g/t one-shot book

mind, not mine (nb/m)

"Missed connections..."

Teran sighed as they let the words out. It just had to be another case of right people, wrong time hadn't it? The 18-year-old would've never suspected their grandmother's wisdom would be useful this soon. Their eyes drifted to their desk.

When was Sam going to realize that college wasn't everything? That if they just...worked things out, maybe those feelings would-

They stopped themselves, scowling. No, that wasn't it. Sam had told them the truth, that she couldn't reciprocate their feelings. It would be foolish to question her honesty, right?

The teen kicked at the ground, their scowl deepening as they threw their back against their mattress. This was stupid. Here they were, angry about separating instead of growing a pair and accepting that they'd still be friends. At this rate, Sam was never going to call them again.

Teran huffed, their anger beginning to dissipate.

"I fucked up," they managed through breaths, grimacing as the sound of their voice settled in their chest. Great, now they weren't angry enough to be irrational. Wonderful.

"Real bad."

Teran whipped their head around to the voice no louder than a whisper. It didn't sound like their voice, hell, if anything it sounded...distorted? Like a discarded voice recorder or memo left on a low volume. They slapped a hand to their forehead. The cherry on top of it all - they were going crazy!

Fan-fucking-tastic.

They shrugged. No one else was home, and it wasn't people didn't talk to themselves for less. Teran rolled their eyes, deciding to entertain the still, small voice that spoke with such audacity.

"Okay, voice of reason," they said, aware of how their voice could drown out the thought's if they were loud enough. "What do you think I do?"

"Me?"

Uncertainty? Teran sat up. If this was something they had to unpack later, they'd rather not do it in the midst of a breakup. An unreal relationship was one thing, but low self-esteem? Their eyes darted across the room, looking for any sudden movements. After a few moments, they slumped, exasperated.

"Yes 'me.' You're me." They said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

A beat of silence followed. An uneasy feeling crept up their spine. Maybe they were mistaken, after all. Before they could retract their statement, the voice from earlier returned.

"I'm connected to you," the voice clarified. Teran shrugged. Guess his inner voice was a bit of a smartass. Checks out.

The voice wasn't finished. "Start from the beginning," it continued, "you're missing some details."

Teran bit their lip. They could kinda tell where their thoughts were going with this stunt, but actually following through with it was a daunting task. The teen tested the weight of their question on their tongue.

"Promise you won't judge?"

The voice scoffed. "Please? You're a bean! Even if I do, who will I tell?"

Teran blinked. A...bean? That was a new one they hadn't heard before. Or at least, they weren't conscious of hearing. In a weird way, the insult confirmed what they already knew - that these thoughts were the real deal. Definitely the deepest and...purest?

A soft smile spread on their features. "You're right," they muttered, and they could already feel a bit of the pressure lay off their heart. "Let's not waste any more time..."

--- --- ---

Anania listened from behind the bookshelf at the human. It was weird, hearing a giant like that talk about normal things like relationships and insecurities. Sounded like the bean just needed a person to vent to, and by how they were so desperate to accept that Anania was a Part of Them (TM), the borrower had come just in time.

Originally, Anania planned on making his escape. Sure, he hadn't expected Teran to come in early, and sure, he'd abandoned his climbing gear because he decided to push himself today, but...

The borrower sighed. But nothing. There was no way out. He was way too high up - obscured enough to be unseen, but too obscured to be rescued. The borrower felt silly at first, playing Teran's mind. But as they talked themselves out of desperation, Anania found that they weren't as different as they originally thought.

At 24 years old, Anania had been old enough to remember when he belonged to a borrower community. Back in the stuffy apartment where everything went wrong for the humans, the perfect conditions for a group of borrower families to dwell. But as the humans got more superstitious, they began leaving in droves. Eventually what led everyone to split up was having to ration a few crumbs among 36 borrowers.

The young adult never took that community for granted, though. From having an assortment of brothers and sisters to dealing with unapproving families, Anania's experiences with that community shaped who he was. A shape, he noted, which by some dumb stroke of luck was the exact shape the human had needed him to be.

He'd gotten their name at the end, when he'd forced them to say affirming words to themself, using their name as a starting point. The exercise wasn't his, of course - he'd heard it while passing by the box with glowing humans and static voices inside, and something about the box stuff the older humans watched always found a way to resonate with the older borrower. But the human, Teran, ate the entire charade up.

Eventually, the human left their room again, giving the borrower enough time to figure out how to fall- get down from such a daunting height. Luckily he was met with a pillow on the trip down, and with not enough time to spare wondering about the student's interior design choices, the borrower scrambled and instead thanked his lucky stars that for the second time that day.

As he went about his routine, he considered moving - he really did, but something about the conversation with the human felt familiar. Maybe it was remnants of the community he hadn't realized he missed, or maybe it was just the rush of lying to a being that could squash you without a second thought. The 3-inch-tall man huffed. That was the last time he'd play with his life like that.

The borrower jumped into his cot, letting his weight rest in its security. He needed a nap. And maybe a sip of that hot human booster drink.