Chapter Text
…everything was sore
You don’t know how much time passed before you could get your thoughts together, trying to remember as much as you could. The numbness slowly fading away as you squinted at first everything was just muddy colors, You kept trying to see as stuff began to clear up.
you were being held in your best friends arms on a couch, with a blanket and several wrappings tied around you as you looked around slowly moving your head so as to not get dizzy. He was asleep as you looked out the window of this small apartment, watching as snow fell past the window.
You were breathing, even as everything was still. You could hear as you listen to your heart beat. You were alive, even as the world seemed dead. And you hoped you didn’t forget about anything important, as you whispered “I'm actually here…”
You hear a groan as Zach sits up, causing you to duck down into the blanket so you don’t accidentally roll off the couch. “Hey, finally awake sleepyhead? You were out all day.”he asks as you give a weak chuckle, your throat still hurts.
Looking up to see his face, he shifts his square glasses with his free hand. The other holding your body up. He asks “Are you hungry? Thirsty?” you thought about it, but you couldn’t be too sure.
“Mm… I think so, I don't know.” he gave a nod, lifting you off of him and setting you down on the couch before he stood up. “I’ll make some soup then, it should be easy enough for you while you get used to this.” you watch him walk into the kitchen and just out of sight.
Slowly, you move your legs around till they are over the couch. The cold air tickles you as you stand up, you keep the blanket wrap tight within your hands as you try to keep your arms still. Once you feel stable standing on the rug, you try to walk over to join your best friend.
Once you touch the wooden floor however, you flinch back against the piercing cold on your feet. Losing your balance and falling on your back with a thud, losing your breath in a wheeze. You see Zach poke his head around the corner in worry “you alright bud?”
“Yeah” you strain, struggling to sit back upright. Not really knowing how to use your arms as you somewhat squirm, Zach walks back over, kneeling down and offering his hand. After fumbling around for a minute you manage to take it and he slowly pulls you up to stand as your other hand holds the blanket to keep yourself warm.
“How do you survive this, it feels so stressful.” you asked, shivering. you see him sigh as he answers “because there’s more than just me and you. Now come on, the floor won’t hurt you.” he heads back over into the kitchen, before looking back to you.
You slowly stepped on the wooden floor again, the cold once more grasping your feet. But this time, it felt a little less shocking. As you walk over to your best friend, looking up in appreciation.
You didn’t quite realize how small you were until now, only reaching up to his knees with your gills a little bit taller than that. you know you’ll grow out of being pint-sized, though you begin to think the whole 10 feet you were originally planning in might be a bit much. That is a problem for another day however.
“It’s good to know you remember how to walk and talk and such, how much do you think you remember?” you hear zach say, as he walked back over to the counter to keep prepping food. You stood in the entry-way of the kitchen, watching him make soup. “I don’t know, you do have a package for Friday by the way.”
You may know what his favorite food was(fried fish and tater tots) and you may have seen dozens of videos of people cooking meals in a forced environment, but actually seeing him cook felt… calming.
You stood there and just watched him work, or at least you tried to. Your legs were getting sore so you carefully sat down close to the entrance to keep watching. Soon enough, Zach finishes the soup.
Calling out to you “hey I think you should go over to the table, and get comfy while i get your food.” you gave a nod as you stood up, trying not to trip over the blanket as you head over to the small table near the front door. You look at the chair, it seems a bit too tall for you to just hop into.
You shift the blanket in your death-grip as you slack your arms, using your feet to bundle the blanket up into a pile next to the chair. Climb onto the bundle and from there you step onto the seat, wrapping yourself up with the blanket again before taking a seat.
You hear your best friend snicker as your gills go warm. “Just had to be awkward, eh bud?” “I got in the seat, and I'm comfy,” you pout. Your best friend shortly moves over to the table with two bowls and spoons in hand.
He set the two bowls down, one for you and one for him. “Hey Kinito, which hand is your dominant one?” you lessen your grip off of the blanket to reveal the right hand “it would be this one. Though I can be both.” zach offers the spoon, and you snatch it quickly before having your hand close to your body again. Your knuckles white as you grip it like a lifeline.
