When You Wish Upon a Borrower

Chapter 3

(Warning: FLUFF... <3)

(Banana_skylox as le writer)

The next morning was unlike any other morning Adam had woken up to face the entire time he'd been here. He was warm, fed, and relaxed. He rubbed his eyes tiredly before looking over to Ty's bed and saw that he must've already woken up. The borrower jumped off the desk and walked calmly to the living room, again, the first time he had been relaxed since he'd arrived there. He smiled happily, now actually looking for his friend instead of hiding from him. He wasn't in the living room, or the kitchen, or anywhere else he looked. He felt a bit hungry, staring at the pantry wearily.

"...Well...certainly Ty wouldn't mind if I took just a bit of food?" Adam murmured out loud, heading guiltily to the pantry. He jumped up, craving some of the bagel he found yesterday. He found it easily and took a bite, then another. He was chewing his third mouthful when Ty opened the cabinet slowly, chuckling when he saw Adam stop mid-chew.

"Good morning." Ty rumbled. Adam swallowed his mouthful quickly so he could speak.

"Where were you?" He asked wearily.

"Oh-I was outside, sorry." Ty apologized, looking at the bagel. Adam looked at his feet, putting his hands behind his back feeling guilty. "Hungry?" He chuckled. Adam scratched the back of his head.

"Heh...I er...would've asked but...I couldn't find you." Ty smirked.

"If you did, I would make you something, no problem!" He sneered.

"Y-You would?" Adam widened his eyes.

"Yeah!" Ty laughed. "I've got pancakes!" Ty finished. Adam's mouth watered at the thought of an actual breakfast for the first time in a while.

"Yes, please!" He begged, smiling.

Ty giggled quietly before holding a few fingers close to him and wrapping them around him softly, picking his friend up carefully and placing him gently on the kitchen table. "Coffee?" He asked the borrower. Adam nodded happily, Ty just smiled and mixed the pancake dough together, asking him how he liked his pancakes and coffee. After they finished with their breakfast, and drank their coffee, they didn't really know what to do next. Adam sparked up a conversation.

"Tell me about your world, I seem to be missing out on a few things..." Ty glanced away for a second then looked back.

"Well," he began shakily. "there's the humans, who I expect you already know of," Adam nodded slightly. "Then there are borrowers, and predators." Adam shuffled his hands a bit, still looking up at Ty.

"Now...Predators are a huge threat to borrowers nowadays, they used to be a lot kinder, but over the years they've developed an insane craving for them. All predators have their own unique types, for example, I'm a dragon-cat hybrid. I have extremely sharp hearing and sight, and I have a storage stomach so I can go the whole winter without even eating. Most predators have them, what they do is...during the cold days...uh...they well...eat the borrowers...or in other words....prey." Adam looked away shyly. "All predators hibernate during winter, and those with storage stomachs keep the prey inside until winter's over. The predator takes energy from the prey, then return energy back to it." Adam's eyes widened, remembering that it was November 21st, and the cold days will be here soon. "I've never done it before, because I don't consent to it, but I usually just find a human meal and make do with it." Ty sighed. "So you won't have to worry." Adam glanced back up at him.

"But...won't other predators try to catch me?"

Ty bit his lip gently, "Well...that's where marking comes in, if a predator claims prey as their own, others won't even think about hunting the prey as a code of honor. So...if you let me mark you, you wont have to worry anymore." Adam looked unsure.

"M-Maybe later, I'm not sure if I'm ready to make that decision yet. If the next meteor shower comes soon, the mark would be for nothing." Adam looked back at Ty. "H-How do you even mark us, anyways?" Ty sucked his teeth a bit, then replied.

"Well...one choice is to draw a permanent tattoo on you and give you a dog tag..." Adam tilted his head to the side.

"Or....?"

"Or I keep you in my storage stomach for a week-" Adam cut him off.

"Uhh...yeah, I'll think about it." He laughed. Ty continued on with his tale.

"Heh...then there are prey, borrowers-like you." Adam nodded a bit. "Prey aren't entirely helpless, they have their defenses too. They're really fast and good at hiding, and their instinct clicks a lot faster than predator's do, and they have more instinct on top of that. They can also go a bit longer without food than predators or humans can." Adam seemed to notice that he'd discovered all his perks in less than a month already.

"Huh...well..I don't think I'd ever say this but, I'm actually bored."

"Yeah, I am too..." Ty trailed off a bit tiredly. "Lets go back in my room." Ty suggested as he got up and walked to his room, followed by Adam. He picked his tiny friend up and sat him on his bed, sighing happily. Ty laid down by the borrower, smiling and messing with his hair. Adam giggled and jumped on Ty's shoulder swiftly. "Wha-?" Ty questioned. Adam just giggled and slipped under his shirt, crawling on his back. Ty shivered as the strange feeling traveled down his spine and to his side, he rolled over so Adam could crawl on his front side. His face popped out of the front of his shirt on the V-neck area, causing Ty to chuckle as his tiny friend crawled out.

"Soo...Wanna play hide-and-go-seek or something?" Adam asked contently.

"Sure! Sounds fun!" Ty replied.

"Cool! I won't hide past this room.." Adam promised. Ty smiled and covered his eyes, counting to ten. Adam found a cozy hiding spot in the closet.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Ty sung, glancing around the room.

Something stirred inside him, knowing Adam was near him but he couldn't see him definitely triggered him a bit, but he pushed it away reminding himself that it was just a game. "I'm gonna get'cha!" He purred, causing my friend to laugh extremely quietly, his sharp hearing almost barely picked it up. He decided to be fair and look around a bit more despite knowing that he was in his closet, Ty glanced under the bed, behind his desk, basically anywhere other than the closet. He turned around, smirking, and walked towards the closet. A new kind of temptation bubbled inside him, as he opened the closet door impatiently. Adam quivered below him, as if ready to dash off. Ty guessed his instinct was triggered as well from hiding. He smiled as if to calm both of them down and let his tensed shoulders fall limp, but he just couldn't calm down. At that moment it seemed no matter how hard they both tried, instinct was flooding back to them. Ty let out a small growl of protest as Adam flinched to take off, immediately correcting himself by apologizing softly. Ty didn't want to pick Adam up, or trap him, but he also didn't want to let him run away.

Ty let his instinct give in and snatched him up in the blink of an eye. He tried to escape, letting out comments like "Wh-Wha-" and "Uh...T-Ty?". Ty decided to cover his actions up by rumbling "Got'cha." Which calmed him down.

"You...You scared me!" He wheezed, smiling.

"Sorry!" Ty apologized sincerely, setting him on the bed lightly and cuddling Adam next to him in a blanket seeing that the temperature dropped even though the day was just starting up. It was only noon and Adam was already feeling cold, they talked for about an hour or so before finally drifting off into an afternoon doze.