The Sugar Thief (G/T) (Completed)

6 - Home for the Holidays

It took a second for Carter to make out what the figure in the brush was, but when he finally did his stomach sank to his knees.

There before him, inching closer with a stick crutch, was his brother.

Alive and in the flesh.

_____________

They had spent the majority of the evening together, with Carter feeling more and more comfortable by the minute. They laughed as Eric taught him how to skateboard; He was bad at it and had crashed a few times on the counter while the other was cooking, but he was slowly getting the hang of it. It would probably be better to practice it when he wasn't four feet off the ground, but this was probably the smoothest surface he could find. He figured in the meantime, until he found his proper balance on wheels, he could use it for transporting other things around.

The two of them didn't talk about much in particular, Eric being the one to ask most of the questions. Which was fine, as Carter didn't really know what most humans normally talked about, and he didn't mind talking about himself and his life. He hadn't really had the chance for a proper conversation for a while before meeting Eric, and every word he spoke he realized just how much he missed it. For once it wasn't just his own voice echoing back to him in the empty walls, or the blank stares he received from the grasshoppers and pillbugs.

It was actually someone interested in talking to him.

A friend .

He ended up telling Eric about his den beneath the floor (without giving away its location), and about the dangerous paths between the walls. He even explained some of his favourite things he's collected before; one of which was a 'coin', whatever that was. He told Eric about how his brother would react whenever he brought cool things home, always worried that it'd get them caught but still secretly proud of him.

Even though Eric knew that these were things he and his family had lost he didn't seem to care that they were in the borrower's possession, simply smiling and listening intently as Carter spoke. If these were things that weren't really needed and he'd risked his life to get, then he deserved to keep them. The absolute difference in their lives while living under the same roof baffled Eric but intrigued him, making him ask more and more questions as time crawled on.

Whenever they weren't talking, the silence that draped around them wasn't uncomfortable. There was no more awkward, tense feeling in the breaks of conversation like one of them was waiting for the other to flee at any moment. Carter figured it felt different because he actually wanted to be near this human now, to talk to him about his day and listen to his deep laughter fill the room. He wanted to stay up here where it smelled like fresh food and be in the warmth forever, feeling more safe than he has before in a long time.

But unfortunately he couldn't.

Eric had ultimately been the one to cut their meeting short, retiring to bed a lot earlier than usual with a promise to meet again tomorrow after work. Carter agreed to it. The sun had long since set and he could tell that Eric was tired with the way he kept yawning, so he didn't try to stop the human from leaving when he did.

Reassembling everything into the black bag and fitting it past the hole in the wall wasn't easy, but somehow Carter pulled it through. He figured afterwards that he could have just left it near another entrance on the ground and taken it from there, but that would have taken so much longer, and as much as he didn't wish to leave Eric a part of him was aching to be home.