Chapter Text
Life started in a tube. Too bright, too loud, too confusing. All that could be remembered were figments of faces, voices, and feelings. When sight was blinded, other memories that made no sense floated around. Memories of a snowy place, a someone he cared for now lost forever. Other faces stuck out, strange faces, faces that didn't exist, or had, but were gone too.
It was all a lot to process in the beginning. A lot to deal with. It'd only been a week of existing when the cage door was opened and a hand reached in. Pulled from his blanket, the small skeleton fumbled around in the grip. The gloved fingers couldn't quite wrap around the expanse of his ribcage and he dangled uncomfortably high up in a dim room. His eye sockets were wide open, little lights inside them bouncing around at the tables, the tools. Whatever had him spoke gibberish towards someone else he couldn't see. The more they conversed, the more he began to understand that they WERE conversing and not just making noises.
"-number 48," he understood that, the words reaching somewhere in him, making sense. He looked down at his own tiny clawed hands, placing them on the fleshy knuckles that held him.
"Second batch seems way more stable, no signs of melting." He got put on a table with paper over it. Though he could understand what was being said, didn't mean he knew what was happening. The hand became two hands, pulling his arms away from his sides. Frozen in place, he finally dared to look up. Masked faces stared down at him, beings he'd later learn to be humans. For some reason, he didn't immediately fear them, but he didn't trust them either. Not till one scratched a latex finger around the back of his skull. His grin widened, not minding that at all.
"Good reaction. Can you speak? Can you understand what I am saying?" His eye lights rolled to the human petting him. Squinting his sockets, he shrugged his small shoulders.
"uh...oh-" surprised by his own voice, he just sat there making other noises to himself till he got tapped on the head.
"Answer me." the human said, his tone making the skeleton uneasy all the sudden.
"I understand." He quickly responded, earning another pet on the spot the human had tapped.
And so his life began. Dubbed 48, he spent most of his time in a cage with a clear door and a view of a TV that played educational kids shows. Given a blanket, and a stuffed animal...a cat? he occupied himself well enough. Helped that he just wanted to sleep most of the time anyway. Like clockwork, he'd get fed a bowl of something. He couldn't describe the taste of it, if it had one, but he didn't mind the white flex in the stuff. Bone shards. Taken out once in awhile, he enjoyed being held by the humans, especially when they let him cling to their chests where he could feel something inside them. Whatever it was, it gave him enough energy to stay awake while they ran tests and asked questions, possibly keeping track of his ability to learn.
One day the routine changed on him. Taken out of his cage which was getting more cramped as he grew, he clung to the human holding him as per usual but noticed they were actually leaving this part of the lab. For the first time he went through the one door and into a hallway, holding on tighter with growing apprehension.
"Don't be scared 48, we're going to meet your siblings." the human said, piquing his interest. Siblings? He knew what the word meant, but not what it meant for him. Soon he found out when they entered a brighter room with a large pen in the center of it. Taken to it, he leaned to peer down at all the lifting faces. Ten other skeleton-beings had their eye lights on him, and all were grinning, all were almost the exact same looking too. Did he look like them?
Placed on a table first, the human made him lift his arms so they could slip a shirt over his ribs, and then the trickier task of putting pants on. Pulling the front of the shirt off his sternum, all it had on it was the number 48. His number. Wearing clothes was new, made him pick and pull at the shirt and the pants till he got hoisted off the table and set down over the wall of the pen. Released, he turned on the other skeletons coming closer, their shirts baring numbers as well. None of them were a lower number than him he realized. From 48 into the 50's, he appeared to be the oldest by his deduction.
They greeted him lazily, pats on the shoulder, or waves from the corners, their interest not really inspiring. Course he felt much the same after the shock had ebbed away. In the pen there were pillows to lay on, blankets, stuffed animals, balls, and a table filled with dry food pellets. 51 was greedily eating it while no one else seemed interested. Wandering around, 48 came to the nest of pillows where 49 laid. He stared at the other skeleton who's eye sockets were blacked out and grin real thin. 49 looked uncomfortable.
"You okay?" 48 asked, causing 49's eye lights to fade dimly into place. They turned on him, the smile softening. 49 chuckled at him, shutting his sockets after finding 48 looked the same as everyone else probably.