“You’re being too sudden with your movements, slow down. I don’t want you getting soup on your skin. And don’t grip things so hard, it hurts your hands.” he says in worry.
You look at your hand, even though you made it yourself. You still couldn’t help but hate it, you wanted to throw the spoon away and hide within the blankets.
Slowly, you lessen your grip to hold the spoon properly. Slowly dip it into the bowl and pull out the broth. You look over to Zach, who says “The soup should be fine enough for you to eat without having to really chew.” he says as he begins to have his own soup.
Turning back you put the spoon into your mouth, your teeth clicking against the metal as you sort of hold it there for a bit, before pulling the spoon out. Finally swallowing as you feel your throat hurt a little less.
“How was it?” zach asks, a curious tone in his voice. “It’s nice.” you weakly said, as you have another spoonful. He seems relieved by your answer “I know it isn’t exactly the most flavorful thing in the world, but for a first meal it works. One second,” he sets down the spoon as he gets up from his seat. Going into the kitchen and then returning with a stack of crackers, you tilt your head as you set your utensil down too.
“Try one” he takes a cracker and pops it in his own mouth, you hear the crunch as you take a cracker into your own hand. And slightly nibble on it, the sharp salty flavor makes you stick out your tongue in regret. “Don’t like” you were quick to say, before Zach asks “have you tried dipping it in the soup?”
You dip a corner of the cracker into the soup, before lifting it out and having the small bite. The mellow flavor of the soup somewhat stands out with the salt, as you dip around half of the cracker to take a bigger bite.
Your best friend taking up the spoon again and resuming his meal, letting you have the rest of the crackers with the soup.
After the meal, you curled up within the blankets. Feeling warm inside and a bit sleepy, you look over to the window. Watching the sky begin to brighten as the snowfall had stopped, which made you curious.
You hopped off the chair and dragged the blanket over to the window, faintly hearing a sort of beeping noise. You tilt your head to look over to the closed room, before looking back at your friend “hey, is that room supposed to be beeping?”
as you pointed over to the door, you see his face turn into panic “SHIT, i have work today!” He quickly gets up and turns the beeping sound off, grabbing a coat to wear over his stripy shirt and grabbing earmuffs. Checking his pockets for his keys, you ask “can I come with you?”
“Wh? But you're not even dressed for the weather, and if someone sees you. I don’t know what’ll happen…” you tilted your head as you looked back over to the open room, peeking in to find out it’s the main bedroom. You beg,“I could wear a disguise, pleeease can I come with you?”
he scratches his head, muttering. “I guess we could set something up, but we have to be quick. I’m sorry if the clothes are baggy.” to say the clothes you put on are baggy is an understatement, socks, gloves, shorts short enough for you to wear as pants with a belt tied around so much it could barely even hold itself, a black sweater that goes over your knees and snow boots from what you could only guess is from when zach was little.
For your head you have to wear a face mask to cover your nose and mouth, with a beanie that presses down on your gills, all of the fabric is making you feel uncomfortable. But you held your tongue, because you didn’t have to look at your weird features and that made you feel at ease.
Zach lifts you up and carries you to the side door, opening it as you looked at the space. It looked like this is where all of the junk stayed in, and you noticed the broken monitor laying in the corner of a metal shelf. He presses the button as the big metal door began to pull up, the cold swoops in and pierces your exposed skin and gills. Though otherwise you were protected from the elements, as you look out at the smooth blankets of snow. Your best friend holds you as he moves over to the vehicle that filled up over half the space.
It looked like an old hummer, with chipped red paint and some tape placed around one of the tail lights. Zach unlocked the truck before opening the side door for you to fit inside, taking your seat. He politely asks. “please buckle up, okay?” and you nod, as he moves upfront. you watch him buckle in the reflective mirror, and you copy the action. Clipping the little metal bit into the lock as the belt keeps you firmly in place.
You hear something sputter in front of you, the engine you assume. you hear him mutter “c’mon don’t quit on me.” before a mechanical vrrrm, you see him relax as he makes everything ready to set off.
As he drives you look out the tinted window to see lines of houses with the same blanket of snow, some people leaving their places with shovels in hand to move the snow themselves. The subtle shaking going on within the vehicle feels… Nice, you can’t explain how or why. At least the inside space warms up after a few minutes of this trip.
