When You Wish Upon a Borrower

Chapter 7

Adam stirred awake, feeling groggy from such a deep doze. The warmth Ty was emitting as he hugged him in his sleep was helping with that too, and he slowly sat up with a small yawn to try to stretch off the stiffness in his joints. He rubbed his eyes to rid them of sleep, and he looked up to be surprised and see Martin sitting at Ty's computer desk, watching him wordlessly. He blinked a few times at the awake predator, shivering a little as he stared back from behind those darkly shaded sunglasses.

Then Ty stirred a little and shifted in his sleep, hugging Adam a little tighter to his chest. He glanced back at his best friend, then shyly looked back at Bodil, seeing that he was still gazing at him. Then he got up and slowly walked over to them, crouching down next to the bed and making a gesture with his head. Adam blinked a few times in confusion, slyly letting his gaze slide back to his unconscious friend, when Martin murmured, "Don't worry, I ate something." With that, Adam hesitantly wriggled out of Ty's embrace and allowed the Bulgarian to pick him up, shivering a little when he felt slightly less safe.

Martin carried him to the living room, then sat down on the couch, still holding Adam.

"... So Ty explained everything to me before we decided to start training you." He started. "What was it like?" Adam blinked a few times in confusion.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I mean what was it like, to have no predators or borrowers in your world, or to live in a universe where your friends aren't capable of eating you whole?" He shuddered at the 'comforting' thought Bodil had now placed in his mind, and he replied timidly.

"Well... For one thing, I wasn't scared." He scoffed softly to himself, hesitantly resting his arms over Martin's index. "And uh... Well, there aren't really hybrids or... Man-eating-cannibalistic-like creatures roaming about, and there certainly weren't superhuman-one-inch-tall borrowers." Martin laughed softly as he continued. "I mean, it was really nice there, it was a lot less scary, and boring..." He trailed off as he realized something: When he had first met Ty in the alternate universe, after frantically trying to remind his friend who he was he had gotten his attention when he had mentioned wishing on that star.

"What? What's wrong?" Martin asked.

"... Martin what's so special about a shooting star?" Adam hesitantly inquired. He felt the predator tense a little, sighing.

"Eh... Well shooting stars are kind of like portals, at the right time and right place they can be used to go somewhere else. Why, is that how you got here?" Adam made an "Mmhmm" sound in response, letting his head hang a little. He really did get what he wished for, for something exciting to happen. "I taz dobre." He snorted in laughter when Bodil muttered something under his breath, which he could only guess was Bulgarian. Then the Bulgarian sighed and leaned back, hugging Adam to his chest. "Look, also, I'm uh... Sorry about almost... y'know... Eating you." Adam blinked up at him.

"It-it's fine, I'm not mad, I was just a little... Startled." He replied. "And I know that it's really hard for a predator to fight their instinct."

"Ty's certainly better at it than me," Bodil muttered, then spoke up a little louder than under his breath. "You really trust him don't you?" Adam nodded.

"Of course I do, he's my best friend." Martin let out a sad sigh.

"To be honest, I have no idea what it's like to have a Borrower trust you..." Adam stayed silent for a few seconds, then wriggled out of the Bulgarian's gentle grip and climbed into his pocket. "Whoa, what are you-?" Bodil started to ask, staring down at him in confusion, but he cut him off.

"Just letting a Borrower trust you. I may be human in my world, but I count as a Borrower here right?" Adam pointed out, looking up. The corners of Martin's mouth quirked up in surprise, and then he flashed a grin.

"Yeah." They stayed silent for a few minutes, Martin watching the afternoon sun ever so slowly climb down to the horizon through the window, while Adam almost fell back asleep when Ty emerged from his room, his hair extremely fluffy and disheveled.

"Dude, you really need to get a haircut soon." Martin laughed. Ty glanced around the floor, shrugging off the Bulgarian's humor as he fixed his hair.

"... Where's Adam?" He asked groggily. Adam perked up and peeked over the edge of the pocket.

"Here." Ty's eyes lit up in confusion, and he glanced at Martin, who shrugged and wrapped his trench coat around himself tighter. Then Ty sighed.

"Right then..." He said slowly. "Uh, Martin can I have him back? I want him to get a little more sleep for his next training exercise." Even though Adam trusted his friends, he couldn't help but shudder a little as he remembered what happened last time. Martin wordlessly reached into his pocket and pulled Adam out, handing him to Ty. He relaxed as soon as he was deposited into a more familiar grip, and he hugged Ty's index as he carried him back into the dim-lit room.

"Hey, T-Ty?" He stammered.

"Hmm?"

"Wh-what would I do if-if a predator really did...?" Ty stayed silent, sitting down and hugging Adam in a coddling manner.

"I don't know." He whispered. "I really don't know." A shiver went down Adam's spine, and he shuddered before pressing against his larger friend for reassurance, which Ty gladly offered. After a few minutes of Ty purring softly and stroking his smaller friend, he realized that Adam had finally slipped into sleep, and he smiled as he laid down slowly, keeping his hand cupped protectively over the little Borrower as he too fell asleep.