"I'm alright." 49 answered. Not convinced, 48 sat down on the floor in front of the lounging twin. Up close, he spotted some differences. This one looked...off. His bones were more yellow, his hands trembled lightly against the pillows, and he breathed real shallow.
"Uh...you sure?" 48 made him open one socket to look at him.
"Positively positive." he said. "...could you...give me that stuffed bear over there though?" 49 pointed, 48 following the shivering clawed finger to find the bear in question. Nodding he went and got it, bringing it over. "Thanks pal." 49 took it and slowly rolled over to spoon the toy that wasn't much bigger than him. His smile turned into a grimace when he moved, pain coming and going as he laid his head under the bear's snout. 48 stood there, watching him breath out heavily, relaxing with a loose grip on the bear.
Deciding to stay by this skeleton, 48 climbed onto the pillow with him, drawing one of his sockets to crack open. Getting no protests, 48 laid on his back behind 49, staring up at the ceiling and listening to the chatter from the others.
"This is, un-bear-able." 48 said, getting 49 to shift against him and chuckle.
"Tell me about it. Don't even got a TV in here." 49 said.
"I guess this...is gonna be a daily thing maybe?" 48 wondered aloud.
"Probably. Beats being alone all day though if I'm honest." 49 pulled his arm off the bear to nudge 48 in the side a few times. 48 was the one chuckling now, lightly pushing back.
They slept after that. And it was pleasant. When the human returned and poked the side of 48's skull, he woke up and found himself holding onto 49. The both of them got picked up together, bear left behind.
"Making friends you two?" the human asked as they both clung to their chest. 48 shut his sockets, grinning and soaking up whatever he could get from whatever that was in the human's body.
"Yeah." he answered, 49 just mumbling something after him.
"Did you eat today 49?" the human switched focus while they took the pair through the hall.
"Uh...yeah." 49 hesitated to answer.
"Are you lying again?" The human's tone lowered, slightly alarming 48 who stared at the back of 49's head.
"...no?" 49 looked up at the underside of the human's jaw, his face unseen.
"49..." the human scowled at him. 48 looked away from that, not sure why he felt ashamed himself despite not being the one lying.
"I'm sorry doc...I don't feel good." What 49 said widened 48's sockets at him. What he had been suspecting was true, and 49 had lied to him as well. Why though?
They were back in the cage room, separated when 48 was put back in his spot, the clear door shut. He crouched by it, trying to see where the human put 49 but to no avail. Sitting back on his butt, he fiddled with his claws, processing today and what had just happened. Not fully understanding this worry, this dread in his chest, he distracted himself with the TV nearby, letting the ABC's take him elsewhere.
After that, everyday 48 got 'play time' with the other skeletons. Mostly he hung around 49 and just watched the others toss balls back and forth, talk, or chase each other around the pen. He made sure to steer the others away when they rough-housed too close to the pillow pile. Usually 49 didn't move much. He'd bring him a stuffed animal to hold onto and they'd talk about anything and everything till 49 fell asleep. They laughed a lot, but 48 noticed how that took effort to do for 49. More and more, his concern grew.
"What is wrong?" 48 thought to ask one day, laying on the other side of the stuffed animal between them. 49 didn't open his sockets, and never stopped smiling. But he was much duller looking today, the yellow in his bones darkening more and more. Each day, he looked worse, and today, he didn't move at all.
"I'm not sure, heh." 49 whispered, finally opening one socket, the light in it sickly and shivering. 48's own grin shortened, putting his little hand over 49's knuckles. "Learn anything new lately?" 49 picked at him for a subject change. 48 obliged, telling him about the diagram on human anatomy he'd spotted in the hallway.
"They got a lot of tubes and bags in them. Not sure why." 48 remembered the 'intestines' the most. Like a big worm in their bellies. Pretty gross.
"But they have bones? Like us?" 49 questioned.
"Yeah! Doesn't really look like us exactly though. I dunno why but...all of this seems...strange to me." 48 dared to open up a little and that got the other's eye sockets to fully open and stare at him.
"What do you mean?" 49 asked.
"I mean...I don't know really...feels like this is all wrong? Like I shouldn't be here like this or something. But what else is there?" 48 shrugged a shoulder, brushing off his strange episodes of not feeling like this was real. 49's eye lights flicked around what he could see without lifting his head.
