Chapter Text
Martin was tired. Not even the lonely kind, actually, genuinely tired. After that… talk he had with Jon a few minutes ago, he was ready to call it a day. He wondered if Peter Lucas would be upset with him for leaving early or happy that he didn't care enough to do his job.
Regardless, Martin was ready to go home. So he did.
His flat was ok, the lights were a bit dim, and the natural light was kept to a minimum in most rooms recently, but it was clean and the furniture was less stiff than it could have been.
He put his things on the couch and barely noticed the dull thud of bag against sofa as it was drowned out by the silence of the room. He took a moment to consider what he was doing. Why did he leave work again? There was nothing to get done here either. He decided he would make tea then take a nap, and only worry about what to do next if he woke up before 8:00.
Martin had only just got into the kitchen to make his tea when he heard the living room tv acting up. It was switching channels, playing some creepy jingle, then all Martin could hear was the buzz of static. Nothing overly terrifying, but Martin knew too much to brush it off.
He abandoned his tea making and set out to briefly look at the TV for no other reason than to pretend he tried, before leaving the apartment as quickly and unproblematically as possible. This plan was quickly thwarted. The screen was overtaken by a purple glow and the static intensified before the screen itself shattered. Two small figures tumbled out of the TV and crashed on the floor uncomfortably, making Martin yelp and stumble backwards. He quickly twisted the latch open and had his hand ready on the doorknob to open it if he needed to run.
As the figures stood up, Martin became aware of the fact that they were most definitely children. Despite the clearly supernatural nature of their entrance as well as their less than normal appearance, this prevented Martin from abandoning them entirely.
That didn't mean he wouldn't be cautious.
He took stock of the children, noting that the one in the yellow raincoat seemed to be just as interested in him as he was of them, if not more. The other seemed more concerned with their own injuries, holding their arm to their side painfully and favoring one leg.
Questions were racing through Martin's mind, and he was struggling to pick one to ask first when his thoughts were interrupted by sudden motion. The one in the yellow raincoat had grabbed the taller one by the hand and was dragging them quickly into the hallway, which Martin knew would lead them only to the bathroom and his bedroom.
He decided to take that as a chance to make a plan. What did one do when scared injured children found their way into their home? Typically, Martin thought, it would be best to get out the first aid and call 999. Something told him this wasn't going to be "typically".
He settled on the idea of making them tea and snacks, hopefully to calm them down when they were done in the restroom. After they calmed down enough to not hurt themselves, he would work on patching up their wounds. Finding their parents. Doing whatever he could with the information he could get.
It didn’t take much to get the tea on, as that was what he had been doing before the children crashed into his living room. More challenging, however, was the snacks. After some deliberation, he threw together two ham sandwiches and some fruit filled grain bars.
He brought them back to the living room on a tray, sat them on the scratched-up coffee table, and sat in the chair farthest from the food. He didn't want to seem like he was luring them to him and thought sitting right next to the food might make it feel like a trap.
He had only been sitting there long enough to hear a few mildly concerning crashes before the children once again emerged. Both were cautious at first, the taller one with the paper bag on their head in the lead.
That quickly changed when the other caught sight of the food on the table and started walking towards it.
Martin was unnerved by this for more than one reason. The child knew Martin was there, and obviously didn't like it. Their eyes were glued to Martin as if the slightest movement would incriminate him of something. Yet they kept moving towards the table, almost as if they couldn't stop.
The taller one seemed at a loss, worriedly looking on from the doorway, until the smaller made a mad dash the last few feet to the table. Focus completely changed from Martin to the plate of food, the child crouched on the table over the tray tearing into the food with more ferocity than Martin would have expected from a wild animal.
After a brief moment of pause, the taller one jolted into action. They ran out to their friend's side and tried to block Martin's view. All the while they kept glancing back at their friend making hurried noises. Martin did his best to be as non-threatening as possible, even going so far as to avert his gaze, looking at anything but the two children.
It didn't take the child long to finish the entire tray, having eaten alone what Martin had intended to be for both of them. They took a few deep breaths as if it had been taxing to wolf the food down like that, and Martin was sure it had been.
After collecting themself, the raincoat child looked warily in Martin's direction. Something about their gaze sent shivers down Martin's spine, which almost distracted him from realizing that they thought he was blocking the door. He considered moving away from the door to make them feel less trapped, but he decided that it would be a bad idea to let these strange children roam about unsupervised. He stayed in the chair nearest the door just in case.
The two children looked at each other briefly then stalked back towards the hallway. Martin heard his bedroom door open and close and tried not to be worried about what they might break.
— • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • — • —
Six was tired. All she wanted was to find somewhere safe and quiet with lots of food, but the portal had taken them to some weird place with yet another threat! This one didn't look as terrifying as the others, but that hardly meant anything.
She decided that kicking the bed repeatedly would help her think.
The man was either very bad at hunting or he was holding back. Six decided the second option was more likely.
Mono looked at her weirdly, then seemed to move on and start looking around the room.
She still couldn't figure out why there had been food. Obviously it was supposed to be a trap, she was starving and couldn't resist so he must have meant to use that against her. But whatever plan he must have had she couldn't figure it out. He didn't get out of his chair, and she was sure it wasn't Mono's attempt at intimidation that had kept him there. There was no trap on the food. The only thing she could figure out was that he had been closest to the door, preventing them from leaving.
Even more confusing was what she felt when she was eating the bait. She had gotten used to the flashes of images and impressions of thoughts that weren't her own when she ate, but those were usually different. They were usually helpful. She would get an odd familiarity with the vent system, flashes of horrifying cooks in a terrifying kitchen, The Lady's reaction to her own reflection. This time it had been a nervously hopeful feeling, gentle hands, and a sigh. Six didn't know what to think of that.
She had stopped kicking the bed and was staring at the unmarred bedframe. She wished she were wearing shoes, then she could kick hard enough to leave a mark.
She was pulled from her thoughts by Mono's hand on her shoulder. He was motioning towards a dresser on the wall. She looked around trying to figure out what he wanted until she saw the window, and Mono trying to push the dresser towards it. He wanted her to help.
She almost didn't think they would be able to push it, but before long they were moving and she could hear the legs scraping against the floor.
Unfortunately, the motion had other effects. Something on the dresser fell over, and the sound of it falling mixed with the scraping of the dresser on the floor would certainly alert the man of their plans.
Just as she expected, Six heard footsteps coming down the hall.
They didn't shake the ground. They weren't accompanied by a rumble. They were soft taps, but they were getting closer.
Six stopped pushing the dresser and started opening the drawers. She hoped it was close enough to make the jump to the window.
Mono caught on as she was climbing up the drawers and made to follow her.
The footsteps stopped just outside the door.
Six jumped, grabbed the windowsill, and pulled.
It didn't budge.
•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
Martin wanted to let them calm down on their own, really, but there was a concerning noise coming from his bedroom that he couldn't quite ignore. He went to check on the kids, trying not to startle them with a loud knock or opening the door too fast.
The door opened slowly to reveal the two children trying very, very hard to open a locked window.
Martin sighed and went to sit on his bed and try to talk them down. He figured if they didn't know how to flip the latch on the window to unlock it, they wouldn't likely be able to unlock the front door either if they bolted out of the room.
"Hey, hey, don't worry, it's, ah, I won't hurt you or anything. I'm just wondering how you got here." Martin fidgeted with his hands in his lap and waited for a response. Rain jacket turned around to look at him, abandoning their efforts to open the window, but didn't say a word.
"Umm. Well. You don't really have to tell me, but it would be nice to know your names if you don't mind." Raincoat put a hand on the other child's shoulder, and they turned around as well.
The one with the paper bag made a concerned sound, and seemed to angle themself away from Martin.
Martin figured it would be best to just keep talking and get them accustomed to his presence. He wasn't entirely sure how to deal with scared children, but talking felt like the best course of action.
"Oh! I haven't even introduced myself yet. I'm Martin. I work at the Magnus institute, I'm an archival assistant. That's someone who…" Martin continued talking to them about whatever came to mind for as long as he could stand to. It wasn't terribly long, he felt himself wanting to walk away no more than three sentences in, but he managed to talk long enough that the taller child seemed to relax just a bit.
•°•°•°•°•°••°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
Mono didn't know what to think of this new person. The man was big, not like Six and himself, but he wasn't as big as the man with the gun had been either. And this one spoke a lot. Mono didn't know that many words, but he could recognize some of them. This man also didn't scream when he saw them, his footsteps weren't overly loud or overly quiet and his neck didn't seem to extend further than it should.
In general, this man didn't look scary. Mono wasn't used to that. He didn't know what to think. He heard words like "food" and "safe", and he really hoped that the man was offering those things. He had already given them food once, maybe he would again. Maybe it wouldn't be a trap.
But maybe it would. Mono didn't know enough to risk it yet, but he decided he would consider both possibilities. He would watch the man and see what he was like.
After the man left, Six started to walk towards the door to keep searching for a way out. She expected him to follow her, but Mono stopped her and motioned towards himself, then to where the man had gone. Six nodded, and they split up.