Chapter Text
Aiden was seven and Lukas was six when they first met on the outskirts of the Old Town.
Or perhaps he was six and Lukas was seven? Whatever. Aiden couldn’t remember. And he wouldn’t even try. His memory never focused on statistical things like that- he could scarcely remember his own birthday. And it wasn’t important anyway.
What was important was that the grass was green, the air was humid, the dragonflies flitted low to the ground, the wind was picking up, the thunder was booming and he had to get out of there, out of the open.
He had been with his family at the start- they had been going for a walk on the edges of the town, where cobblestone and brick gave way to coarse dirt and greenery. Ma had been holding his hand, tight enough that he couldn’t pull it away. Fa had been walking beside Ma too, one arm wrapped around Pa’s elbow while the second held Ma’s other hand. Gill skipped a little ways ahead of all of them, her eyes sparkling as she chased one of the dragonflies flying around her head.
Then Ma had spotted the weird woman with the hair like hot embers waiting at the potion vendor and had gone over to say hello, Pa and Fa in tow. Gill wasted no time in greeting the little boy who was with her, the two exchanging little more than a hello and an introduction of their names before they were daring each other to climb onto the roof of the vendor’s stand.
Aiden didn't care much for Alex or her rowdy son, and had tugged his hand away from Ma’s. Distracted, her fingers loosened, and Aiden was able to escape her grip.
Now free, Aiden walked away from his family and down the street. His leather boots crunched against the pebbles littering the cobblestones. Up ahead, he could see where the town ended and the wilderness began, the road leading away from the wood and brick walls of the town and into vast fields and forests.
Feeling a rush of excitement at the prospect of adventure without Gill’s nagging and his Ma breathing down his neck, he took off running down the street. He entered the fields in a burst of green, laughing with exhilaration. He’d never ventured this far before!
He heard a quiet rustling, and a moment later, a croak. Whipping around, he saw the tiniest frog he ever did see jump out onto the cobblestones. Gasping, he bent down to better look at it.
It was a deep green (Aiden’s new favorite color, he decided). When he tentatively reached out to poke it, it shot him a look of utter loathing before leaping into the bushes.
“Hey, wait! Come back!” he cried, a giggle bubbling out of him as he jumped to his feet. Boots skidding on the pebbles, he left the road and began chasing the frog through the tall grass, laughing all the way.
Of course, since he was a boy and the frog was a frog, he quickly lost track of it. It disappeared into the taller grass as he stopped to catch his breath. When he looked up, it was gone. He’d lost it.
He definitely gave it a run for its money, though.
He flopped onto the ground, starfish style, his back hitting the soft earth. The dark soil felt cool against the skin of his outstretched arms. He closed his eyes with a contented sigh.
A boom, and an earsplitting crack in the distance.
Aiden’s eyes snapped open. Sitting up quickly, he stared up at the sky. Dark clouds heavy with rain were quickly approaching, the wind picking up speed and blowing his messy brown hair into his face. The dragonflies flew around him, staying close to the ground, just above the grass blades.
Aiden sucked in a breath, his little fists clenching. Quickly, he stood up and looked around for the road, before realizing, at last, how far he’d run after the little frog.
He had no idea where the road was. Without the road, he wouldn’t be able to get into the town. He was lost, lost in this sea of verdant green with no way of getting home. And it was going to rain.
He clenched his fists even tighter and squeezed his eyes shut, blowing up his cheeks as he tried to calm the panic rising inside him.
It was fine. He was fine. He knew for a fact that even the forests around the town were safe- though he didn’t really like Alex very much, her husband Steve was the resident soldier and had spent a year clearing out the surrounding area of monsters and setting up traps for incoming ones.
Plenty of people lived in the woods around the town, and often many of them would walk through the fields to the road to go to the town for the evening. When they did, he’d go over to them and ask for help. They’d know where the road is.
Right now, though, he had to take shelter. Letting out the breath he’d been holding in a loud woosh, he started walking as fast as he could, lip trembling, to the forest and the safety of the trees.