"You ever...get weird memories in your head?" he whispered.
"Yeah! Do you? What are your's about?" 48 perked up instantly, scooting closer across the bear so their faces were almost touching. 49 looked away, trepidation playing across his sweaty brow.
"I remember...a pretty room? It always has big shiny windows, and pillars but it makes me feel weird. I'm mad when I'm in it I think." 49 shrugged, itching at the side of his cheek. "What are your's?"
"I see snow and someone is there with me but they don't really have a shape or a face." 48 lowered his eye lights onto the fake fur of the toy they were holding together. "They make me feel...how I feel with you though." he glanced at 49's curious expression. "Happy." 48 grinned wider and so did 49. The pair of skeletons gripped each other by their arm bones, holding tight.
After that wonderful day, 48 never saw 49 again. He asked the humans, each one telling him the same thing. 49 fell down, and would not be around anymore. At first he didn't really get it. The passing days, he waited on the pillows for 49 to show up again, hoping, and dreaming about the other skeleton. But it soon settled in that, 49 wasn't coming back, and the permanence of it hit him hard one night in his cage. He had done something he'd never done before. Cry. And he kept crying all alone till a human came to feed him.
"Are you hurt? Do you feel bad?" the human asked, pulling him from the cage and he grabbed at their chest which poked out more than the other human's. There was no real comfort to be had from the stoic creature holding him. He couldn't voice what he was going through, which earned him an unwanted examination. Put on a table, and joined by another human, they prodded at him and maneuvered him around, trying to find the source of his pain.
He was put back when they found nothing wrong with him, left alone to deal with whatever this was by himself. And he did. 48 clung to his blanket and his toy and retreated into his own head. He avoided thinking about 49 but focused instead on numbers and shapes and bits of information he'd been taught by the kids shows. It lulled him to sleep where he couldn't escape seeing 49 smiling at him, talking to him.
***
More and more skeletons went missing from the play pen. 48 watched them one by one grow weaker and weaker, trembling and looking miserable, looking just like 49. He went around comforting them each time, talking to them even though it really hurt getting to know them just to never see them again. And again. And again. And again....
48 was alone in the lab. He got put in the playpen each day to wander it by himself. His mind was a mess, the newfound realization of loneliness a constant curse. Once in awhile a human would come and sit with him in the pen, but mostly they would ask him how he was feeling and if anything felt bad. He came to assume they were waiting to see if he'd get sick as well. It was kind of cruel when he didn't. When he stayed healthy and alone.
On a test day, he was laying on his back on the table, emptily staring at the light above him and toying with the after images it burned into his vision by flicking his eye lights around in their sockets.
"This one is still stable, holding together well, and eating fine." one of the humans with gloves spoke towards another human he'd never seen before. A male in a suit who nodded and scrutinized the skeleton on the table with cold eyes. 48 looked him in the eye regardless of how uneasy he felt doing so.
"Continue the project then, using this one as a base. Figure out why its different from the rest." the human said, getting a nod from the other. 48 once more was confused by what they were even talking about, and what all this meant for him.
What it meant for him...it meant pain. More pain. No longer left alone to eat and sleep and play by himself in the pen, the humans got busy. He found himself getting knocked out a lot by whatever they would do to his chest. He'd see light from their finger tips and away he'd go into dreamless nothing where time did not matter. And every time he woke up, he was so weak. His little body ached, mostly in the chest, and there were chips taken from his arms and legs.
When he came to for the tenth time that week, he couldn't even get up. His food bowl was nearby, and he was terribly hungry, but there was no will to reach for it. Shivering on the cold bottom of the cage, his barely lit eye lights rolled around to find his blanket and toy also nearby. And also too far away. 48 stayed on his side, rattling his bones, whimpering to himself. Maybe he was finally going to join the others. Maybe this was it. He'd fall down too. Something was oddly comforting about that. He could maybe see 49 again.
"Son of a bitch, are you idiots TRYING to kill our only bitty?" 48 weakly pulled his eye lights to the clear door, seeing a human face frowning in at him. What's a bitty? The human quickly opened the cage and grabbed him, pulling his limp body out and putting him against their chest. A flatter chest this time. 48 instantly closed his eye sockets to the rush going through him, exchanging something with the thing inside the human's chest. His breathing grew stronger the longer he was held there.
