Chapter Text
Ash fought with the resurfacing memories as he walked to the Pantheon, hands cradling the kid carefully. Carrying a child in his arms wasn't new to him, but it all felt wrong. His stomach churned unpleasantly, almost making him sick. The kid was too light, unlike Ghosty. His height too tall, reaching his chin when she had barely met his collarbone. Ash couldn't feel her long curls draped over his shoulder and arm, couldn't smell her cherry shampoo wafting in the air. It was wrong, instinctively incorrect.
It should've been Ghosty in his arms.
Except the last time Ash carried her, he was bringing the limp body of his baby to a grave.
The kid in his arms was malnourished, like Tubbo mentioned earlier. Ash had no trouble carrying him through the streets. The only issue was avoiding people and the probing questions that would undoubtedly follow. That was easy enough with no one currently visiting The Regime. He still took hurried steps, paranoid that someone was going to appear next to the waystone any second now. He schooled his body language, to avoid getting the kid stressed because of his reactions. Ash decided to distract him with questions, maybe then he would get some actually useful answers too.
"You forgot to tell me your name."
Ash prodded at the kid who was clutching the book so tightly, the pages were getting crumpled. It would be too ruined to properly write in if the kid didn't let up on his grip. That was no trouble of course, Ash had even more books in his inventory. (an unintended result of talking with FNG) Though the kid might freak out if he thought Ash was displeased with him for not talking. He wanted to avoid making the kid nervous as much as possible, and Ash had to be very careful with his words to achieve that.
Ash felt more that saw the kid shaking his head, from his position leaning on Ash's shoulder. The kids short curls tickled Ash's chin and he made a mental note to get the kid properly clean. Hair that greasy could not be comfortable.
"It's okay if you don't want to tell me your name. I can… give you a nickname?"
His face wasn't visible, tucked under Ash's chin, but the kid nodded shyly. Ash chuckled as he lifted his free hand to ruffle the little thing's hair and adjust the blanket to sit more comfortably around his shoulders. The kid thankfully didn't flinch, like Ash feared he would.
"What kind of things do you like? So I can give you a nickname?" If Ash's gut feeling was right, and it often was, it was a futile question. This situation had The Federation's fingerprints all over it from the kids sudden appearance to his behavior. Ash doubted the kid was allowed to like anything, other than whatever cult-ish things that the cum-stains had taught him and forced him to like.
The kid opened his mouth, tried talking for a second, then went to fumble with the book. Still no speech, then. Ash slowed his walk so that the kid would be able to write easier. It proved to be unnecessary as before the kid could even properly hold the quill, Ash's feet kicked a rock in the direction of a flock of pigeons. The projectile startled the birds into flight, their wings flapping hard and rhythmically. The kid did flinch at the sudden flurry of noise and movement, but Ash would forever be glad to witness this, the kids eyes shined as they followed the pigeons path. He leaned away from Ash, leaving his safe hiding spot, and his head followed the arc of the birds' flight with a reverence.
Ash laughed softly at the kids expression and flushed cheeks, the happiest he'd seen the kid as of yet, and nudged him to get his attention. When the kid turned towards Ash, he proposed a name.
"You like birds, don't you? What do you think about Raven? They're these giant birds, black like the night sky and very intelligent."
Not even a moment later the kid beamed at him. He nodded so enthusiastically that Ash's arms shook with the movement, and he had to balance himself against the weight. His answer was crystal clear.
"It's settled then. Oh- Let's do this again. Hi, my name is Ash from India." Ash reached his hand out for a handshake, imitating his own behavior from the cruise ship all those months back, when he'd first met these people around him. He remembered those days with both a burning hatred and shining happiness, both feelings making his chest constrict. Raven let go of the blanket with one hand and held out the other to accept the handshake.
"Hi As- Ash. I'm Raven."
Ash's steps hiccuped for a second before he composed himself and continued walking in the same hurried pace. When the kid- Raven spoke, he sounded scratchy and stuttered with disuse. Ash was relieved to know that nothing was physically wrong with the kid, and he was able to speak instead of being silenced forever because of cut vocal cords or whatever grim scenario Ash's mind was able to come up with that day.
Raven looked nervous, as if anticipating a reaction from him. Ash did not let himself seem surprised, instead he acted as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Calm, collected, professional. Ash didn't want to react strongly and scare Raven into silence again, so he moved the same way he would when he wasn't celebrating internally. "Nice to meet you, Raven." He smiled to put the kid at ease, even though it was futile and his face went unseen under the scarred and glitched tissue.
Raven nodded, his face still flushed and expression awe-struck because of the pigeons. Ash added onto the mental note he had, to get the kid a pet bird sometime. A parrot maybe, a cockatiel or macaw… Food for thought.
