Chapter 3: The Fear in Your Eyes

The fear in your eyes

The hopelessness that has long since settled

I've allowed it all to flourish

Though this night is filled with confusion

With sadness, frustration, anger, and anguish

When day breaks, I'll hope to ease your pain

And provide you with deep comfort

That settles your deepest fears

Before they can consume you once more

If I don't, we don't, then who will?

After spotting a few people taking a stroll just past the Quartz district gate that laid at the end of the road he was on, and hearing some voices just beyond the nearby entrance to the Woodcutter district, Andvari decided on taking a different route back home as he found himself suddenly occupied with a new mission.

He'd quietly made his way through the streets of Crystalia, weaving his way through the shadows as he attempted to carry the young boy to his house. Though he had to take a small detour through the local mines in order to avoid being spotted, he found himself relieved by the fact that no one had managed to catch him. Once within the Quartz district, he quickly and quietly made his way up to where his house was located, taking a brief moment to place the boy down upon the ground as he searched for his keys. After unlocking the door, he quickly went to pick up the boy once again, wincing as it became apparent that the other was still bleeding, with no signs of the wound closing up on its own anytime soon.

Stepping into the house quickly, Andvari shut the front door using his foot, drawing Martha's attention as she placed some food down upon their table nearby.

"What's with all th-"

Her words fell short as she spotted the boy in the other's hands, bringing her hands up to cover her mouth in total shock as a troubled "Oh my stars!" left her lips.

"Get some bandages and the rest of the first aid stuff. You're better at this than I am, and I could really, really use some help right now!" Andvari quickly instructed as Martha immediately nodded at his words and went off to search through the cabinets within the kitchen.

Andvari took the boy to a small guest room within the house, one that had seen little use apart from a singular time when he'd decided to test for himself how comfortable the bed truly was for a night. Impressed by its quality, he desperately hoped that the child in his hands would appreciate it as well, if he were to survive in any capacity whatsoever. Placing the child above the dark blue comforter sheet, Andvari began to examine his current state, hoping that he didn't have too serious of an injury despite the blood that was present on his clothes.

He ended up discovering that a large gash that stretched from the child's chest to his stomach, seemingly earned from the lab, had opened, much to his dismay.

A quick set of expletives left his mouth quietly as he glanced around in panic, trying to find anything nearby that would help with closing up the wound for the time being. His search was for naught, but he was eventually saved by Martha quickly coming into the room with a moderately-sized bag within her hands, immediately making her way over to the bed.

"It's an operation wound that reopened. It seems to be rather deep, and he's bleeding out fast." He briefed her as he went to pull up a nearby wooden chair, placing it directly next to the bed for Martha to sit in.

Setting the bag in her hands upon the bedside table that sat to their right, Martha gave him a small nod as she then pointed back over toward the door.

"I'll look it closely to see what I can do, but while I'm doing that, could you please grab the basket of towels out there?" She asked, directing his gaze out to the kitchen. "We'll need to stop the bleeding as best we can, and I just brought those out from the cabinet. Also, I think it's best if we change him out of these dirty clothes. I found an old shirt of mine that should cover him well, so please bring that too. I left it on the counter."

Immediately walking off to where she had instructed him to go, Andvari promptly retrieved the basket of towels, along with the old grey shirt, and brought both into the room, placing them separately next to the medical kit on the table. As soon as he did, the first thing Martha did was change the child out from most of his stained ornate clothing, leaving him in his shorts as she planned to replace the rest of the outfit with the grey shirt once she was finished. She placed the items she took somewhat behind her upon the spruce wood floor, out of sight for the time being as she planned to clean them sometime later. Not wanting to delay any longer, Martha quickly grabbed a clean towel from the top of the small pile of rolls, unfurling it as she placed it down upon the open wound in front of her.

