𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘴 ~ (ᴍɪᴋᴇ ᴡʜᴇᴇʟᴇʀ)

.4.

"Is there a number we can call for your parents?" A brown-haired boy asks, kneeling to Five and Elevens level.

The group of boys had brought the girls to a basement and promptly sat them on the sofa so they could argue and freak out in front of them.

After getting no response, he sighed, while his two friends asked about their air and something called 'cancer', which Five thought sounded vaguely familiar. "Are you in some kind of trouble?" The nicer boy asked them. Again they refrained from response.

"Is that blood?" One of the other boys asked pointing to Eleven and Five's faces.

Five jumped away from his actions causing the boy to shout at him, "Stop it! You're freaking them out!"

"They're freaking me out!" He shot back.

"Maybe they're deaf," One suggested and clapped close to Eleven's ears making her flinch, "Not deaf."

"Alright that's enough," He barked, "They're just cold and scared."

Afterwards, he picked up a pile of clothes and passed some to each girl, "Here, these are clean." Nodding, they both stood up and instantly went to pull the rim of their shirts up.

"Hey! Hey! No!" The boy stopped them, while the curly-haired boy flipped out. "See over there," He pointed towards a door in the corner, "That's the bathroom." Five lead Eleven over there while he walked a little in front. "Privacy, get it?" He told them while starting to close the door. Five put her hand out to stop it. "You don't want it closed?"

"No," She told him.

He smiled at her, "So you can speak." He went to shut the door again but only got around halfway, "How about we keep the door just like that. Better?" Five nodded and watched him intently as he rejoined his friends.

When Five looked back to Eleven she saw she was already looking at her. The girl looked away and began to change out of the sopping wet shirt, Eleven doing the same seconds later. "Safe, here?" Five repeated the question for the second time that day - to which Eleven said nothing and left the bathroom.

When they returned, two of the boys watched them nervously while the other was setting up a makeshift bed. "I only have one sleeping bag... hope that's okay," He told them before looking over his shoulder as his friends stormed out of the basement, "Hey, I um never asked your name."

Together they flipped their wrists and showed the tattoo. "Is that real?" He gasped, going to touch it but both retracting it, "I'm sorry I've just never seen a kid with a tattoo before."

Five looked to Eleven who was equally as confused as herself but brought her attention back to the stranger as he spoke, "So yours is Five and yours is Eleven. What does that mean?" Five responded by tapping the black ink and then pointing to her chest. "That's your name? You're called Five?" She nodded.