Aiden hated thunderstorms.
They were always so scary to him. When he was even younger, he’d hide under his bed every time the lightning struck. If he was caught out in the open when one came, he’d get absolutely drenched to the bone and he could NOT hate that feeling enough. The sound of thunder and the white flashes of lightning always felt like some sort of demon was taking over an otherwise beautiful sky.
Aiden trotted over to a cluster of trees so close together that the branches looked like a knot over his head. He wouldn’t be exposed to the rain, he supposed. It was good enough.
He sat down at the foot of one of the trees and leaned against it, closing his eyes as the rain starts above him. He wasn’t sure how much time went by before he heard a rustling sound above him.
He glanced up at the treetops. Whatever was up there, he couldn’t see it. The thick leaves and branches obscured his view.
Then the leaves rustled again, and a boy fell from the trees.
Aiden yelped, eyes widening. He- did he just-
The boy, who was no more than six, had landed perfectly on his feet, brushing stray twigs and branches off his pants as if completely unbothered. His back was to Aiden, so all he saw of him was a white and purple tee shirt and fluffy blonde hair.
The boy turned around, and his eyes widened when he saw Aiden. He jumped away from him, making a startled noise that was somewhere between a shriek and a catlike hiss.
The two stayed like that for a moment, Aiden staring in shock at the boy who’d just dropped from the sky, the latter of whom was backing away from him warily, face equally startled.
Aiden blinked up at him, still sitting at the foot of the tree. “Um. Hi! You, uh, you. Scared me.”
The boy stayed still for a moment before Aiden’s words seemed to register to him and he immediately shrank back. “Oh. Oh! Oops, sorry. Ha ha . . .”
Well, that was unexpected. Even Gill, the most docile person in their family, would’ve been less of a pushover than this tree-climbing boy.
Aiden’s mouth curved into a small smile. “Do you always fall out of trees like that? That how you know how to land on your feet?”
The boy’s bright blue eyes flitted nervously from him, the trees behind him, and the mulch under his feet. Awkwardness radiates off of him in waves.“Uh. I guess? I don’t think it’s falling if you purposely jump . . . ?”
Aiden gapes at him. Is this boy for real? A startled laugh escapes him. “Are you crazy, Tree Boy? That’s a million feet in the air! No way you'll be able to land on your feet! I know, I’ve tried!”
The boy shuffles his feet uncomfortably for a moment, a hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. To Aiden, it seems like a movement Tree Boy did often.
“I don't know about that. It’s not a million feet in the air? I wouldn’t be alive if it were. It was a pretty big drop? But not anything I can’t handle, I’ve climbed other trees before.” The boy’s gaze shifts from the trees up above back to Aiden. “It’s Lukas, by the way. Not Tree Boy.”
“Really? I think the name Tree Boy suits you really well, actually.” Aiden was full on grinning now. Lukas hadn’t even said much to him that would make him appear trustworthy, but something about the vibes he gave off- those were good. Aiden sticks out his hand, leaning forward a bit. “I’m Aiden!”
Lukas pauses, eyes searching his face hesitantly before he too gives a brilliant smile of his own and steps forward, shaking Aiden’s outstretched hand. Then he sits down beside him, at the foot of the tree.
Aiden takes a moment to look at him. Lukas dons a purple and white shirt, baggy brown cargo pants, and a smile so bright it blinds him if he stares for too long. His blonde hair is neatly cut and his eyes remind Aiden of a quiet pond- clear, calm, and serene. Maybe a little sad, even- kind of like his Fa.
(If he looks closely, he can see the beginnings of fangs in Lukas’s mouth, and that the pupils in the center of those brilliant blue eyes are vertically shaped. His fingernails are slightly sharp. Aiden is not sure if he should be nervous or not.)
Now that he seems to have grown comfortable with Aiden, his demeanor changes from closed off to warm and friendly. “I’ve never seen you around here, or anywhere else for that matter,” he says. “I live in a treehouse around here. Do you live around here, too?”