It didn't take long for it to soak up the blood that was leaking out. It took a few more towels and a lot more pushing downward in order to slow the bleeding a substantial amount, and even then, it didn't look like the gash was going to close up any time soon. Seeing this, she decided to move forward, using the next roll in her hands to dry and clean the area around the wound. Taking out a small bottle of liquid from the kit, she opened it before grabbing yet another towel and placing it over the tip of the bottle, turning both over and drenching part of the towel in the substance. Seeing that the towel was rather damp, Martha immediately went to clean the wound even further, disinfecting it and the area around it as best she could. Once it was all clean and the wound was sanitized, she went to dig around in her kit for a moment before glancing back at Andvari, who was waiting for further instructions.

"...This is the boy you were talking about, yes?" She asked quietly, pulling out a small medical suture kit from the bag.

Andvari nodded slowly, glancing down at the boy as his gaze became rather soft.

"...Yes."

Prepping a needle that she picked out from the kit, Martha glanced back down at the boy, eyes growing rather saddened at the sight of his broken appearance.

"...I can't believe that you actually managed to get him out...I'm glad you did."

Watching her begin to sew up the wound, momentarily wincing at the sight of her careful fingers pressing a needle through the boy's skin, Andvari let out a small hum.

"...Me too. Though, my plan didn't uh...consider this potential outcome."

Martha glanced back at him abruptly with a small glare.

"Andi, what did you do?" She asked sternly, causing the other to suddenly grow nervous.

"...I let him navigate himself out. I ended up finding him on the streets of Crystalia, like this." He gestured toward the unconscious child, prompting Martha to look at him as well.

Staring at the wound beneath her gentle hands, Martha slowly shook her head in disappointment as she continued to give the other stitches.

"...At least you found him, and at least he's here now." She said, eventually managing to finish up her handiwork.

Cutting and tying the thread off, Martha set her tools off to the table once again before looking back at the stitches briefly. Turning away to begin looking around in her bag again, she eventually found what she was looking for: gauze and bandages.

"Dear, I'll need you to sit him up for a moment. I ran out of the square bandages, so the long ones will have to do for now." She spoke to Andvari.

Nodding, Andvari went to the kid's side near the bed, reaching out to gently grab a hold of him and prop him up, putting him into a sitting position as Martha went to place the gauze on the now-closed wound, soon after wrapping a bandage around the other's body carefully. She tied off the bandage and gestured for Andvari to grab the grey shirt from over on the dresser, which he promptly did so, immediately offering it to her after. She took it from his hands and put it on the child as gently as she could. After, she gestured for Andvari to set the boy back down, though as he did so, a small look of contemplation appeared on her face as she briefly thought to herself.

"...Andi, would you mind actually lifting him off the bed for a moment?" She asked quietly.

Andvari looked at her briefly before nodding and letting out a hum in response, moving to lift the boy off the bed and bring him close. As he held him, Martha stood up for a few seconds, pulling back the covers of the bed before pointing at the revealed sheets, prompting Andvari to gently place the boy back down. As soon as he was settled in a comfortable position, Martha went to grab the sheets once again, pulling them back up to the boy's chin.

Sitting back down in the chair, Martha let out a small sigh, looking over the child as he remained unconscious. Having the bed sheets pulled over his body made it seem like he was sleeping peacefully.

"...How are you going to report his disappearance? Did you already think of something?" She asked her husband, who responded with a small shrug.

"System error, personal inability to get things back under control in time. I believe that sounds legitimate enough, right?" He responded, earning a shrug from Martha.

"I'm not entirely sure of your reporting system, so as far as I know, sure." She said, standing up as she began to place the materials she had pulled out back into her kit, making sure to leave the bloodied tools and supplies out so that she could clean and sterilize them properly.

Andvari stepped back and instead went to collect the blood-soaked towels that had been discarded on the ground, taking a moment to glance back up at the individual they'd been used for.

More cuts and bruises than what they just discovered were certainly present on the boy's body, no doubt. He was optimistic about not having to worry about the main injury that had just been taken care of, but he knew well enough that they would have to monitor the boy rather closely as he recovered. If he moved too quickly or bent over in the wrong way, it could open again, and he'd lose more blood that they didn't have the materials to replenish.

