My Gentle Giant

Chapter 4: To Force the Forced to Eat.

Your pov
That took a lot more bandages than I thought. We started with the ribs, relining some of the looser ones as we went. Arms were next; we kept the regular band-aids for his hands and fingers. We ran out of everything but alcohol wipes, which freaks me out since we still have his legs, feet, neck, and skull to do. And that's all that's not covered by the towel. 
He's getting dressed now, so I headed down to check on the boys and dinner.
Aaaaaaaaannnnnddddd, they are still watching Powerpuff Girls. They're currently fighting some alien guy with a monkey wearing a cape and a big brain hat. I swear that show can get really weird sometimes. I slipped past the boys to the kitchen, where Granny is grabbing the bowls and plates.
"Here, allow me," I said as I grabbed them from her hands. Stacking them carefully, I went and set them out on the table.
"Thank you, dear. Don't forget the cups and spoons."
"On it." I went to the drawer and got out the right amount. As I grabbed the cups, I decided to answer her questioning gaze. "We need more bandages. We'll have to go back to the store tomorrow anyway." And that questioning gaze switched over to a puzzled one.
"More bandages? He needed all of them?" I shook my head as I placed each spoon by a bowl.
"He still needs more. We were only able to get his arms and ribs." I placed the last cup down and saw her, shocked and slightly horrified. "Yeah, I think I made that same face at some point. Whoever did that to him has another thing coming!" And now horror was more dominant in her face over the shock.
"Someone did that to him?! Why would they abuse a sweet, young man like Erratum? If I ever find out who did it, I'll-"
"He said that they'd be long gone long before we would be able to find them. So hopefully, we won't ever have to deal with them." Yeah, she's just about as convinced about that as I was—time to change the subject. "Shall I grab the boys for dinner?" She blinked, slightly confused, before remembering the pot and platter of sandwiches behind her.
"Right. Good luck getting the boys in here. They haven’t moved since you turned on the tv.” She turned back to cutting the sandwiches as I placed down the last cup before turning to my next task of roundup. This should be fun. 
All I had to do to get their attention was stand in front of the tv and block their view. Void whined a little as Null seemed to shake himself back to reality. I smiled at his dazed look as he noticed me.
“You boys hungry?” Null fully snapped up and nodded his head. “Alright, come on then. Dinner’s ready!” I chuckled as I scooped the two of them up, pausing for a second to turn off the tv, then headed towards the table.
“Nice lady, what was that?” I had to focus on answering since mentally squealing is becoming a regular thing around these two.
“That was a cartoon called Powerpuff Girls, and I’m not quite sure how to describe it. Did you like it?” Who can describe a show like that? At least it’s not one of the weirdest ones out there. Null looked serious for a few seconds before nodding.
“Yes, I did. But how did we see it?” Well, he is pretty young, and Erratum did mention what happened to them. This should be fun.
"The device you were watching on is called television, or tv for short. It's how we can watch stories about places from far away that have been recorded with different actors or drawn as a cartoon, like the one you just saw." Hopefully, I didn't make it more confusing for him. He simply looked thoughtful while nodding as I set him down at the table. "Alright, now to get Erratum." And I walked off with Void still in my arms.
I get to the bottom of the stairs, where I found Erratum coming down wearing the bathrobe I grabbed for him. Luckily, both the bathrobe and the shorts came down to just above his knees. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough bandages to cover the cuts and scars on them. I'm hoping that he gets too distracted by the squealing Void he's grabbing from me to notice the slight disappointment in my face. I smiled as I watched the father reunite with his smallest son after being apart for only an hour. So adorable!
"Sorry if I took too long; I had some difficulty with finding the bathrobe's belt and had to make my own in the end." That's a new excuse, and I've heard my fair share of them.
"It's ok; you're actually right on time! Dinners ready." I gently grabbed Erratum by the hand lead him back to the kitchen, feeling the band-aids we put on the bigger cracks and the smaller ones we missed. Definitely need more of everything.
"Daddy!" And the oldest is now off his chair and hugging his father's legs, effectively halting all progress to the table. The internal squealing is just getting louder at this point. They're acting like this has been the longest they've been apart for.
"Alright, as adorable as this is, sit down so we can eat before the food gets cold." Granny interrupted while putting the soup pot on the table. Erratum's face started to glow blue, almost like a blush. It's always adorable when a skeleton blushes, but right now, Erratum is taking it to a whole other level. We sat down with Granny and me sitting across from each other with Erratum and Void to my left and Null on the right. Erratum's blush went down as he stared confusingly at the bowls.
"Here," I started, offering to take Void, "I can feed Void while you focus on eating. You look like you need it." He hesitated, curling Void closer to himself.
"1-I'm g0od. 1 don't f33l th4t hungry." He glitched a little while saying that; I wonder why.
"That's too bad." We faced Granny as she continued to serve up the bowls. "I was going to make a fresh batch of cookies for dessert after dinner, but if you don't feel that hungry, then I guess I can put that off for later."
"C0ok1es? What k1nd?" An eagerness entered his eyes, which helped me realize why Granny brought it up.
"Chocolate Chip." Might as well join in on her little plan. "Granny here makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the universe!" Please take the bait and eat! He stared between the bowls, Void, me, and Granny before sighing.
"Alright, I'll eat." And here's some mental cheering. WOOHOO! YES!
Ignoring that. I reached over and placed Void on my lap while Granny placed a second bowl in front of me. While I was up, I grabbed a couple sandwich slices and put them on my plate. Null promptly followed my example, though he held his for a little longer, staring at them in curiosity.
"What this?" He held them up a bit higher, looking at all of us for answers. Childhood trauma is always fun, but mentally rolling your eyes is even better.
"That's a grilled cheese sandwich. It's a piece of cheese placed between two slices of bread and toasted on a griddle. You can eat it by itself or dip them into the soup for extra flavor." I picked up one of my slices and dipped it in my bowl as an example. "See?" I took a bite and put the sandwich down in favor of a spoon. "You can also have the soup plain, like so." I scooped out of the second bowl for Void and blew on it before offering it to him. He gladly ate it and started giggling from the taste.
"Why blow?" I couldn't help but giggle as I prepared another spoonful for Void.
"That's because the soup is hot." Granny tackled this question while I continued to feed Void the spoonful, who giggled as he ate. "We try to eat it when it's hot because it tastes better, but we have to blow on it to cool it down enough to eat without burning ourselves." She proceeded to blow on hers before taking a bite, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Erratum follow suit. Null finally tried a bite of his sandwich. It’s so satisfying to hear the crunch from it and see his eyelights brighten up at the taste.
But what was the other crunch from? It was louder and sounded closer to crushing metal.
“Erratum! Spit that out!” I jumped a little at Granny’s outburst, sending Void into a little giggle fit. I looked at Erratum to see him sitting there in confusion, holding what used to be a spoon.

A/N
Heya, everyone! Sorry, this took a while. I wanted to add more but thought this would be good enough to cut off at.
After I publish this, I will be deleting my tag chapter and that announcement chapter. I'm not planning on ever giving up on this book, and I have (hopefully) enough ideas for this to reach the chapter limit. If it doesn't, well, I have a plan for that, but we'll see when we get there. So, I'll keep any A/Ns and tags for the end of chapters.

I'll see you all later!

(Edit. Sorry but I finally noticed that I never numbered the chapter. Sorry about that, the next chapter will come (sooner or later).)