Aiden shakes his head. “Nope. I live in the town. I, uh . . . I’m lost.” His smile falters.
“Oh.” Lukas tilts his head. “Did you run away?”
“Sorta? I mean, yeah and no. Ma, Fa, and Pa started talking to some weird lady, and my sister began playing with another kid, so I went on an adventure! I ran down the road and into the fields. Then I began chasing a frog! And then I lost the frog and the rain started falling and-” Aiden pauses, tears welling up in his eyes. “And I’m lost. I don’t know how to get back to the road.”
He squeezes his eyes shut again, trying to swallow the knot in his throat.
He feels something warm, and he turns to see that Lukas has buried his face into the crook of his neck. His hair is soft and fluffy and it tickles Aiden’s face.
Aiden stiffens. “Um? You okay?”
“Yeah,” Lukas mumbles, face still smushed into him. “My Mum and Dad always do this whenever they’re trying to cheer each other up. I thought you’d need some comfort, ‘cuz you looked like you were gonna cry. Sorry.”
“No, it’s-” Aiden lets his body relax, melting into Lukas’s touch. “It’s fine. Thanks, Lukas.”
Gingerly, he reaches a hand up to pat the other boy’s head and is slightly startled to hear a quiet chirp in response. Not a bird’s chirp- more like a cat, actually.
Lukas pulls away from him, coughing slightly. “No problem!” he yelps. “Er- anyways. I guess, even if you’re lost, you’re gonna be stuck here in the woods for a while. You won’t be getting anywhere in this weather.”
“No duh, Captain Obvious,” Aiden snarks back. He looks up at the canopy of green above them and heaves a gusty sigh. “Urgh. I hate rain.”
At his side, his new friend shuffles a little closer to the tree trunk, leaning back so that his fluffy blonde hair was pushed against the bark. He wraps his arms around his knees. “I like rain, actually.”
Aiden stares at him, dumbfounded. He’d known Lukas for ten minutes and he was already the weirdest person he’s ever met, by a lot.
Lukas notices him staring and tries to elaborate, mumbling out a stream of slightly incoherent chatter. “I-I guess I don’t really like the feeling of rain because it gets you WET and COLD and I hate getting WET and COLD, but it’s real pretty when you’re inside your house where it’s safe and you’re dry. I like the sound of it on the window, and how it runs off the side of a leaf. And I really really REALLY like it when it finally STOPS raining, because it’s cool and there’s puddles and everything is living again and there’s rainbows!”
Lukas paused to take a deep breath, his smile back on his face. Then he seems to catch himself and immediately shrinks back again, the excited glimmer in his eyes dimming somewhat.
“. . . Sorry. That was a lot.”
Aiden grins and pokes his companion’s cheek with his finger. “Maybe instead of Tree Boy, I should call you Rain Brain instead!”
Lukas gasps, indignant. “Excuse me, my brain is PERFECTLY FINE, thank you very much.”
He harrumphs and crosses his arms, and stays that way for a solid five seconds before bursting into laughter.
Aiden blinks, then grins. Was he really that funny? He hadn’t thought that it was a very good joke. Lukas, however, thinks it’s a riot, because he’s laughing so hard he’s choking on his own air trying to breathe.
After a good five minutes of Lukas laughing nonstop and Aiden grinning goofily at him, the blonde-haired boy calms down. He giggles quietly to himself, wiping a tear from his eye. “Sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
“Maybe a Vex possessed you or something,” Aiden snorts. “Or a witch.”
“Or an Illusioner!” Lukas adds, giggling a little harder.
It continues like that for the next few minutes. Two boys sitting side by side, talking and laughing as if they’d known each other for years. Lukas tells him about living in the forest and picking berries by the creek, and Aiden tells him about his sister and Mom and Dads. Then Lukas looks up, and beams. “Oh, look! The rain stopped!”