They would have to wait to see what they could do for the boy until he finally regained consciousness, for now. Until then, they'd have to pray that the boy would get enough rest so that they could work on him without issue. Andvari hoped that tonight, at the very least, would be a solidly peaceful night of sleep for the boy, becoming the first of many.

As Martha gathered the last of her supplies, she began to walk out of the room, looking back momentarily to examine the boy one last time. She found Andvari, somewhat surprisingly, sitting down in the chair that still laid beside the bed, placing the pile of towels back down before doing so.

"...Are you going to wait for him to wake up?" She asked.

Andvari nodded, glancing back to look at her directly as she stood in the doorway.

"Just in case he wakes up early. I'm at least a somewhat familiar face, I think. If he wakes up without getting an explanation on where he is, he might freak out and start moving around and bleeding again."

Martha gave him a small nod.

"Should I make him something to eat when he wakes up?"

Andvari thought to himself for a moment.

"...Something small. His appetite is poor, and even when he does manage to eat, he tends to get ill. This injury might complicate things a bit more."

"...Would soup be alright?"

Andvari slowly nodded.

"...Soup is easy enough to eat, he should be fine."

With another nod, Martha left the room, leaving Andvari to watch over the child as he began his recovery. He sat awake for a good few minutes before finding himself dozing off, eventually falling asleep as well.

Waking up in his chair, Andvari slowly opened his eyes to find the boy still unconscious, breathing quietly as he remained unaware of the world around him. Letting out a sigh of relief, Andvari slowly sat himself up from his slouched position before standing up fully, moving to lean over the bedside table and peek through the curtains, attempting to figure out for himself what time it was.

Unbeknownst to him as he looked outside, the child beside him was beginning to stir awake, his silver eyes fluttering half-open slowly as he gradually regained consciousness.

Finding that it was still nighttime, roughly sometime past midnight, Andvari let out a quiet breath, moving to sit back down in his chair.

Upon suddenly becoming aware of the tall man beside him, the boy's eyes shot fully open in alarm.

The child abruptly sat up in the bed, moving to back himself up against the wall beside him, growing panicked as he realized he had nowhere else to escape to. The sudden movement briefly caused Andvari to flinch as he now realized the kid was awake, though his fright immediately switched to deep concern.

"Woah! Calm down, calm down!" He instructed, holding his hands up. "You're hurt, so please don't make any sudden movements like that!"

Terror filled the boy's gaze as he stared up at him in shock, breathing somewhat irregularly as he curled into himself in defense. In an attempt to appear less threatening, Andvari slowly moved to sit back down in the chair.

"Listen…I'm just gonna…I'm gonna sit down here. I'm not going to grab you. I'm not gonna touch you. You can simply relax, okay?" He explained slowly and quietly, watching for the other's reaction as he placed himself in the chair.

Still leaning a bit forward in order for the other to hear him properly, Andvari continued to try and engage in conversation.

"...How are you feeling, little one?"

The boy continued to stare at him in fear. Wavering eyes settled upon his form, eventually prompting him to slowly pull back a bit in order to give the other more space.

"...I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. No one will." Andvari said quietly, placing his hands down upon his lap. "...I found you on the street unconscious. You were just outside the Quartz district entrance, and most of my colleagues are from this part of the city. If they were to come across you before you managed to wake up, you would've been taken back and put through unimaginable repercussions. I carried you back to my house, instead. As long as you remain here, you'll be safe."

After he explained himself, the other didn't react in any way, leading to him letting out a small sigh as a smile slowly formed on his face.

"...You're a little soldier, you know that? You managed to get so far away from the lab with such nasty wounds opening up, I know. Those wounds needed stitches, young one. I'm surprised that you even managed to avoid collapsing so soon."

His words finally managed to get the child to react, at least he thought, as he looked down to see himself now clothed in a gray lounge shirt that was almost a couple of sizes too big for him. He shakily grabbed the edge of said shirt, pulling it up to find his chest wrapped in several bandages.

Andvari pointed to his chest.

"Please be careful when moving, whenever you find the strength to. We'll be needing to change those out frequently to avoid infection, but be careful, there's a slight chance that your wounds will open up if you become too active too soon. It's better to rest, at the moment."

