I do not own anything related to "Arrietty" or "The Borrowers" nor do I make any sort of profit from them. If I did...well, I wouldn't be sitting here writing this fanfiction. I'd be selling it for money and it would be legitimate fiction. :P

Slight, oh so slight you have to squint, crossover from the book. Enjoy!

Forever

Chapter 4

The next time I opened my eyes, I was staring at a beautiful, ornate ceiling. I had no clue where I was. The last thing I remembered was seeing Sho. Then, nothing. I rubbed my head and sat up. Something fell to the floor with a dull, almost wet, thud. I frowned just a bit as I looked at the floor. Some sort of ice pack was slowly leaking the melted ice from a busted seam.

I had absolutely no idea why I would need an ice pack on my knee. I touched the reddened skin and felt the chill left from the ice. I put my feet on the floor and stood. My breath was stolen at the pain of bearing weight on my left knee. The leg buckled and I collapsed to the floor.

"Mother! Papa!" I called. Surely they were around here somewhere? They wouldn't leave me in this strange place without them, right? I gasped and swung my head to face the wall. There was a slight scraping noise before the entire wall of the house swung away. A large, massive face with gentle brown eyes filled the empty space.

"Arrietty?" the voice called softly, trying to keep his voice low for my sake I suppose. My whole body shook and trembled. Suddenly, it all came crashing down on me. I began to drown in a surge of memories.

Sho lifting me from the muddy river bed.

Finding the raccoon-dog tracks.

Searching my destroyed home for any signs of life.

Sho filling in the empty pit.

Meeting Mari.

Falling asleep beneath my long-lost friend's jacket.

"Arrietty!" Sho's tone snapped me out of the memory-clouded fog. I was no longer drowning, but I found I couldn't breathe. I gasped, feeling like a fish out of water as one hand braced against the floor and the other reached for my throat. I was choking on the air I dragged through my chapped lips.

A broken, cracked sob forced its way from my mouth. My walls shattered completely as the grief washed over me. My eyes burned as reality leered at my attempts to deny it all. I didn't want my parents to be dead. I wanted the twins to bug me. I wanted Mama to tell me to stop daydreaming. I wanted Papa to worry over how I couldn't let go of the past.

I just wanted my family back.

"Mama." The word was a long, drawn out sob. It shuddered out of my chest, racking my body. I folded in on myself, hunched over with my arms now wrapped around my middle. I sobbed, simply calling out for my lost mother. How could this have happened? We were always so careful in keeping our home hidden.

I don't know how long I rocked back and forth on the cold floor of the strange dollhouse. I just know I felt utterly and completely alone in those seemingly eternal minutes. I know Sho eventually gently picked me up and held me close, not saying anything, just letting me cry. I think Mari came in at one point only to turn around and leave when she saw Sho holding me. I didn't care. It didn't matter if she stayed or went. I was alone either way.

Eventually I cried myself to sleep. When I woke up, Sho was still holding me close in those massively oversized hands of his. He was still in the same spot when I fell asleep. This just brought fresh tears to my eyes. I felt absolutely horribly guilty that he was giving up so much of his time and his life to take care of me.

I cringed when he brushed his fingers against my back, breaking into another round of tears when he instantly pulled his hand away with a murmured apology. I didn't mean to hurt him. It was just so very, very different from when we were children together. He was so much larger, so much older.

So much stronger.

There was an irrational fear in my head that he would hurt me. I knew he would never do it on purpose, but that snide, logical part of my mind told me it didn't have to be on purpose. Just a little too hard of a brush and I could end up with a broken limb. Then how would I set it? A leg wouldn't be that hard to fix, sure, but it would be almost impossible for me to set and bind a broken arm by myself. Sho would certainly be of little use. His fingers would be far too big to help.

The increase in gravity as he lifted me higher brought me back into the moment.

"Arrietty," his voice was lowered for my sake, but still loud. "Arrietty, I'm not going to hurt you. You should know this by now." I felt the slightest pressure from the pads of his fingers against the back of my head. The onset of tears had me leaning against those fingers. I felt so pitiful.

"Arrietty." His voice came again, so much closer than before. His warm breath washed over me and I opened my eyes. His brown ones looked down with such kindness and sympathy. I sniffed raggedly, determined not to cry again. I exhaled a deep breath as my body went limp in his hold.

