LaEscritora

When Sawyer returned home that afternoon, it was with renewed determination. He couldn’t have said what his classes that day had been about, because he’d spent all of them thinking about the two tiny people that – hopefully – were still in his apartment. He’d come to a realization- if they’d wanted to talk to him, they would have, and trying to force the issue would only further strain what little trust he might have earned with them. He had to be patient.   Patience was not one of Sawyer’s strong suits.   Nevertheless, he spent the walk back to his apartment telling himself that he would do his damndest. He couldn’t stomach the thought of scaring them any more than he already obviously had. It just wouldn’t be right. If they were people, then, the decisions should be in their hands; at least, whenever they decided to actually get across what they wanted. Until then, Sawyer would just have to do his best to keep taking care of them, people-style.   He took a deep breath and unlocked

Sawyer eyed Onesie for a beat longer before turning his gaze away and focusing on his own toast instead. The little guy was extra skittish this morning. Sawyer hoped that he hadn’t destroyed any trust in him completely with his curiosity. He couldn’t help it; even now, knowing they could talk, he was burning up with questions inside. What were they? Where had they come from? Why didn’t they talk to him before? How did they wind up with Colfax?   He wouldn’t be able to get any of those answers, though, if he scared them any more than he already had. He knew that. So he bit back all the questions and tried to swallow them down with coffee.   It was a little unusual to have such a quiet breakfast. Sawyer usually had something or other to chatter at them about, but now the quiet settled over them like a weight. Adrian's stomach did flips as he thought about it, how it meant the human knew they understood, knew they could speak. Knew they were people and not animals he had taken in. And he

Lying in her old bed felt doubly strange, since she hadn’t done that except on holidays for years now, and it didn’t feel nearly the same as her bed on the ship. The mattress was softer, the blankets not as thick. June tossed and turned, everything from the last few days swirling around in her mind. It was a lot to process. Especially since being back on Earth hadn’t given her the sense of relief and completion she had expected it to. She tried to find those feelings. Her eyes traced the familiar contours of her childhood bedroom as she thought about what it might be like to have the life she had been living before. She tried to imagine herself going back to her apartment, or, well, probably getting a new apartment. Returning to her job at the grocery store. Settling back into the routine of work and hobbies and TV shows and sleep. Somehow, none of this comforted her like it should. All the same, she had nearly managed to get to sleep when she heard voices outside her bedroom

When June started to wake up, it was like every molecule in her body was telling her she shouldn’t. She felt as if she were fighting her way up through quicksand. Every time she thought she made progress, she would slip away again, losing herself in a dark mess of unconsciousness. The soporific feeling pressing on her like sandbags made her nervous; but the nerves made her keep trying. Eventually, she managed to wake up enough that her senses began to filter back to her. She could hear something beeping, and she could feel that she was underneath what seemed to be heavy sheets. Her fingers twitched as her brain reminded itself that it was in charge of this body. After a few moments of feeling the air enter her lungs and exit back out again, ever so slowly, June fluttered her eyelids. She wanted so badly to open them, but it was hard. “Oh my god,” somebody nearby murmured. “June? June, honey, can you hear me?” June finally won the battle. Her eyes opened, squinting upwards at the

Despite the three of them feeling like the world had been turned upside-down, the next morning dawned just as it always did. Sawyer woke up and rolled over, blearily rubbing his eyes. They ached, with a headache forming behind them, like he’d gone to sleep stressed about… oh, right. That.   The people-shaped critters he had rescued from the experiments his downstairs neighbor was doing on them were not, in fact, critters. It wasn’t just their shape, they were people, who could talk and everything.   And they wouldn’t talk to him. They’d just looked at him with tears and fear. Though this stung as much as it had the night before, in the clarity of day, Sawyer could reluctantly admit to himself that they probably had good reason to not trust him completely. He’d taken care of them, sure, been gentle and kind, but… he’d still treated them like animals. They had a right to not like him very much for that alone, if he were being honest with himself. That sucked, but was probably true.   Now

They appeared on a pad in the middle of the student center. June blinked, surprised to suddenly find herself in such a busy place, and instinctively clutched at Alvar’s shirt. The last thing she wanted after her recent experience was to get separated from the few aliens she still trusted. Alvar held her securely as he stepped down off of the pad, not intending to let go of her anytime soon. A couple of students walked by, the sopping wet human in Alvar’s arms drawing their curiosity, and Alvar smiled disarmingly at them. “She fell in the fountain,” he explained, thinking up a plausible reason for June to be so wet. The students’ expressions immediately turned to pity, and one of them murmured, “Oh, poor thing,” as they walked away. June didn’t bother saying a thing, still shaking as the drying water sucked the heat out of her body. Right now, being seen as some poor little kid was the least of her worries, and honestly it wasn’t even that inaccurate. She felt like a drowned rat, and