Staring at himself for a bit longer, the boy eventually lowered the shirt again, though his hands remained on the edge of the fabric, taking it between his fingers as he touched the soft material idly. Seeing him do this, Andvari directed his kind smile toward him again once the boy looked back up at him.

"Alright. Now that that's out of the way, let me introduce myself once again." Andvari placed a hand on his own chest. "My name is Andvari Yoru. I live here with my wonderful wife, Martha. We'd like to welcome you to our home."

Andvari held out a hand to the boy, feeling his heart drop a bit as the child only flinched in response. He pulled his hand back and returned it to his lap.

"...Again, I have to ask. What's your name, little one?"

Seconds passed.

Nothing came. The boy didn't say anything.

The longer he stared into the other's eyes, the more unnerved he became, finding it somewhat difficult to keep the other's attention for long.

Andvari slowly stood up, letting out a small sigh as he did so.

"...That's okay. You don't need to tell me. You're obviously a bit overwhelmed at the moment, so I'll leave you alone for a few minutes."

Though the boy began to cower once again as he towered over him, Andvari made sure to keep his movements from appearing too abrupt as he left the chair. Reaching the door leading to the room, Andvari paused, thinking to himself carefully before turning to the other one last time.

A certain scent soon came to him from outside of the room, making him remember that they weren't the only ones still awake at this hour of the night.

"...My wife is cooking up dinner for you at the moment, when she's finished, I'll bring you a plate." Pointing to the window next to the bed, which was currently hidden by dark blue curtains, Andvari continued. "Please keep those closed. The window is facing out toward the city, and people are rather nosey. They'd surely notice you if you had them open too wide, and nosey neighbors often ask nosey questions."

Finding the child only responding to him with more silence, Andvari turned away, walking out of the room and closing the door behind him.

A bowl of soup placed on a plate was in his hands when he finally returned to the silent child within their guest room.

As he walked into the small room, Andvari found himself stopping abruptly in his tracks. The boy was curled up on the bed, covers bunched and rolled by his feet, shaking almost violently. His hands were currently grabbing at his head, his fingers digging into his hair (and presumably his skin as far as Andvari could see). His body was turned toward the wall the bed was placed against, preventing the man that stood at his door from properly reading his expression, but judging from his current state, it was safe to say that he wasn't doing all too well.

Quickly moving to the other's side and placing his meal on the dresser next to the bed, Andvari began to panic as he briskly looked over the other's pained form, unsure of how he should approach the situation. Making a desperate decision, Andvari took a breath as he placed a hand on the child's shoulder to attempt to turn him around.

Immediately, the boy tensed up, stopping his shaking, and abruptly sat up, turning to find Andvari next to him. Shaky hands slowly lowered to his lap as he stared up toward the man, eyes wide and equally-as-shaky.

Andvari felt his heart slightly break as he locked gazes with the other.

Puffy red eyes had met with his, tears still streaming freely down his face as the man looked at him with concern.

Holding the other's focus for a while, not seeing him even display the remote desire to hide further, Andvari went to sit down in the chair that had been placed next to the bed, watching as the boy slowly adjusted himself more to face him properly. Placing his own hands upon his lap, Andvari waited for the boy to wipe away some of his tears before beginning to speak.

"...Are you alright?" He asked quietly, not expecting a direct answer from the other in the slightest.

Nothing came.

"Is your wound bothering you? Is that the issue?"

Nothing came. Andvari let out a quiet sigh.

"If it was just a nightmare or something of the sort...I won't bother you about it. If it's too painful to speak about, then you don't have to worry about telling me anything."

Gesturing over to the bowl of soup, Andvari gave the child a small smile.

"I know you had trouble keeping food down back in the lab, so I told my wife. We hope that some soup won't upset your stomach all too much. It's rather light, but you should be fine, I believe."

The boy glanced over to the bowl of soup, shaky eyes resting upon it. Hesitantly, he began to reach out to the bowl, only to stop midway as he went to stare blankly at the surface of the broth. Pulling back, the boy rested his hands upon his lap, staring down with tearful eyes.

