Chapter Text
claire / day 1 / morning
Claire stared at her roommate in the doorway, coffee in her hand forgotten. She isn’t serious, is she?
“S-sorry, what?” said Cup, apparently of the same mind, a subtle quiver in her thin voice as her owner Bekah deposited all two inches of the poor thing onto the carpet that she sank to her ankles into, wobbling a couple of clumsy steps before finding her balance and clutching her hands together at her chest. “But-”
“Oh shush, you’ll be fine with Claire for the weekend, won’t you?” Bekah interrupted cheerfully with more of a statement than a question. “And Claire doesn’t mind, right?” she added, bright and sharp blue eyes flitting up to her tenant roommate, who was seated on the couch across the room looking almost as surprised as Cup. This, too, was more of a statement than a question.
“Um,” said Claire, her brain not yet fully caught up to what was being foisted on her. The coffee on the table beside her was still three-quarters full.
The hesitation was ill-timed, and Claire caught the deer-in-the-headlights look in Cup’s glance at her before the little thing took a couple of nervous steps toward Bekah, nearly shaking. “Can we t-talk-?” She took off the yellow hat that sat atop her chestnut hair, clutching it in matching gloves. The ensemble Bekah had dressed her in looked to Claire like a midcentury tourist’s outfit, but she liked the dress itself, a canary yellow that the gloves and hat were styled around featuring orange carnation print, a collar straight across with short, clean sleeves, and an exaggerated A-line, including a little ribbon around her waist that didn’t quite resemble fairy wings, but Claire figured they were supposed to gesture at them.
“I knooow, I should have asked the girls first if they minded me bringing you along, I’m the worst,” Bekah sighed, frowning thin sympathy down at the girl, who instinctively shook her head as if to deny the insinuation. “Amelia’s being impossible about it though, and the pet fees at the hotel are kind of insane, so.” The what-can-you-do shrug of Bekah's shoulders seemed to be the final word on the matter. “You can handle a couple days, Claire doesn’t bite!”
Claire did not bite, but nor had she spoken more than a handful of times to Bekah's skittish little…companion. She had never been sure what term to settle on, as far as mentally classifying what Cup was. Keeping the little folks was more of a rich-people thing, so Claire had barely given the details any thought, but after half a year of living in the room she rented here, her impression was that Cup was a sort of middle ground between pet, accessory, and doll. She also rarely strayed far from Bekah's room, meaning Claire hardly ever saw the little lady in the first place, much less had a chance to get to know her.
She thought it fairly understandable, in this context, that Cup was trembling like a leaf at Bekah's words, helpless to protest, wide eyes flitting between the two of them. Bekah was looking at Claire, however, with a bright and expectant smile that left little room for discussion.
An impatient car honk from outside didn't help.
“She can tell you everything she needs, she's a whole-ass adult, and you said you weren't doing anything this weekend anyway,” Bekah said with a dismissive wave of her hand at Claire's expression. “But text me if anything comes up,” she added quickly. “I'll ask Mom to knock a couple hundred off your rent this month. You're doing me a huge favor!”
“Of course,” Claire said simply, a mild resigned tone in her voice as she watched Bekah inch out the door. “Um. Have a good trip.”
“Thanks so much, byeeee!” Bekah sang, and she cut herself off with the slamming of the door as she and her bags disappeared.
A palpable silence fell over the living room, and standing there in front of the door, a fleck on a vast plane of carpet, the miniature lady who’d just been abandoned with Claire for the weekend had never looked smaller.
Claire stared at the back of her head (or rather, tried to focus on the back of her head while staring at the spot where she stood, given Cup was about as tall as a peanut) for a moment or two before it whipped around to meet her gaze. Cup’s eyes were wide enough that despite being across the room, Claire could make out the whites of them. No small feat, given how pale the rest of her had gone to match. Her hands hadn’t un-clutched themselves in front of her chest, which happened to give her frame the appearance of someone pleading for her life.
Swallowing the small lump that had formed in her throat at the sight, Claire carefully considered her choice of next words, feeling the fragility of the ice in the room they stood on. She offered a warm, if hesitant smile, slowly setting her mug on the coffee table. “Hhhey, li-”
As she started to speak, she had without thinking let her legs slide off the couch and her thick socks touch the floor, and this proved to be a bit much.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!” Trailing a steady, high-pitched cry of terror and abandoning the little hat, Cup’s fists clenched the hem of her dress as she sprinted full tilt toward the nearest available shelter, which happened to be the TV stand against the wall. For her pitiful size, her legs could really hustle her across that carpet, sort of skipping across the tops of the fibers before she had time to sink into them like a deer awkwardly bounding through brush. She must have just been light enough to pull that off, Claire supposed.
