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tea-potato-gt · 22 days ago

Note

the part 2 comes out on my birthday june 4th it’s kinda funny :3 anyways hope you have a good day i love your work

ABATEOTW species swap AU Part 2

Happy birthday Anon! 🎉🥳🎊

Word Count: 2700ish words

Part 1 here / Bonus AU comic here / Main story here!

What if Briar was a human (named Bruno), while Jace and Layla were borrowers (named Juniper and Lilac)?

***

A week or so passed, the tension in the abandoned house seemed to lessen a little.

The relationship between Bruno and the borrowers was strained, but cordal. Bruno and Juniper would acknowledge each other's presence in passing, and they just went about their business.

The bean even kept his promise of not talking to Lilac, much to her annoyance. If he ever saw the girl around, and she tried to call the giant over, he would wave politely and leave the room. She started pouting recently and complaining to her brother, saying he wasn’t their dad and he had no right to make the bean promise not to talk to her. Or something like that, Juniper largely tried to tune her out. Though that was easier said than done.

Bruno tried to be extra nice to the kids. He even offered more concha (sweet bread) to Juniper, which thoroughly seemed to piss the kid off.

“I’m perfectly capable of getting food myself, you insensitive bean,” the boy would say. It seemed this borrowing business was a matter of pride for the kid and so Bruno immediately dropped the subject.

Bruno still noticed his food and things going missing, but it didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would. He didn’t mind sharing his food, it’s not like the kids ate much, it just bothered him they never asked. He would have given the food any way. It’s just a matter of principle. They just stole from under his nose, or “Borrowed” if you asked Juniper.

One day Bruno ‘accidentally’ left his snack bag in an easily accessible place for Juniper to ‘borrow’ from. The level of irony that came with that name was not lost on the bean, but he chose to ignore it.

It didn’t take long for Buno to realize it was just the two borrowers in the house, which felt odd to him. Lilac couldn’t be older than six and the boy looked like a preteen. Where were their parents? No matter how much he wanted to ask, he knew Juniper would be pissed at the bean inquiring and sticking his (giant) nose in places it didn’t belong.

***

Two weeks ago, Bruno was in such a rush to hide in the abandoned house, that the fact that there was a car in the garage barely registered in his mind. It wasn’t until a week later that he finally pieced this together in his scrambled mind. He would have noticed sooner if he wasn’t so preoccupied by running for his life from monsters and the discovery of two tiny children living here in the house.

The previous tenants of the house had apparently left in such a rush that the key to the car was still hanging in the garage. Whoever they were, they were most likely dead, so if no one was going to use the car, it just might be Bruno’s ticket home.

Just as the world started to fall apart, Bruno had received a call from his twin sister, telling him that she and her family were going into hiding outside Laredo, and to come find them. That was the last thing he heard from them.

Bruno had accepted most of the human population had died, but he held out hope his family was still out there and he was determined to find them. Even without the whole apocalyptic world, they were still separated by nearly 900 miles. An almost impossible feat to travel by foot, so this car was a perfect alternative. It would get him a good portion of the way there. Then he could find another car or something, he just had to find them.

It was an old 1970's truck.

Who ever had lived here before clearly loved this thing, because it was still in almost working condition, with a full tank of gas. Bruno just had to make a few adjustments under the hood and undercarriage.

So here he was, stretched out on his back under the truck, with the various tools scattered on the concrete. He had to manually open the garage to get light since electricity was one of the first things to go when society collapsed.

Bruno’s hands moved with practiced care. Memories of another life flashed before his eyes, guiding his fingers as he tightened as he checked for damages or inconsistencies. In his youth, Bruno had helped his Pa fix up old cars. They practically rebuilt most of them from scratch. That was how he and his Pa bonded, fixing up busted up cars and making them like new. His Pa was a mechanic by trade, it paid most bills, but the man started fixing older sports cars as an extra source of income.

Feeding their ever growing family was hard, Bruno even got a job as a farm hand at 13 to help keep food on the table. He had to lie about his age too, saying he was 15. His boss probably knew he was lying, but they needed the extra help. That’s also where Bruno learned about plant cultivation, farming, hunting, catching, skinning or growing his own food. For the longest time that didn’t seem like useful knowledge to a man who eventually lived in big cities. But here at the end of the world, this knowledge might just mean life or death.

Bruno was lost in his own little world, fixing the car. He felt more at ease than he had in a long, long time.

“What are you doing?”

A soft voice startled Bruno so badly that he tried to quickly sit up and promptly smacked his head on solid metal and punctuated the metallic thud with a strained “Ack!” Bruno dropped the wrench to his side and held his forehead, rubbing the growing bump. A slew of spanish curses almost made its way out of his mouth if he hadn’t biten his tongue first.

Bruno looked to his left, for the source of the voice, and there was the little borrower boy. He was standing under the car, just out of arm's reach of the bean.

“What the– Juniper?! What are you doing out here?”

“Trying to see what’s all the racket.” The kid huffed, “And I asked you first.”