"...You need to regain your strength. You lost a lot of blood." Andvari stated, watching as the child further debated actually eating the soup. "...Crying might've dehydrated you a bit, too."

He didn't reach out again, prompting further worry.

"...Are you not feeling up to it? Is it still too much for you?"

No response. Only tense silence.

After a minute or so, Andvari let out another sigh, causing the boy to flinch.

"...I'll leave it here for you. I'll come back in a few minutes or so to check up on you again. We'll need to change your bandages before you go to sleep, alright?"

Standing up, Andvari left the other once again, looking back momentarily to find the child still staring down at his hands.

…What was wrong with him? Did he have an illness? Were his internal injuries more extensive than he thought? What happened to him?

He knew that he wouldn't get a verbal answer to his questions anytime soon. If he had the proper tools, or even just the ability to take him to a proper hospital, he'd be able to figure out the issue no problem, but he didn't.

How could he fix it? How could he fix a problem he didn't know the source of?

Andvari returned after a solid twenty minutes, hands carrying the medical kit they'd used earlier as he followed after Martha, who was leading the way.

The two opened the door to find the boy face down in the bed, his head buried into his arm as the bowl of soup remained upon the dresser, seemingly still untouched.

Worriedly, Martha glanced up to Andvari.

"Did...did he even taste it? Did you see him eat some?"

Andvari shook his head.

"No, I didn't. He's still having trouble with eating, I believe."

Looking back at the child, sadness formed on Martha's face.

"...Poor baby…"

Holding the bag in his hands a bit tighter, Andvari glanced down, seemingly losing himself in thought for a few seconds.

"...I'd love to take him in to get proper scanning outside the context of experiments, but there's too much overlap between people who work in the labs and people who work in the hospital." He said quietly, stepping forward as he spoke.

"...I hope that it's just a temporary issue, then. He may just be really stressed out, and that's why he can't eat. Just imagine, Andi, if you were suddenly in a new place with a bunch of strangers prodding at you and doing terrible things to you, and you have no time to process it whatsoever. Then, you get taken to another strange place after you were just getting used to the other one." Martha said in response, her voice filled with pity for the child.

Walking forward, Martha sat down as gently in the chair next to the bed as she could, hoping to not scare the boy too much as she moved. Though she was quiet, the boy immediately raised his head up a bit in order to look at her, eyes filled with brief surprise as he became aware of how close she was to him. As carefully as she had sat down, he went to sit up, keeping his gaze focused solely on her as he did so.

Almost immediately as he sat himself up, his eyes widened as he quickly brought his arm up to his mouth. His posture briefly faltered, and a slight amount of worry appeared on his features. Seeing this, the two in front of him grew even more concerned, only to become more alarmed as he seemed to struggle even further.

The boy began to bite down on his arm. Tears were in his eyes as he looked up, seemingly fearing for his safety as the two looked down upon him.

Immediately, Martha went to reach for him, gesturing for the boy to release his own arm.

"Don't bite yourself! That's not-"

Immediately, the boy flinched away, briefly removing his teeth from his flesh as he did so. As soon as he did, however, a sickened expression overcame him as he brought his hands up to his mouth instead.

She paused, staring at the child in shock as it finally became apparent to her what was going on.

"...You're trying not to vomit, are you?" She asked quietly.

The boy stared at her silently, continuing to cover his mouth as best he could.

Surprisingly enough, he slowly nodded his head.

Andvari's eyes lit up at the sight.

"So you can understand us!"

The boy stared at him silently. He remained still.

Not wanting the boy to make a huge mess of himself when he was trying so hard to avoid it, Martha let out a quick sigh before looking over at Andvari.

"Dear, place the bag down here. Would you go and get him something to throw up in? One of my garden buckets, maybe? Something big enough, just in case."

As Martha pointed over at the dresser briefly, Andvari nodded, doing as she instructed and leaving the room not too long after, taking the bowl of soup with him. Martha then focused her attention back down upon the child in front of her.

"...You tried eating, didn't you?"

