Chapter Text
I didn’t want to end up like this. I didn’t think I would end up like this.
I became a villain after I’ve somehow destroyed everything in my sleep.
Cities, homes, playgrounds, everything in my way.
City-Z was completely destroyed all because of me.
Thankfully all that was left intact is my apartment and that’s it.
I didn’t mean to destroy an entire city is what I wished the people could know but now it’s just hero’s trying day in and day out to find my identity or just anything about me. I’ve lost sleep countless times worrying if someone will come here and find out who I really am.
I don’t wanna be feared, I just want this whole thing to be done with, I want to live in peace as I did before. I’m so fucking tired of feeling scared. I’ve become so closed off from the world and it’s been difficult trying to get up from my futon to do basic things.
I don’t understand WHY they care so much about a city that’s filled with monsters and a city where no one but me decides to stay but..I know some heroes are too afraid to find me. I wouldn’t blame them but at the same time I do, as in do they really want to die.
It just baffles me but whatever, Im just going to go and take out the trash before I forget.
As I go walk a couple minutes to the nearest safe looking part of another city, I go ahead and find a trash can near an abandoned building, doesn’t matter anymore I just want to go home as I step close, I hear the sound of ruffling and crunching sounds inside the garbage can.
Could have been a monster looking for scraps to eat…I go ahead to place down my bags full of filth to raise a fist for any monster inside to have the bin burst open with the palest child I’ve ever seen with blood red hair all tangled up with trash and other fluids from the garbage bin.
I couldn’t do anything but just stare in disgust to snap out of it when the child started talking as I’ve noticed sharp teeth poking out of their mouth like daggers poking out of their lips.
“Who are you?”
It spoke.
I haven’t spoken to someone or something in a while it strikes me as odd.
“Umm..I’m just here to throw away my garbage.?”
It looked at me up and down as if they were looking right through me.
feeling uncomfortable with those dark purple eyes having a white pupil taking in every detail of my body
“Does it have anything good?”
It said with curiosity.
“Well, it’s garbage and there’s nothing good about garbage.”
The creature continues to look at me and something tells me they are starting at my head.
“Why don’t you have hair on your head?”
Yeah. That’s the end of the conversation.
“Okay then. Why are you in the garbage can kid?”
It surely couldn’t be a child because of its monster features…It looked down as if to think and then with a bold tone.
“I was very hungry.”
Oh.
Ah. Well- that pulled my heartstrings a bit but…where could this kid have come from?
“Are you alone?”
I don’t know why I said that, but it felt like something I wanted to know, I just didn’t understand why I wanted to know.
And the child’s eyes looked at me in surprise, thinking again for a bit.
“I’m not lonely, I have my bugs!”
It exclaimed with joy.
Being friends with bugs??
That would be a nightmare for sure but…I wouldn’t forgive myself if I left this kid by themselves…and if they are a monster tricking me with fake politeness then oh, they will have a punch to the gut for that. I’ll just let them stay for a while at my apartment and see..I think I have eggs still and some potatoes..I’ll just make whatever I don’t want to stress myself to think of what to make at the moment. I take a deep breath and think carefully, is it a good idea to invite a monster that looks like a human child?
Maybe. Maybe not but I’ll trust my gut on this one. But first this kid needs a serious bath.
“Hey..what if I show you, my apartment!”
That doesn’t sound right in my own ears.
It looks at me curiously with its head tilted down a bit.
“Apartment?” It says questioning me.
“Yeah, it’s a place where I live.”
It just continues to look at me then I see a bright look on their face, looking at me in awe.
“You sure? Really?!”
“Y-Yeah!”
I think I made a mistake, but I’ll deal with it another time…
I’ve already dug a grave deeper to whatever stress comes with taking care of some random kid, none the less a monster kid? I mean who eats trash??? Especially rotten??
No. This kid is going to need a serious scrub after what I smelled on them.
I took them inside the apartment and went on to take them to the bathroom and told them to lay in the bathtub as I clean the floors from the small patches of dirt that the kid had as they walked with me.