Aiden lets out a whoop, pumping his fist into the air. “Yes! I can go home!”
Then he glances around, and deflates. “. . . I still don’t know the way back to the road.”
“Oh, I do!” Lukas leaps to his feet, spinning around to look at him. “It’s kinda far from here, but I know where it is!”
Aiden brightens. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
Lukas holds out his hand and hauls Aiden to his feet. Aiden can see that the other boy is a few inches shorter than him, to his satisfaction. The blonde smiles at him eagerly, before spinning around and making his way through the trees.
Aiden smiles as he follows his new friend deeper into the forest.
Again, he can barely remember what day it was, how old they were; hell, he couldn’t even remember what season it was- all that he could recall, and all that was real to him, was the blast of wind against his face, the dapple of sunlight through the trees, the smell of an after-shower and the feeling of Lukas’s hand in his.
Aiden trips over fallen branches and hidden tree roots, moving through the forest with embarrassing clumsiness. Lukas, however, seems to know the wilderness like the back of his hand, moving gracefully through the dense brush without so much as a slip. The forest is beautiful and dangerous- with the shadows almost everywhere, Aiden can see crimson spider eyes glowing in the darkness and hear the rattle of skeletons as they walk past.
Where Aiden is unconfident, Lukas is focused and sure. Aiden is grateful to have him beside him as they walk.
As they walk, they talk. The more Aiden talks to Lukas, the more he’s drawn to him. Lukas is soft and there’s a quiet sort of dreaminess to him that reminds Aiden of a poet, but he is confident and caring and sunshine and rainbows. And unlike Aiden, he smiled a lot. A LOT.
Aiden really likes him. And Lukas seems just as happy to be in his company.
After a long walk filled with laughter and happy chatter, they reach the cobblestone road where Aiden’s little misadventure had all begun. He can see the village up ahead of him.
Lukas pats him on the shoulder. “See? Told you I’d bring you back!”
“That was scary.” Aiden shivers. “Everything about the woods is scary, I think.”
Lukas tilts his head. “Am I scary?” he asks.
He can’t help himself- Aiden bursts out laughing at the question. Lukas, scary? “Oh heck no! You’re, like, the opposite of scary. You’re unscary. The least scary friend I have.”
The other boy looks offended at first, then flattered. “I’m your friend?”
Aiden stops, looking at him. “Uh . . . yeah! You are! If you wanna be, then you definitely are.”
Lukas beams. “Then yeah! I’m your friend! I know I want to be.”
Aiden gives him a smile of his own. They stay like that for a little bit, just smiling at each other, fondly reveling in the company of their new friend.
Then Aiden turns around, looking towards the village. “I should go, my Ma’s gonna kill me.”
“Yeah, yeah you probably should.” Lukas nudges him towards home. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
Aiden grins at him. “Yup. Don’t miss me too much, Tree Boy.”
“Oh, believe me, I’ll be struggling not to,” Lukas replies as he begins walking away, in a voice so sardonic he almost sounds like Aiden’s evil twin. “Bye, Aiden!”
“Bye!” he shouts back, over his shoulder.
He walked a few paces before turning around again. Lukas is still there, watching him go, and he gives Aiden a little wave. Aiden turns around and runs down the cobblestone road all the way home, the thrill of meeting a new friend almost overshadowing his fear of his parents when they see him again.
Later that night, after his Ma tucks him and Gill into bed (Pa had yelled at him for half an hour, but she and Fa had mostly been relieved to see he was safe), his sister whispers up to him from where he is laying on the top bunk.
“Aiden? Why’re ya so- so smiley all of a sudden? You weren’t this, I dunno, happy, before ya ran away from the town.”
Aiden rolls onto his side, so he can face the wall. “Nah. I just met a cool boy in the woods, and we had a lot of fun.”
“Really? Really? Tell me more!”
He snickers, then begins to answer more of Gill’s curious questions.
He hopes that he ends up having more fun in the woods.
He and his new friend, Lukas.