His heels clicked sharply as the floor transitioned from dirt to marble, inside the Pantheon. Raven stiffened up instantly, and clutched the blanket tighter around himself. Ash made a point to tread lightly and hurry up at the same time to reach his room faster and get the kid comfortable again. Though, that wouldn't be of much difference… His room was quite empty with no carpets on the marble flooring. It echoed too. He would have to deal with that and get decorating when he has the time.
Ash paused in the middle of the room, rethinking his priorities and deciding to stop by his office fridge to check for the last of his avocado toast. "Okay… where did I put the- oh here they are." Ash pulled the Tupperware container out of the fridge, let the door of it close on its own, and expertly maneuvered between the chairs to get to the elevator. The ride was over in an instant and Ash breathed a sigh of relief when the door to his bedroom closed behind him. Once Raven was sitting comfortably on the bed with the second blanket wrapped around his shoulders, Ash pulled out one of the avocado toasts from the container and handed it to the kid for him to eat.
"How are you feeling?" Ash asked without thinking as Raven took a bite. The kid moved to answer, but Ash held up his hand at the last second- "You can talk after you finish eating." Raven nodded at him with wide eyes and an adorable expression.
Tubbo wiped the sweat on his brow away with the back of his hand, crouching on the floor and his head hung low. The Death Star was coming along nicely, and there wasn't much left to do. The most important thing right now was making sure the propellers worked properly, and that required a test drive. Tubbo wanted Foolish to be there for that, but he was busy with whatever he was doing at Camp Fatal. The thought of doing it by himself did come to mind, but he was quite distracted because of the kid at The Regime. How was Ash handling that? Had he even woken up yet? Tubbo hoped so. If not, something might be wrong with the kids head and that was way above his pay grade.
His hair spilled over his eyes and his horns itched. So he tucked the strands away and scratched at the base of his horn. He kept scratching and scratching and dug in with his nails. What pesky things to be burdened with. He reminded himself to file the horns down to a more manageable length when he has the time because they were so inconvenient. They caught on everything, messed with his goggles and were just a mess overall. He reached into his inventory with a sigh and grasped his warpstone. Purple light shined on his face as he warped to The Regime.
You whisper to ashswagg: how is he
ashswagg whispers to you: come panth. my room
And so Tubbo followed his Supreme Leader's order, as always. He took a small detour in the office and closed the fridge door that was left slightly ajar. His steps carried him from the corner he was at, to the elevator behind Ash's office desk.
"Hey-o Supreme Leader! How's things in the P-to-the-anth?" Tubbo cheerfully announced his presence as the door swung open. He walked over to the lone bed sitting in the middle of the room, surrounded with towering white walls and its current occupants. The kid was awake now, he sat on the bed cross-legged and wrapped in blankets looking better than ever compared to when Tubbo had found him. He was eating, even. Ash stood up from his seat on the foot of the bed to greet him.
"Tobias. Raven here has woken, as you can see. He has some trouble speaking so we've been communicating via this book." The kid, apparently Raven, took one last bite of toast and hid his face in the blanket. Tubbo narrowed his eyes at him.
"Hellooo. It's good to put a face to the gory kid." The kid startled at that- his face scrunched up and eyebrows knit down. Tubbo tried to hold his laugh in, he really did, but the weary sigh Ash heaved made that practically impossible. "You should- you should've seen your face!" He managed to get out between snorts. Ash's expression was as impossible to see as always, but his shoulders were slightly shaking in laughter so Tubbo took that as permission to keep going.
"No yeah you should really see your face bro. Wipe the avocado away, at least." His voice went back to its normal cadence with that sentence, the humor slipping away and his hands gesturing in the general direction of the kid. Raven seemingly did not appreciate proper comedy and continued to look at him with the same unhappy expression. So Tubbo stared back.
They had a small staring contest, with neither of them willing to back down. Ash kept fumbling around awkwardly, he cleared his throat as if to speak but didn't say a single word. Tubbo pitied the guy. Another moment went by before Ash finally gathered the courage to interrupt them.
"Cut that out. Ahem- Raven, Tubbo will be taking care of you when I am unavailable." Ash started and Tubbo had to stop himself from blinking and held his tongue back, because when did he agree to that? "But before we can move on with that, I need to ask a few questions."
Raven seemed upset at that, looking over at Tubbo with obvious distaste in his purple eyes. Tubbo didn't know if that was because their game had been interrupted, or if Raven just disliked the notion of Tubbo looking after him that much. Ouch. Tubbo stared back sharing the sentiment. He would still take care of Raven, since it was an order, but that didn't mean he couldn't complain to Ash about it every step of the way. He had a feeling Raven would do the same.