Chapter Text
They’re at it again, Roman sighed and propped his head up on his hand.
It’s not as if borrowers were rare, but having enough money to get one was. Only a handful of people in the school had ever held one, until his wealthy classmate procured one over the weekend.
He’d been talking about it non-stop all week, passing around pictures and printing a few to sell. Roman saw one in passing, a group of girls were fawning over one photo in particular. He peeked over their shoulders out of curiosity and was horrified to see the little guy half naked and bawling.
“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Patton said woefully from beside him.
“What do you suggest, we steal it?” Logan replied sarcastically, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
“What about the police?” Patton offered.
“He hasn’t done anything illegal.” Logan shook his head and sighed. “As I’m sure you’re well aware, borrowers’ rights are limited to cases pertaining to physical abuse or harm.”
“There’s bruising around his waist, though,” Roman frowned and buried his face in his arms. “And he’s skinny as hell.”
Logan furrowed his brows in Roman’s direction. “Where did you get that information?”
Roman grimaced as he recalled the dehumanizing photo. “Saw it in one of his hand-outs.”
Logan paused, but did not press further. “. . . If asked, Jackson could blame the borrower’s weight on its metabolism or the fact that it won't eat what its given. You can't prove he's starving it. Not only that, bruising around the torso is common."
“Why?”
“Because of how they’re held. Frankly speaking, so long as it’s ribs are intact, there’s nothing we can do. Borrowers go for large sums of money, so what people do with them is hardly a concern.”
That’s fucking bullshit. Roman sneered. It was sickening.
“But they’re just little people!” Patton folded his hands and pleaded as if Logan had the power to change how they were treated. Patton had always been kind at heart, so it was only natural his paternal nature got the better of him on the subject of those smaller than him. Stray cats, crying kids, and in this case, a helpless borrower at the mercy of a spoiled brat.
Roman had initially tried to tune him out, but Jackson’s incessant “I thought it was mute until he fell out of my pocket and started screaming”, “I get the feeling they lied when they told me I was its first owner. Either that, or they did a piss-poor job of training it”, and “All it ever does it clamp up. It doesn’t respond when I ask it something, and it hardly eats whatever I give it” had him losing patience.
“I’ll be 18 soon, . . .” he muttered to himself, but Logan caught it.
“Your point?”
Roman stood from his desk. “Might as well beat the shit out of someone while I still can, right?”
“He’ll sue you for all you’ve got,” Logan deadpanned.
Roman shrugged. “And? His family might be rich, but a broken nose won’t go on my record.”
“Roman, no.” Patton-the-Pacifist frowned disapprovingly. “This isn’t the way.”
Roman clenched his fists and growled, voice low, “Then tell me what the hell I’m supposed to do. I can’t just take him, he’s probably got a chip or something. I’m dirt broke, too; I can’t buy him from that bastard either. My only option is to try and knock some sense into him.”
Logan seized Roman by his shoulders and locked eyes with him. “You beat him and I can guarantee he will take it out on the borrower. Do you want that?”
Roman faltered, shook Logan off, and slumped back into his seat with a groan. “What the hell am I supposed to do then?”
Logan paused for a moment. “I’m sure I could remove the chip, given I knew where it was.”
“It can’t be that simple. He’s probably had it for a long time, it could’ve fused with his nerves.”
“And if it isn’t an implant?”
This seemed to give Patton some form of hope. “What do you mean?”
“It could be a collar.”
Roman remembered seeing something like that in the picture. “Yeah.” he said. “It wasn’t just a collar, it looked high-tech, like a dog’s shock collar.”
This made Patton want to cry. “Shock collar?” He gasped. “Oh, Logan, we’ve gotta get that little guy outta there!”
“At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before he sneaks the borrower into school. We could do it then.”
“Got a plan?” Roman inquired.
Logan smirked. “Really, Roman, I thought you knew me.”
That Friday, Jackson brought his borrower just as Logan predicted he would. Now all they had to do was distract everyone long enough to sneak the tiny out of school. Easy, right? Well, Roman makes for a good spectacle.
Janus had agreed to stage a fight with Roman in the hall, so long as he got to initiate the fight and win. Logan would be the one to call for help, thus luring everyone out into the hall. Lastly, Patton will leave five minutes before the fight starts, enter the classroom when everyone is gone, and leave before anyone returns. Simple. What could go wrong?
Time Skip ~
Patton waited in a nearby bathroom until he heard Logan yelling for help. He waited another ten seconds before stepping out, but never made it inside the classroom. Something went wrong. Something went very wrong.
They considered Jackson might bring the borrower with him and they’d have to give up, but they hadn’t considered Jackson would drop him.
Patton hurried over to the borrower, but stopped at a distance and tried to get his attention. “Oh honey,” he bit back a sob. He was bleeding. “Honey, are you okay?”
The borrower whipped its head around, tears pouring down his face. Its leg was injured, and Patton thought he might’ve hit his head, but he still tried crawling away at the sight of a human.
Patton got down on his knees, folded his hands, and begged. “Nonono, please don’t go. It must hurt a lot. I won’t come any closer, so please don’t go.”
Instead, the borrower desperately continued to drag itself across the floor in an attempt to escape someone who wasn’t even pursuing him.
“Oh, hon, please. I wanna help you, but you have to come with me.” He pleaded. “Come with me and I promise, you won’t ever have to see him again.”
The borrower stopped to peek at Patton over his shoulder. Patton was crying. A human was crying in front of him for no apparent reason. He wasn’t bleeding. Why was he crying?
“You don’t have to come with me,” Patton cried. “You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to trust me, either. But I can’t let you stay.” His voice hitched. “I can’t watch him hurt you anymore.”
The borrower’s tiny frame shook with every attempt not to make a sound. Patton could tell just looking at his leg, it had to hurt a lot. It could be broken. And still, the little borrower refused to cry out.
The sound of footsteps shook Patton from his daze. “Oh, no.” He breathed. “We’re running out of time, we have to go. Can I pick you up? I promise I’ll be careful.”
The borrower looked horrified, face twisted in pain and fear. He looked down the hall, back to Patton, then down and back again until finally he turned to Patton, let out a tiny sob, and raised its arms as if to say, “Hurry.”
Patton smiled in utter relief and quickly but quietly closed the distance between him and the small figure lying helpless on the floor. Careful of his leg, Patton scooped him up and wiped all his blood off the floor with his sleeve. Then he got up and hurried to the infirmary. “M- maybe we can use something for stilts. Or gauze. To stop the bleeding. But we can’t let the nurse see. Oh, I hope they’re out right now.” He rambled on. “I wish Logan was here, he’d know what to do. I hope it’s not broken. Does it feel broken? Oh, hon, I’m so sorry you got hurt. You weren’t supposed to get hurt.”
The borrower said nothing, but took notice of how Patton avoided running and cradled him so that his leg was elevated. He clung to Patton’s sleeve and buried his face in the material to quiet any sounds that might’ve escaped him. It hurt. It hurt a lot. So much that he wanted to chew the whole thing off.