A few seconds passed before he gave her another small nod.

"...Was it too greasy for you? Too heavy? Something of the sort?"

The boy seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before he nodded again. Fear was evident in his eyes as he waited for her reaction.

She didn't let that fear go unnoticed.

"...That's okay, you know. We'll figure out something you can safely eat, don't worry. Right now, we need to focus on getting you all fixed up again."

Looking up at her with cautious eyes, the boy remained silent as his hands remained over his mouth, his body shuddering slightly as he held back a silent retch.

With Andvari gone, Martha began to work on dealing with the child's wounds once more. Gathering a clean towel and the same small bottle of liquid from before out of the nearby bag on the dresser, she took a moment to uncork the bottle, douse some of the towel with the liquid, and place the bottle elsewhere upon the dresser before moving back to take care of him.

"...You know, I've heard a bit about you from Andvari. You poor, poor thing." She started quietly. "...Oh, lift your arms up for a little bit."

The boy stared at her for a moment or two before following her instructions, doing as she said while keeping his hands over his mouth steadily. Carefully, she went to lift his shirt to reveal his previously-bandaged wound, leaning in and looking it over for a moment before slowly pulling back with a slightly surprised expression upon her face. She placed the towel back with the other supplies for a moment.

"...It doesn't seem to be actively bleeding out too much at the moment. Your bandages still need to be changed, but it doesn't seem like the wound itself has gotten any worse."

As she spoke, she got closer once again as her hands quickly went to the bandage around the other's body, briefly moving to grab a pair of scissors from her supply kit before using them to cut through said bandage cautiously, making sure not to move too quickly for the child's comfort.

It wasn't lost on her, seeing the boy flinch briefly as she grabbed the scissors.

Looking him straight in the eyes, Martha spoke to him softly.

"...Whatever happened to you, however awful it was, it won't happen here. We don't want to hurt you, I promise."

The boy continued to stare at her blankly as she worked carefully, removing the bandage from his body as slowly as she could. Once it was away from his skin, she went back to grab the damp towel, running it over his wound as she carefully disinfected it.

He briefly flinched at her touch as she started, but other than that, not a single sound left his covered lips as she worked. No protest, no sounds of discomfort. She was able to clean his wound without any interference from his part. He did nothing much except for silently staring down as she worked, not even reacting much to her wrapping a new bandage around him and making sure it was secure before pulling away, giving him another look over before moving to place her supplies back within their proper places inside of her kit.

Though it was easy enough, she felt disturbed by the fact that he'd been okay with the pain, if he even felt any at all.

Martha stood back up, glancing back down at the boy again.

"...I'm sorry that you've gone through so much…" She said, her eyes full of sympathy for the other. "...No child should have to experience such cruelty, especially from those who are supposed to look out for everybody else."

He looked up at her, eyes somewhat wavering in an emotion she was rather unsure of. Before she could question it in detail, the door to the room was opened slowly, revealing Andvari as he returned to the side of the bed in order to present the two with a metal bucket in his hands.

"Sorry for the holdup. The buckets were all filled with dirt, so I had to search around a bit for a relatively empty one that I could bring back."

As he handed the bucket down to the boy, he was surprised by the other immediately releasing his hands from his mouth in order to grab it. He leaned over it as it left Andvari's grasp, placed his head in, and began to cough and vomit into it, causing the two in front of him to momentarily wince as he did so. Once he finished, Andvari carefully went to retrieve the bucket, finding that the other hadn't actually spat up all that much.

The boy still looked rather sick, though there was slight relief in his features as he glanced back up at the two in front of him. Offering him a kind smile, Martha went to grab the sheets slowly, patting the bed once before she began to pull them over.

"I think that you need some time to rest and relax, yes? You had a very rough day today, and you need all of the sleep you can get." She said rather sweetly.

The boy stared at her specifically for a few seconds before surprisingly moving to lie down against the bed, allowing her to pull the covers back over him as he settled himself on his back. Making sure he was secure and comfortable enough as she leaned over the bed a bit in order to tuck him in, Martha gave him another kind smile before pulling away, placing a hand on the bedside chair she had just been sitting on moments prior.