The human took him around the lab, holding him with one warm hand over his body while they went about organizing a pile of files. He started to feel better but not much by the time the human attempted to put him back in the cage. Holding him under his armpits, the human sighed at the sight of him. 48's eye sockets couldn't open fully and he hung pretty limply, not caring anymore about anything.
"Damn fools. Took too much from you." The human muttered, darkening 48's eye lights. What had they taken? He got put back against the human's chest, and to his surprise, they left the lab and turned into a room opposite the play room. Shutting the door, the human went to a couch and laid down, adjusting 48 with the new horizontal position. "Better get paid extra for this..." another mumble. They stayed together for hours. A TV turned on in what appeared to be a lounge for the employees. 48 slept through most of his time with the human, feeling more at ease, more at peace. Something about the heart beat and the lung sounds picked at a good spot in his mind. This was nice.
An alarm went off, the phone vibrating on the coffee table till the human reached over and shut it off. 48 came to, confused at first but fine where he was. HIs claws were wrapped up in the human's shirt, his body covered by the lab coats lapels. Warm and feeling better, he lifted his skull. The human glanced down at him, his blank fleshy face pulling back in a smirk.
"Better? You look better." the human asked. 48 grinned back at him. "Alright. Let's get you fed." They left the lounge, heading back into the lab much to 48's dismay. He liked that room they'd spent the night in more. It was cozy in contrast. The human put him back in his cage, seeming to notice how 48 couldn't stand up in it anymore. "Hmm, wonder how much bigger you're gonna get...not ideal." The comment quirked 48's brow at him, the show of emotion seeming to disturb the human who quickly left.
The routine continued for too long of getting pulled out, knocked out, and waking up feeling like shit. But the same human held him every day after every session. They didn't sleep together again unfortunately but he got held for several hours while the guy went about doing paperwork. 48 couldn't help but start feeling attached to this particular human. It got to the point where he was excited to see the man no matter how bad he felt.
"What are you workin' on?" 48 asked during a holding session. He was strong enough to look down at the template being written on. Able to read the words, he didn't really comprehend what it was all about. The human shifted, adjusting the hand that supported 48's legs.
"What do you think I'm working on?" the human answered with a question. 48 tilted his skull, staring harder at the form.
"...I'm not sure. Bunch of numbers, heights?" 48 looked up at the underside of the man's scruffy jaw.
"Correct. This, is how many are in the new batch." the human's pen pointed to one side of the paper. "And this is how big they've gotten so far. Smaller than you so far, which is good." He nodded.
"New batch? And...why is my size bad?" 48 fired off two questions at once, tightening the human's cheeks noticeably. He was getting uncomfortable. Why?
"A new batch of siblings, like the one you...met before." The human's reply both excited and scared 48. He deeply missed 49 and the others, having not seen anyone he could relate to in a very long time. "Don't worry, you won't meet them...until we are sure they will survive." The human looked down at him. He stared warily, knowing what was being said, and the implications behind it. Another group of siblings who might fall down. "As for your size, we are looking for no more than ten inches tall give or take for standard bitties."
"Bitties?" there was that word again.
"That's what you are. A bitty...er...Bitty Bones...I think that's the marketing name they're going with." the human shrugged, continuing to write.
"Oh...cool." 48 had no idea what that meant. Bitty Bones. "How tall am I?" he went back to the size issue, curious about it.
"You are probably close to a foot tall, not sure how much bigger you're gonna get either. You're still pretty young." The human answered, his patience holding steady still.
"And that's...bad." 48 slow-nodded at the guy.
"For now it's not what we're looking for. The smaller the better. People like little pets." The human sighed out the words. Pets. 48 knew what that meant. Is that what he was? Is that what bitties were? Pets? Like the dogs he'd seen in the kids shows? Innocently he smiled at the idea, wondering if he could one day have a conversation with a dog, or another type of pet. Get their perspective on things.
"Well darn," 48 chuckled, startling the human enough to stop writing. "Guess I can't, measure up to your standards."
"...clever." The human commented. "Be quiet now, I need to finish this." 48 shortened his grin, a little hurt by that but taking it in stride. Guy just wanted to fill out his sheet. He nuzzled his face into the man's chest, shutting his sockets and drifting away.