By the time the hummer pulls to the side of the road, you sit up. ready to get out of the seat, your best friend looking behind him before flinching. Like he didn’t know you were in the back for a second, you laugh a little. He looks back over and talks to you
“Okay kinito, let me be clear. I’m not expecting you to help me out with my job, and I'll understand if you don’t. I have a bunch of clients that need some help with getting rid of the snow on their driveways and it’s difficult work.”
“How often do you do this work?” Your gills flick slightly, and you pull the beanie down to fully cover them.
“I try to shoot for twice a day, depending on the weather. even then this is more so a side-gig. My real job is for the afternoon”
he pops open the trunk door with a lever while you unbuckle your seatbelt, opening the door and hopping out as Zach steps out of the car. Closing both doors before grabbing his big snow shovel, you hurry over to him and look at the smaller shovel and point for it. “Can I use that?”
You see him hesitate, before handing the little shovel over. Asking “take care of the sidewalk, it goes straight down from the door. I'll treat the driveway.” you gave a nod as you hurried over to the front of the house, and began shoveling. Zach closes the trunk before moving over to the garage door and beginning his work.
Your arms felt sore after shoveling the layer of snow off the sidewalk, you barely held onto the shovel as you looked over to him finishing up the driveway. He doesn’t look like he even broke a sweat as he holds the shovel over his shoulders before going to the front door, ringing the bell.
You run over beside him as you see the door open up with an old lady inside, holding a cane. “Zachari, how have you been?” She speaks warmly to your friend and he responds in kind “i’ve been rather well ms.oakley, the driveway is clear for you to get to the store.” yet despite how happy he looked, it sounded almost forced to you.
“Oh thank you, here.” She grabs a small envelope and hands it over to him, he takes it and weighs it in his hands with a smile. Storing it in his pockets.“This should cover the previous trip too, oh! Who’s this little one?” she said, looking towards you with joy in her eyes. “This is Kinito, he’s helping me today with the morning trips. Say hi buddy.” you gave a small wave, trying to be polite.
“Oh that's just sweet. I didn't know you would bring company, I would’ve made something nice." She reminds you a little bit of jade, your stomach twists a bit as your best friend gave a smile and wave “it’s alright ma’am, we’re just about to head out anyway. Hope to see you tomorrow!” He offers you a hand and you take it, waving a bit with your shovel as the two of you walk back towards the hummer.
You see her give a wave before closing the door. Before quietly saying “She seems nice.” “She is, I just can’t really stay and chat with her most of the time because of work.” As you get help to sit in the back, he places the two shovels in the passenger seat before getting everything ready to head to the next house.
House by house, you join your best friend in shoveling. The fatigue began to build up as you moved the snow. After each trip, your best friend would knock on the front door and someone usually answers. Any of those that don’t Zach brushes it off as “they normally aren’t there in the morning anyway, that's fine. They’ll pay for both during the evening trip.”
“Is it harder to shovel twice in one day?” you ask
“no actually, because you’re shoveling less snow all at once.”
As you get back onto the seat, your best friend offers an empty hand for the smaller shovel. You keep the tool close as he sighs. “We’ve already finished my route, a bit ahead of schedule thanks to you. Do you want me to take you back to the house or do you feel like walking there?”
“I want to help!”
you respond, he sighs. “You can’t help me with my job Kinito, I don't want you getting hurt.” “What about your job could get me hurt?”
“a lot, you are not exactly qualified to run a snow plow. Plus you are too small to be able to work, at least not without a lot and I mean a lot of sketchy shit happening.” “hm… is there anything i could do then?” he shook his head, politely restating “i can drive you back home if you don’t feel like walking.”
“I’ll… i’ll walk” you climb out of the seat, handing the small shovel over to zach as he closes the side door. Putting the shovels into the trunk before he searches his pockets, he pulls out the envelope from ms.oakley, Placing it in your hands. “I’d like you to call for food by the time lunch rolls around, since I won’t be back at the house for a while”
“Are you sure? This is the money you got from- ""there should be more than enough Kinito, don’t worry friend” your gills get pinker as you put the envelope into your jacket. “And Kinito?” you perk up “until you pay for your food, don’t pull that envelope out. Okay?” you nod, as he puts his seatbelt on before driving.