"If there's anything you need, just let us know, alright? You need to limit your movement as much as possible so that you don't open that wound again. Once it's healed enough though, you won't have to worry about that, of course!"

As he looked up at them with curious, yet still rather frightened silver eyes, Martha went to place the chair next to the dresser as Andvari began to leave the room again with the bucket, glancing back at the boy before he left fully.

"Sweet dreams, little one." He said gently to the boy.

As Martha joined him at the door after grabbing her medical supplies, she turned to face the boy as well, placing a hand on the doorknob as she prepared to close it.

"Rest easy. I'll make you some breakfast in the morning, alright? Maybe you'll feel well enough to eat."

Seeing the boy give no reaction whatsoever this time, Martha turned to look at Andvari with a shrug before closing the door softly behind them as they left.

Placing the medical kit back in its proper location and dumping/leaving the bucket outside next to the door, Martha and Andvari quickly took care of the tools they'd used before heading up to bed as quietly as they could, entering the master bedroom and closing the door gently as they entered. As soon as the door had closed, simultaneous sighs of relief escaped their lips as they immediately went to change out of their clothes, getting ready for bed as they'd failed to do before, due to being quite preoccupied. Turning off the light within the room, the two of them allowed the moonlight that came in from a nearby window to illuminate their actions.

Being the first to change into her pajamas, which consisted of a blue striped, button-up shirt along with a matching set of soft shorts, Martha plopped down onto the bed after pulling back the navy blue covers, resting her hands upon her stomach as she stared up at the ceiling almost blankly.

"...Andi?" She asked quietly.

Andvari looked back at her as he finally finished getting changed into a set of long-sleeved, black pajamas.

"...Yes?"

A few seconds of silence passed before Martha continued.

"...That cut was too deep. Those bruises were too dark, and that boy…that boy is too small."

Looking at him with a troubled gaze, Martha began to grow more distressed.

"How old is he? Were you able to find out?"

Thinking to himself momentarily, Andvari crossed his arms across his chest loosely.

"...No. I didn't see anything specific in the lab report, but that's because I...uh, didn't read it through. My best guess at the moment has to be somewhere around...seven, maybe? Six?" He reluctantly answered, somewhat confused about the facts himself.

"...He's too young to be going through all of this..."

Hearing the sadness in her voice, Andvari went to join her on the bed, sitting down carefully as he took a deep breath.

"...It's terrible, I know."

Tears formed in the corner of Martha's eyes, prompting Andvari to draw closer to her in an attempt to give comfort. Leaning back on the pillows propped against the headboard, he pulled her up to his chest.

"...We'll do everything we can to help him, love." He started quietly. "I still have to go back to the labs to give my explanations, but after I convince them that his escape was accidental, I'll take another leave of absence in order to help out here."

"Would they let you take another one so soon? For how long?" She asked, her voice somewhat shaky.

"I'm not sure, but I'll ask for the longest leave I can reasonably take. I'll make up an excuse for it, don't worry."

Planting a kiss on her forehead, Andvari went to pull the covers over them both.

"When morning comes, we'll do our best to help him, won't we?" He asked, offering her a smile in the near-darkness.

Hearing the warmness in his tone, Martha nodded against his chest, sniffling a bit as she went to wipe away the tears from her eyes.

"Yes…we absolutely will."

Ack, I didn't mean to have this long of a break between chapters! Got a little busy around finals, then placed most of my focus on Understanding lol. Managed to finish this chapter tho!

The first night caring for the boy was a stressful one! He doesn't know where he is, so he's freaking out, and Andvari and Martha are struggling to get a read on him and his behaviors! Quite the introductory period.

BTW, Andvari's pretty tall, but he's obviously not his 7 ft tall self lol. He's only 6'3!

Anyways, see y'all again soon enough! Hopefully sooner than this last time, lol I do not wanna get back into the schedule I had for Switcheroo, which was bad enough with literal months being placed between chapters XD I'll try to keep a decent schedule going!