn't too bad. Just a fair amount to water the plants, and that was all.
He didn't hear any minuscule footsteps, so he took that as his cue to continue.
"You know, Sam cried the first time we met, too. He was so scared he started crying, and I had to calm him down and talk with him for a couple hours. Leo and Skip were there too, but they didn't do much. Nobody can really stop me when I talk, i don't know why, maybe because I don't really stop unless someone interrupts. Anyways, I was sitting on the couch in the living room- have you been to the living room yet? I can take you there if you ever wanna go. There's a super comfortable couch- anyways, I was on the couch and held him in my hands and talked with him for a little bit. I basically just told him all about me and Leo and Skip, because I figured he didn't know anything. Turns out, he knew us by heart because we had been texting the whole time! We just didn't know that he knew, which made it really confusing at first...am I rambling?"
Elijah looked over his shoulder to see Axel staring up at him with wide eyes, and they made eye contact for the first time. Almost immediately, Axel was the first to look away, watching his feet as if they were more interesting. It seemed his body betrayed him, because Elijah couldn't help but notice the tail swishing behind his back.
Eli turned his head back to its original spot, thinking for a moment, and then outright laughed at the experience he just encountered. After a while, he thought he heard a giggle from behind.
"Did I hear a laugh?" Elijah teased. Instead of a response, the laughter increased by a tiny percentage. "Oh wow, I think there's a ghost in my room. Who could be laughing when I'm here all by myself?"
Axel wasn't sure about chuckling along with the human, but the more he did, the more comfortable he was able to feel. It was a way to communicate with Elijah without needing to speak, and reveal his speech patterns in the process. The last thing he wanted was to look weak in front of the giant.
"Can I turn around?" Said Elijah, eagerly waiting for a response. When he didn't receive one, he figured he might need to take a different route of action. "How about this; stay silent if I can, and tap on the ground if I can't."
It was silent for a good minute and a half before Eli seemed it appropriate to turn back around on his bed and faced the bedside table once more.
The little borrower was looking up at him with a lot more bravery than he was able to witness before. If it weren't for Sam trying to speed the process up, Elijah knew their first meeting definitely could've started that way, but he figured the worst of it was over.
The rain was coming down in sheets now, casting constant moving beads of shadows over everything in the room.
"Don't blame Sam," he started off. "He's just a little trigger happy when it comes to Leo. He didn't abandon you, okay?"
It was as if the human knew exactly what was going on in Axel's head, and he felt about ready to cry again at his words.
A sudden burst of thunder broke through the silence, not loud enough to scare Axel, but enough to threaten the possibility of more to accompany the rain outside.
"He is really stupid for doing that to you though, and I'm gonna have a long talk with him about that."
"No!" Axel screamed out, immediately recoiling back into himself when he realized what he had done.
"...okay, if you don't want me to I won't."
Eli didn't even seem phased by the outburst, or the fact that Axel had spoken to him for the first time. His voice was so quiet and distinctive from anything he heard before, and Elijah would do whatever it took to get him speaking once again.
"Can I ask why?"
Axel shook his head. He didn't want to vent his problems out to the human on their first meeting.
"That's alright. Why don't we just forget we both said anything, okay?"
The borrower nodded along, bringing his tail up to the front and wringing it out of stress with both hands. A sudden light flashed within the windows of the room.
"Nervous?" Elijah asked, and Axel nodded again in response. "You don't have to be. Like I said, I know it's scary, but I won't do anything you don't want me-"
Thunder broke through the house, shaking the very tabletop Axel was standing on, and he fell with a shriek.
"It's okay!" Eli attempted to calm him down after the little one fell down. "It's just a little thunder! It'll be okay-"
As if on cue with his timing, another strike of lightning shone through the windows and Elijah prepared himself for a louder burst of thunder next.
"Can I hold you?" He asked the borrower, and to his surprise, Axel frantically nodded.
Before the next spurt of thunder could shake Axel once more, Elijah reached his slender fingers and snaked them around to scoop Axel up, setting him firm in the middle of his hand, where he barely covered a portion. Once safe and secured, he brought Axel back up to his chest and held him tight, just in time for the storm to cry out.
The boom that shook the house could only mean the lightning was closer than before. Eli could've sworn it was right beside him, but didn't want to say anything that might've scared Axel even more. He could feel the tiny one shaking in his hands and gripping the soft material on his shirt, and The human did his absolute best to shield him from the loud thunder.
"It's okay, you're okay..." Eli repeated over and over to the little form in his hands, whispering down to him in a soothing tone.
And Axel, the scared little borrower who's ears hurt and who's heart sped up, believed him.
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A/N: We're nearing the final chapters of this story! Don't worry, there's still a few left, but I can't wait to see how everyone feels about the ending.
How do y'all feel about Elijah and Axel's relationship? Does it remind you of Leo and Sam? Let me know!
As always, thank you very much for reading, and leave me a comment to let me know what you think of this new update :) ❤️