As he drove off, you stood in place. nervous about going alone, but you have to learn the place beyond just visual data. The feelings of loneliness felt worse than when you were in the web world, at least you knew all the stuff going on!
You began to explore around, walking along the sidewalk slowly. Seeing all the people come and go from their homes to live their lives. Though once they were gone, it was back to quiet. Not a lot of people stayed outside, until you saw someone up ahead.
They were a girl in a bulky sweater. She was just slowly kicking up the snow where the yard would be, looking down at the ground. You walk as close to the snow as you could from the sidewalk and call out “hey!”
She looked up in surprise, a small gasp as she gave a little smile.“hi! What are you doing?” she chirped, Hopping through the snow to stand on the sidewalk next to you, curious “Exploring, are you a neighbor?” you ask. she nods, with a big grin on her face “I moved here with my ma, she’s currently moving things around and wanted me to wait out here. I’m Eliza!”
“It’s nice to meet you Eliza! I’m Kinito!” the door to the house opens, an older woman steps out with a steaming mug in her mittens. “Eliza, who's that?” “Meet my new friend Mommy!” you took a step back at that, new friend? You and her only just met. “That's sweet”
“Where are your parents?”
“oh…right now he's at work, he wanted me to walk back home” it wasn't wrong, Elizas’ mother became incredibly worried “he just left you alone!? You can stay with me and my daughter until he comes back, I want to talk to him myself. Do you know how to contact him?”
That seemed less like a comforting statement and more of a demand, slowly you nod. “Come on, let's get you someplace warm. You're all pink” well, you're always pink, even a bit more so because you are being treated like a child.
The three of you stayed in the living room. Eliza's mother just made some pizza bites for you and Eliza to share. Making sure to keep the mask in place as you have a couple of them, as the acidity leaves a sour taste in your mouth. So you let Eliza have the rest.
“What's your favorite animal, Kinito?” you hear Eliza say in curiosity, and you couldn’t help but answer. “Axolotls! I am-” You felt embarrassed as you stopped yourself, you're not exactly an axolotl-shaped sprite anymore. You grab your gloves to cover your hands.
“Is it like a lizard? It has a funny little name and sounds cute!” your gills twitch before answering “Actually it’s more like a frog…” The two of you talked about all sorts of small things, stuff you would normally ask as you wanted to know a person. The bad feelings melt away as the two of you converse, and you realize something.
Normally when you have a friend you give them a nickname. Thinking about her interests, you came up with an idea! “Hey, do you mind if I call you Lizzie? Cause you like lizards!” Lizzie smiled widely as she nodded.
Eliza’s mother pulls out the phone, and after asking you for your best friend's work phone. You had to answer it “Oh, it’s (---) — —” “Thank you dearie” and she typed it in, putting it on speaker phone so you could hear a familiar voice. “Hello? Who is this?”
“That's him!” you were about to get out of your seat before Eliza's mother answered “Zachie, it’s Mrs.Lullianna. Your new neighbor, so your little kiddo-” you interject “Kinito!” She corrects herself. “-your child Kinito was found outside alone in the cold, he told me you just left him there!”
You could hear the annoyance in his voice as Zach responded “I feel like you're going to lecture me…” she nags “of course I am, you left your kid alone! You're lucky I managed to find him after my daughter did.”
Zach sighs “I'm sorry ma’am, I know he would be able to take care of himself while I was dealing with work.” she lowers her voice, to a more tempered anger “Just please keep a better eye on him. Or if you can’t, just know my door is open to him.”
“Oh, you wouldn’t mind him staying at your place for a bit longer? I’m on my way to your place” “Of course Zachie, don’t worry. See you soon” She hangs up, and around half an hour later his hummer rolls up to the side. You wave goodbye as your best friend helps you into the backseat and he sits up front.
he turns on the heater to the hummer your best friend starts the drive home, And you think about what had happened. You met new people, and learned a bit about the town beyond IP addresses. you made a new friend. The soft vibrations of the car traveling across the road made you feel relieved. After all that pain, you can say this journey has truly meant something.