Juniper had been disturbed from taking— borrowing food by a constant, annoying metal clanging sounds for the past hour. It was driving him nuts not knowing where it was coming from. Juniper even tried yelling for the bean, Bruno, who didn’t answer. Curiosity and irritation lead the boy out through the wall entrance to the garage, he normally only came here when looking to borrow tools or screws.

There, he saw a pair of titanic legs and giant boots sticking out from under the metal monster. To Juniper, this behavior was beyond bizarre. He didn’t know much about what the metal thing was, he knew the old beans of the house would crawl inside of its body and it would roar to life, leaving nothing but a cloud of horrible smelling hot air in its wake. Juniper didn’t understand why beans would need such a creature to get around, they already towered over everything, he figured with those skyscraper legs, they could get anywhere by walking. How far did beans need to get to anyway?

Juniper didn’t know much about this metal monster. But he knew it only awoke when the beans were inside it. So it would remain asleep for now. The only real, immediate danger was the bean before him.

The pain in Bruno’s forehead finally stopped throbbing. He looked back up at what he was adjusting, “I‘m checking that there’s no leakage down here, fuel or coolant, things like that.”

“What?” Juniper looked up to where Bruno was gesturing, but couldn’t decipher anything under the mess of pipes and metal work. It just looked like a bunch of bean made rubbish to him, “Why?”

“I’m trying to make sure this thing still works.”

“Why?”

“Well,” Bruno picked up his wrench again and got back to work, “Once I get this car up and running, I’m riding this baby out of here.” He ended that sentence with a grunt as he finally finished tightening the rusted bolt he’d been fighting with. He put the wrench down with a satisfied sigh and looked back over to where the borrower stood.

Juniper was looking away. That was a first. Normally when Juniper was in the same room as Bruno, he couldn’t keep his eyes off the giant man, glaring at him to make sure he didn’t do anything nasty to either borrower.

Instead, Juniper stared over the bean, past the car, to outside the open garage door. A nice breeze blew through the room, but the boy shuddered. He couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or fear. Maybe both.

Something in the chipper voice of the Giant made Juniper's chest hurt in a way he didn’t understand. Wow, this bean must really hate this place to want to get away so badly. He must hate… us.

The world out there was so… big. Even for gigantic beans it was big. Why would a this man want to leave, especially if the world was as dangerous outside the house as Bruno told them. Full of monsters worse than beans and death.

"Why can't you..." stay here. Juniper almost asked the bean to stay, but he held his tongue and refused to finish. Why would he even think about asking the giant to stay? A borrower’s life was always in danger with a bean present. They are dangerous. No matter how nice they seem.

Well, who needs that stupid bean anyway? Juniper thought bitterly, He’s just leaving– Like everyone else… Juniper’s frown deepened as he watched two birds happily fly past the house, tweeting and singing in the sunshine. As a borrower, he would never get the chance to play in the sun, not without the fear of being killed by some animal. There would be no safe escape for Juniper and Lilac. Leaving to find other beans to borrow from was a gamble he wasn’t willing to make.

Juniper was at a loss for what to do. Despite it all, he didn’t want Bruno to leave, the thought of him leaving terrified him. But so did the thought of him staying.

He had no right to ask a giant not to leave. It was like asking the sky not to rain or to try and change the wind. An impossible task a borrower couldn't hope to do.

Juniper never wanted to admit it out loud to anyone, not even to himself, but he was scared. He was just one child, a three and a half inch child at that. He had to take care of himself and his little sister, practically raising her, he didn't get a choice.

He had heard tales of borrowers who lived outdoors and lived off the land. Maybe they could try? But the thought of being out in the open and trying to survive was terrifying. He may be the oldest, but he was still only 11 summers old. He had never been outside without a parent, and now he had no one to watch out for him.

His face grew hot as his eyes landed on the giant laying on his back staring at him. You stupid, gigantic oaf. Oh yeah, Keep rubbing in how the world is at your fingertips. You can leave without fear. You can pick up immovable objects and not fear being eaten by a stupid bird. Beans like you are actually free... We can never be.

Bruno could clearly see the boy was getting upset, his shoulders tensed and his face looked red. He didn’t know what got the boy so riled up, but the beans figured this might be time to bring up something that had been on his mind for a while.

Bruno turned on his stomach as slowly as possible, not just to keep from scaring the kid, but to avoid hitting his head on the undercarriage again. He finished easing himself to the ground with a soft grunt, but Juniper still heard it. The borrower stepped back a little now that the Bean’s full attention was on him. The boy was eyeing the giant hands before him, anticipating some foul play from the giant, but Bruno slid them under his chest to ease the boy’s fears.

“Listen, kid,” Bruno didn’t know where to start, so he figured he'd just come out with it. “Will you… do you and Lilac want to come with me?”

Juniper took another step back, clearly nervous.

Bruno continued, “No pressure. Really, I mean it. I’d never force you or your sister to come with me, but I just thought I’d offer. I can’t leave you both in good conscience without at least telling you that you have the option.”