They just looked at me clean the floor with an extreme look as if they’ve never seen something this normal happen before. I told them to turn on the water and to be careful with the cold water that will flow down first. They didn’t turn on the water but just look at me with confusion, I was done cleaning the floor, so I went inside to tell them how to turn on the water for the tub and went ahead to tell them I’ll be leaving for them to clean themselves up but…
“I don’t know what you mean by bathing myself! Is that what laying in water is called?”
Seriously?
“You…don’t know how to clean yourself?”
I could be grossed out as of right now, but I shouldn’t judge a child I just met today.
“Okay then I will...” I pause. If I teach this kid to clean themselves, I’ll probably need to show them movements and such but how? I don’t want to see a naked child and then an idea hit me.
“Okay, you stay here I’ll be back!”
He comes back with a ton of clothes to the bathroom.
“Hey! Uhh..please remove your clothes! Don’t worry I won’t look I promise! I’m here to help you know how to clean yourself okay?”
That made me sound like a pedophile oh god...
But thankfully the kid understood what I meant by that and from then on I covered my entire head to face in the clothes and used hand motions, to telling them to hand me what they see in the tub to explain the importance of hygiene of a person's body, as if I could take better care of myself but what was difficult was the long hair they had on their head floating up in the tub and getting all the nasty stuff cleaned from their body onto their hair and so I went ahead and helped clean their hair. Took a while me it was tiresome to clean but it was a good distraction.
After cleaning them throughly, I’ve felt weird bumps across their shoulders and some onto their back.
As I was trying to lift their hair out of the water to clean it better, I was later going to check once they’ve changed and once, we both ate, that maybe I’ll check whatever those bumps I felt were, they could be pimples but just in case they could have a rash or something.
I told them to at least wash their mouth with mouth wash since I don’t have a tooth brush for them yet but once they put the mouthwash in their mouth they drank it and coughed from the strong mint in their throat as I panicked and told them to never do that again as it could seriously hurt their digestive track and they listened this time to just rinsing their mouth for a minute even though it says 30 seconds but after what I saw them eat. They need more than that.
After that unnecessary long time of washing their mouth and explaining more on not drinking mouthwash
I’ve forced myself to make fried potatoes I cut quickly into small triangles for the potatoes to cook faster and cooked eggs for me and the kid…it was weird cooking for two as I didn’t eat much myself.
They watched me cook with curiosity as I stood focused on the eggs and potatoes being cooked.
Weird, but it’s nice to be seen as something cool than a villain.
They especially looked excited when I started making the potatoes.
“You like those red things too?” It asked me with a shy tone.
“The potatoes? Yeah! Good source of nutrition and deliciousness”
The little thing giggled and walked up to me closer to watch me move my wrist in cooking the potatoes and eggs with serious concentration to make sure I don’t burn anything.
“I love those things called potatoes...”
“Potatoes can be made into many other great dishes, like French fries! Which is my favorite especially if their long and soft, then hash browns, then baked potatoes…and many others.”
I haven’t felt such at peace in a while…but I can’t let my guard down…I still don’t know this kids' intentions….
I smelled something burning.
Shit.
“AHHH FUCK- SHIT- “
I quickly swiped the egg to the nearest plate and the potatoes to a non-hot part of the stove and let out an exhale.
I could have nearly burned the apartment down; how did I get so distracted…?
The little thing was just looking as panicked as I was, as I realized I screamed all of a sudden and it took a big step away from me.
“H-Hey! It’s all good! I’m sorry I just panicked as I nearly made the food burnt!”
The little thing just freezes and stares at me with caution.
I don’t like that look at all.
It makes me feel like I’m something terrible.
“Hey..please I didn’t mean to scream I’m really sorry.”
I squatted down a bit and raised my arms slowly to them. Kids like hugs…right?
As they looked back at my arms and to my eyes, they slowly walked my way and held both of my hands
For me to notice just show small this child is if I see how my hand nearly covers their whole hand and those big round eyes trusting me again
The atmosphere gets awkward as I thought a hug would be best. Instead, they have both of their hands on my palms.
“You don’t like hugs much?”