His hand trembled beneath me ever so slightly. I wondered why. "Arrietty, I'll always be here for you. Just as long as you want me. I promise." It sounded so corny and so cheesy I couldn't help but smile just a bit.

A grin spread across Sho's face as he stood up from the bed. "Are you hungry? You fell asleep last night without eating anything."

Last night? I looked out the window and, sure enough, it was daylight. "How long was I asleep?" I scrubbed my tear-stained face.

"Close to twelve hours," he responded as he carried me out the door.

Twelve hours? My body must have shut down to recover from yesterday. I sighed, slumping down in his hand again. I watched as the hallway breezed by, not really caring that it seemed different from before. It didn't occur to me to even think about it. I stared at nothing, trying to avoid thinking about where my life was headed at this point. I could survive on my own, but I couldn't really live. Maybe if I could find Spiller, we could settle down and live together.

I sniffled quietly. Mama and Papa would have liked that. I always had this vague notion that they were trying to hook me up behind my back with Spiller. Spiller was everything a good outside Borrower should be. He was strong, smart, wary of humans and had plenty of homes and supplies stashed away in case of emergency. He had this uncannily strong Bean-feeling when a Bean was present or getting too close. He always knew when to run and when to hide.

We were halfway down the staircase when Sho spoke again. "Do you like the new cottage, Arrietty?" he asked.

I blinked and looked around, just noticing how truly different everything was. The railing on the stairs was simpler, there was no carpet runner and the wallpaper was gone. Even the grandfather clock that sat in the hall was gone. That brought a few new tears to my eyes. My namesake was gone.

I remembered when I asked my parents how we got the last name "Clock." Mother had crowed proudly about how we Clocks had lived under the floor for generations and that the grandfather clock in the hall hid our front door so well that no Bean had ever found it.

"It's changed." That was all I could really say. I never knew the cottage color-by-color, wallpaper-by-wallpaper before we moved. I knew the underside and outside and was just starting to learn the inside when Sho rearranged our house.

"Yes, it has." She seemed eager to talk. I let him. "A couple years after you moved out, there was a bad fire. The hot water heater exploded. Anyway, the house was practically embers by the time the fire department finally arrived. So Aunt Sadako and I rebuilt it."

"Oh. It's nice, Sho." There was a bit of an awkward pause but he seemed more than eager to ignore it.

"It is. It's Borrower friendly, too." He smiled down at me, trying to get me to respond. I only watched him quietly. "I mean, I couldn't exactly rebuild all the passages you and your family must have built. But Haru isn't around anymore."

That got my attention. While I hadn't actively thought of Haru in the house—if only for the reason I believed Sho wouldn't bring me here if she was still here—there was the curiosity since he brought it up.

"It's a bit tragic," he continued despite my silence. "She was caught upstairs in the attic when the fire broke out. Before, Aunt Sadako had lifted the stairwell to the attic and shut it. It wouldn't have been a problem if not for the fire. It ate away at the stairs and even if the fire department had arrived earlier, there was no way for them to get to her."

The silence was heavier this time and I wondered if it was wrong for me not to feel pity on the horrid woman that had nearly destroyed my family. We turned a corner and ended up in the kitchen, much more modern than the one in my memories.

Mari turned, mouth open as if to say something, but stopped herself short when she saw me in Sho's hand. Her lips tipped upward in a smile as she watched me.

"Well good morning, sleepy head! I hope you're hungry because I cooked some eggs, bacon and toast. You'd better eat it fast before Sho gets to it. Otherwise, there might not be even a crumb left!" She smiled brightly at her joke, obviously trying to get me to smile or laugh.

A little smile cracked the corner of my mouth and Mari's own grin doubled.

"I knew there had to be a smile in there somewhere. Come on, hun, we can talk about where you're going to be staying for a while."

"She's staying here, Mari. There's no question to it." Sho's voice was deeper, firmer than anything I had ever remembered from him.

"Oh hush, Sho. I didn't say anything about her leaving. But you can't expect her to sleep in that dollhouse can you? I mean, it may be just as nice as the old one, but you can't seriously expect a girl to stay in that! How much closet space does it have? How about running water? Or a fridge or icebox for her to store her own food in?" Mari went on and one, lecturing Sho on one thing or another.

At that point, I tuned her out, just laying in Sho's hand and watching the way the sun reflected off the dust motes in the air.