Juniper hesitated. The world outside was a scary and dangerous place for borrowers, but what if they had a giant on their side? That would take away a lot of the dangers, but also bring in a whole host of other problems. Is this bean– this man truly trustworthy with Juniper and his sister’s lives?

As if reading Juniper’s mind the bean spoke, “I promise you and your sister will always be safe with me. I’d never let anything happen to you.” Bruno’s face was serious. When he made a promise his word was his bond, he would keep it till his last.

Juniper stared into the bean’s large eyes, there was no lie in them. No depiction. He hesitated, but spoke: “I– I’ll think about it.”

“Please do.” Bruno smiled. “A-and I’m not leaving immediately, maybe in three days or so. I still have to pack and finish fixing the car.”

Bruno said his peace, he turned onto his back and continued working on the truck and grabbed the wrench. He was expecting Juniper to run back to the safety of the walls. The giant was giving Juniper an open invitation to slunk back into the shadows unwatched. The kids didn’t like being watched while entering the walls, afraid if a bean knew where the entrances were he would take advantage of it. Bruno understood that and thus turned away.

There was a long moment of silence as Bruno searched for other loose bolts to tighten when a soft voice reached his ear, “What’s that?”

Bruno froze and slowly looked to the side, the kid stood a little closer than before, and he was looking at the large metal object in the bean’s hand, roughly 4 times the kid’s height.

“It– uh, It’s a wrench,” Bruno blinked.

“What does it do?”

“I’m using it to tighten these,” he gestured at the various bolts and mess of metal above them that Juniper couldn’t begin to understand.

“Why?”

“To make sure there’s no leaking.”

“Leaking? Is this thing full of blood?”

“No, not at all,” Bruno chuckled. He set the wrench down and turned his head. The giant went on a tangent about the different things that could leak under the car like engine oil, transmission fluid, or coolant. He pointed to various places where they were stored or ran through and their functions in making the car move. As Bruno explained the various aspects of the car in so much detail that to the borrower, the metal titan seemed less intimidating. Almost non threatening, other than its size. It turned out trucks didn’t eat the ground up bones of borrowers. Just like this bean didn’t either. Hm.

At some point Juniper’s small voice piped up, “What’s the engine?”

Bruno’s eyes lit up, “You want to see? It’s up top, under the hood.”

The boy hesitated for a moment, he looked towards the wall, safety and darkness beckoning him. Then he looked back into the bean’s eyes, there was nothing that indicated ill intent. In fact over the past week, Bruno had been nothing but kind and respectful. Maybe it was time for Juniper to return the favor. “S-sure.”

That was all Bruno needed, a smile stretched across his face as he slid out from under the car. He slowly got to his feet, with a strained grunt and creaking in his knees. Juniper peaked out from behind the tires as a pair of large work boots stepped off to the side and Bruno pulled up a small (to the bean) wooden table up beside the front of the car.

When the earth stopped shaking, Juniper looked up into the eyes of the giant who gestured for the boy to climb up onto the table, knowing full well the borrower would never agree to being picked up by a bean.

Juniper nodded and ran to the closest wooden leg, pulled out his hook and threw it up in the air till it latched to the top of the table. It took Juniper a couple of minutes to make it to the top, and he was pretty winded, but his curiosity kept him walking to the edge to overlook the engine. He was in complete awe of the seemingly inexplicable mess of intricate machinery. Juniper sat on the edge of the table top, overlooking the bean as he got to work, checking for leaks and making adjustments as necessary.

Juniper was beyond amazed, questions began pouring from his mouth about the various twists and curves of metal, what they were for, how the car ran, where it could go, etc. Bruno was happy to answer all the boy’s curious questions and he explained them to the best of his ability. He wasn’t an expert by any means, and he often found himself parroting the facts and tricks his own father had taught him decades ago.

A lot of the answers went over Juniper’s head, but it was nice to talk about something other than survival for once, so the boy didn’t seem to mind. Bruno had an untapped well of knowledge of a world the borrower had never even considered. The life of a bean seemed so complicated and simple at the same time. It was almost thrilling to learn about a different way of being.

For the first time in a long time, Bruno felt… pride. Joy even, if you could call it that. He felt the return of youthful smiles as he spoke to Juniper, watching the boy finally start to open up. He definitely wasn’t as skittish as when they first met. He even heard the borrower’s faint laugh a few times. Bruno’s heart seemed full to burst. He was proud of Juniper for being so brave. Brave enough to stay around a giant and do something as mundane as talking. He didn’t imagine he himself would have the courage to do something that crazy.

They spent the rest of the afternoon like that, enjoying each other's company. No danger befell either person as the sun set. The world seemed to give them a much needed breather.

Here on this day, they could live in a world where it was normal to talk to a person the size of a hand and a towering giant.

***

I literally don’t know anything about cars, so sorry if there’s any inconsistencies. My Tio is a mechanic, but I sure as hell wasn’t gonna ask him 💀 LOL 🫠 Let me know if there’s any mistakes I can fix

***

Want more? Read "A Borrower at the End of the World" here

26 more days till new chapters (and my birthday)! (Happy birthday Anon!)

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