They look away for a second then look at me.
“I don’t know what that is.”
What? Who doesn’t know what a hug is?
“You don’t know?”
They shake their head side to side.
Ahh okay then
“Well, a hug is when a person puts their arms around you and holds you tightly.”
I think that’s what a hug is according to how movies I’ve seen show it.
“But why do I need that? Is it safe?”
“Yeah, it’s safe but with the people you trust.”
They look at me and hesitate.
“You will actually give me this…hug?”
“Sure, I will, only if you’re comfortable.”
I say with a soft tone not trying to scare the kid again.
As they slowly raised their arms, they squatted down and wrapped their arms around my back as the world stopped for a second as my throat started to hurt and I hugged the little thing back carefully and patted their hair, as it felt fluffy and soft from the serious scrubbing I did.
They held me for a while and didn’t let go…
“Hey uhh…we need to eat the food before it gets cold.”
Not that I didn’t actually hate this hugging session, but I didn’t receive an answer but a tighter squeeze to my back.
I guess they didn’t want to let go yet.
“I like this…Hug you call it.”
“Well, that’s how people show others that they care about them.”
They went silent and hugged tighter.
Oh, how alleviated I felt being hugged by this small child.
“I’m sorry to Interrupt but we have to eat the food I made; cold food doesn’t taste very good.”
“What’s the difference?” The monster said.
What do they mean? They have been eating cold and hot things but can’t tell the difference? No wait it makes sense, but gross to know.
“When food is made hot it’s better hot, when food is made cold it’s better cold.”
As I say the obvious
“Everything I’ve eaten is random so…are those potatoes supposed to be hot?”
I’m starting to get tired of these questions as if my social battery wasn’t made for these long chats.
“I’ll answer that question tomorrow and let’s just eat, okay?”
After I was done placing the nearly burnt food on the table and sitting down, I’ve started to dig in, but the kid ended up eating the eggs and potatoes with their hands.
I quickly told them to use the spoon I placed their and to wash their hands after they ate their food with their hands.
It was stressful to tell this kid what not and what is okay to do, but it distracts me from the loneliness…
I prefer this for today…maybe tomorrow I’ll find out what they are or where they came from…
I know I’ll become too tired to talk once I’m done eating all I made today.
“I love your food!”
That energetic voice startled me as I was lost in my thoughts for a bit.
“It would have tasted better if I didn’t burn it.”
“But it still tastes good! I mean it!”
“Alright alright, I’ll take your word for it, you’re a food critic now huh?”
They stopped eating and raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“Ooh! A food critic is someone who…judges the taste of food they order.”
The movie Rattatioue could have showed me what they do but I don’t know so whatever.
“OH! OKAY! Then I’m a food critic and your food is an amazing…” they stop for a moment to think of a good word
“FOOD!”
“Haha! Thank you, kid-“
Wait…I haven’t asked for their name.
“Hey, I realized I never asked your name, do you have a name?”
“I don’t..have a name? Do I need one?”
“Well for me to call you something other than kid, doesn’t sound right if I just call you kid.”
“You want to name me?”
“Hmmm…I guess, for now you will be...”
I think very carefully and think of one, but it’ll be more like a nickname than a name.
“I’ll call you Chomper for now, is that okay?”
They look at me with wide happy eyes and those sharp teeth peer out their ear-to-ear smile.
“I love it! It sounds so nice! I like it a lot!”
“Hahah! Okay then! You’ll be little Chomper!”
Until I can find a real name
All of a sudden, I feel a tight hug around my chest as they hug me tightly and rub their face on my chest while giggling.
I felt myself wanting to laugh too as if maybe they have a contagious happiness surrounding them, I hug them back and that same feeling of being alleviated flies across my body.
After being done eating and having the energy to wash the dishes
I go back to a small closet and bring out an extra futon I saved just in case I fuck up my futon somehow.
I go ahead and place both our futons on the ground and tell them that will be their sleeping place.
They quickly lay down and face me while smiling brightly at me.
“Good night, Chomper..”
“Goodnight!”
For the first time.
I slept with tranquility…