Ramshackle G/T
First fic in a while, sorry about that y’all. I’m having a rough time rn.
But, I want to write more, so if you have any one shot ideas for the fandoms I’m in (look at last post) then I’d love to do them :)
(this fic is Stone centric btw, but Skipp and Vinnie are here to)
tw ~ fear, fighting (cartoon dust cloud style), unintentional fearplay, getting covered in frosting while attempting to steal from a human is not fun, brief description of eating, homeless teens that are anything but stealthy
word count ~ 1.5k
Stone had always hated leaving the walls. Not that he had much of a choice in it anyway.
He hated surviving on the streets too, but at least that had less of a chance of him getting spotted and captured by one of the many corrupt and rude rich humans in Ramshackle.
He also hated being small. That was the worst part. His size. His species. His luck.
The borrower just couldn’t catch a break. Most of the humans in this area were too greedy for him to be able to take more than a few crumbs at a time while borrowing without them noticing. It also didn’t help that his colony-… well, the two others that lived with him didn’t count as much of a colony- but they were what he had. Nevertheless, his colony wasn’t the best borrowers he could end up with. They were loud, energetic.. loved to take risks that stone would often get roped into.
Honestly, he was surprised those two were still alive, or even lived long enough to end up finding him.
He looked around the corner of the human building they were waiting at. Being borrowers on the streets instead of a house was rough, especially with the constant rainy or cloudy weather.
Stone was focused, trying to spot a human who looked clumsy enough to drop some food, but no one caught his eye. Then, there was a crash from behind him. He instinctively jumped, flinching hard before looking back to find the source.
It was exactly what he thought it was, or rather, who he thought it was. Vinnie and Skipp. Of course, those two couldn’t be quiet enough for a few minutes so they could hopefully eat tonight.
“Will you two shut it?”
He glared, his Irish accent thick, his words slurring together slightly from his exhaustion, both physical and mental.
Vinnie looked at him briefly before she scoffed with a smirk.
“Relax, I was just showing Skipp here how to get a good vantage point. "
She spoke overly nonchalant for a borrower that just toppled a stack of scrap metal, making a sound that would surely get them caught if the humans weren’t too vein to care about anything else around them.
Skipp just stood innocently as the other two bickered, a nervous grin on his face.
“Come on, guys, it’s not like any of them noticed, right?”
He tried to lighten the mood. However, his comment seemed to make them fight more.
“Yeah, emo, lighten up.”
Stone glared at the both of them before lunging for Vinnie, the two borrowers resorting to violence in a cartoon-like dust cloud brawl. Skipp watched on, trying to diffuse the situation but doing a terrible job at that.
Eventually Skipp got between them, holding them on opposite ends of his extended arms.
“Stop fighting! We won’t be able to get anything if both of you are tearing each other apart.”
That got them to stop… though Stone and Vinnie were both still huffing and stubbornly looking away from each other.
Vinnie rolled her eyes at the tension while looking out onto the city street, as she’d rather look at that than Stone, until her demeanor softened suddenly, pupils dilating in a wanting way.
“Guys..”
“What is it now-“
She cut off Stone by grabbing both boy’s chins, turning their heads to see what she was seeing. It was a woman, dolled up and permanently vain looking. She was doing her makeup on one of the benches near the street.
Next to her on the bench was a small plate with some kind of pastry on it. They didn’t know all the weird things humans called desserts, but this one looked great, glazed and flaky looking with red jam spread over it.
They had to get that. Stone practically read their minds as the other borrowers thought up plans for getting that food.
“No. No way, I am not getting that close to one of those giant greedy killers.”
He crossed his arm defiantly as Vinnie and Skipp shared a look.
————————————
The gloomy borrower inched closer to the bench. They had to pull him across the street to get him here, but eventually Stone gave in.
Hiding behind one of the bench legs, he peered at his target. Getting up on the bench would be a simple climb… it was not getting caught that made him nervous. Unfortunately enough, he wore the darkest clothes out of all of them, meaning he was camouflaged and usually the one who had to do the risky work.
Regardless of fear, they’d starve for another night if they didn’t get food. So, he pressed on, scaling the bench leg slowly so as to not draw any unwanted attention, not that this human seemed to notice anything around her anyway.
Eventually Stone made it to the top, taking a moment to just stare wide-eyed at the huge presence next to him, worried that she’ll sense him and look. After a moment, he determined it was okay, standing at the edge of the plate, which looked much, much larger than him now that he was up close.
He briefly looked back at where he knew Skipp and Vinnie were watching, took a deep breath… then a shadow cast over him.
A giant hand, white gloved and slowly descending towards him. It took everything in his being not to scream, run, or stumble. He knew that would make this worse… but the human wasn’t looking towards this direction, still enamored with herself. The pastry was grabbed instead of him, thankfully; he watched as the large treat was scooped up with ease and brought up to the human's face.
He hated the loud crunch that followed, as he didn’t like the reminder of how dangerous this was. That thought stayed at the forefront of his mind, only growing louder as he watched the pastry be placed back down, a chunk the size of his head bitten out of it.
He shuddered, unable to get himself together without taking a few breaths first.
It wasn’t until he realized he needed to act fast before that happened again that he finally moved. He leaned over the edge of the plate, reaching out to push the pastry.
Stone just had to move it enough to fall on the floor, since he knew these stuck up humans wouldn’t eat things that touched the floor.
His first shove barely moved it. He hadn’t been expecting it to be as heavy as it was. His second shove pushed it to the side of the plate closest to the edge of the bench seat. He hadn’t accounted for gravity though.
His effort immediately almost backfired as the plate tipped from the weight pushed to one side, causing the entire tea plate to be at a 45-degree angle on the side he was leaning on.
His feet left the ground with a quiet, startled yelp. The borrower was left dangling on the edge of the plate, the pastry on the other side keeping the plate from falling back flat.
A shadow cast over him… the woman’s hand coming down for another bite. This sent him into fight or flight. Immediately he scrambled up onto the plate, sliding down it unsteadily and slamming against the sweet treat, the final shove it took for it to fall to the ground.
The plate made a loud clang against the bench as it landed flat with him on it. Stone was disoriented and covered in the sticky sweet glaze. Well, his clothes were ruined for the time being, but at least it tasted good.
The human stood with an annoyed grunt, spotting her dessert on the ground and, thankfully, not bothering to look at the plate next to her. She left, and Stone hadn’t failed miserably.
He let out the breath he had been holding, practically going limp as it was finally over. Then he jumped as a man walked by busily talking on his phone and, quickly, Stone climbed back down the bench leg, waving over the others who had watched that whole train wreck.
They ran across the street almost invisibly, stopping in front of him with large grins on their faces. Vinnie gave him a hard pat on the back, making him nearly lose balance.
“Great job, dude! Scored us food for a week!”
She excitedly ran over to the pastry.
Skipp beamed at the item and looked over at Stone, lightly elbowing his side before slightly cringing at the unexpected stickiness of the broody borrower's clothing.
“Maybe you should stand outside of the shelter next time it rains…”
The blonde borrower gave a nervous chuckle before wiping his contaminated arm against the nearby bench leg.
————————————
The next few days, the three ate well… though the resulting sugar high was something that made Stone never what to deal with Skipp and Vinnie’s energy ever again. The crash was nice, though, calm for once in their lives.
The next time, Stone would not be on food duty. Vinnie and Skipp will draw straws without him.
——————————————
sorry about the long wait :’)
tag list:
@da3dm @i-am-beckyu @lunar-but-little @phoenix-on-the-run
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