Claire thought she probably had time to block off her path and catch her if she really wanted to, but that seemed like not the most tactful start, so she let her scurry. The TV stand stood somewhat high off the ground, Claire had thought, but not quite a full two inches, so Cup had to do an awkward sort of crouch once she reached it. A moment later, there was quiet again, and Claire frowned sympathetically.
“Oh, hun- sorry! Um,” she paused, “Here- I’m going to stand up and walk over slowly, is that okay? You can stay under there if you like,” she added in as gentle a tone as she was capable of, which she hoped sounded at least somewhat soothing.
She padded softly across the room, suddenly oddly conscious of the weight and distribution of her own steps at the thought that they were being observed with terrorized attention just then. She detoured to collect the hat, scooping the thing up in a finger, then felt something poking into the side of her toe, which she moved, spotting a pair of low heels that she could have mistaken for crumbs if they weren’t the same bright yellow as the rest of the tiny outfit. These too she pinched before stepping over to Cup’s hiding spot. Kneeling down in front of it was a careful process, one knee at a time, then lowering the rest of her body until it was parallel to the ground to peer in.
Since there wasn’t really anything to hide behind in there, Cup was just sort of…half-crouching and staring back, wide-eyed and still as a statue, body tense and poised as if ready to dart off again at a moment’s notice.
“Hey little lady,” Claire whispered in the same singsong tone she’d use for a small animal. “You’re gonna get all covered in dust bunnies if you stay in there, are you sure you don’t wanna-?”
Claire could see the shiver, and she nodded understandingly.
“That’s okay hun, take your time. I’d, um, like to talk a little when you’re ready, okay? I’m gonna give you some space and hang out in my room for a little bit. Here’s your, um, your little hat, and the shoes. I’ll just, leave the door cracked for you, 'kay? I promise I won’t come out–but please, once I’m gone, the coffee table is a lot, um, cleaner to, hide under, I'd think, and I don’t know if it’s good for you to be breathing in all that dust where you are,” she added the last string hurriedly, half finishing as she stood back up as carefully as she’d laid down, collected her drink, and moved around the corner to the hallway, then to her own four walls, door just barely ajar.
Alone, she took a deep breath, set her coffee on the nightstand, then collapsed into her bed, partly for Cup’s benefit to hear that she wasn’t hiding around the corner waiting to ambush her, and partly because she just needed to take a second.
Claire could have gotten away with saying no. She did a lot of favors for Bekah, and she felt like she had racked up a little credit, even if her reasonable lease might or might not have depended on keeping Bekah relatively happy most of the time, or at least a noticeably more pleasant roommate than a stranger who could be getting charged a lot more. Not that it seemed like they needed the income. Bekah had an assertive personality and probably could have convinced her friends to let the little lady come along for their trip, if she set her mind to it. But Bekah clearly hadn’t had a mind for it, and even if Cup was very used to her owner in most situations, it seemed slightly more cruel to foist her onto a group of friends that might not want to pay as close attention to her as someone like her needed.
Or at least, Claire assumed someone like Cup needed a lot of attention. They were basically people, weren’t they? Come to think of it though, when she thought back to the first weeks after moving in and asked Bekah something similar, Cup had looked awfully uncomfortable at the topic of personhood. She wondered if that behavior was…inherent or learned for her kind, so to speak.
It was hard to even imagine being in the little thing’s position, but she couldn’t blame her for her skittishness in the slightest, given the circumstances…even if it was unfortunate that Cup’s nerves seemed pretty frazzled even on a good day, what little Claire had seen of her. Bekah may have been confident about Claire’s ability to handle someone a fortieth of her size, but Cup herself had no reason to have the same optimism, nor even to be able to assume Claire even liked the little folks like her. Some people were really weird about them, as Claire had just seen firsthand, but Claire had never really understood that either. Cup’s kind were practically luxury items, not the kind of thing you’re familiar with when you’re renting a room in your rich friend-of-a-friend’s house.
Propping herself back up in bed, she pulled open her laptop to do a little cursory research over the rest of her coffee. Now was as good a time as ever, so that Cup wouldn’t be around to see her scrolling the Wikipedia page for her kind as a starting point.
Over the course of a couple of hours, Claire didn’t find herself learning anything she didn’t already more or less know. In terms of diet and routines, all the information about them made them seem essentially like people, but didn’t really talk about them as if they were. They were still rare enough that they had been surprisingly understudied since their discovery, and Claire supposed that if most of the domestic ones were in the care of people like Bekah, she guessed she could see why.
Clothes for these things were stupid-expensive, but going down the rabbit hole of just perusing the array of options ended up taking most of her time. Most miniature clothing was handmade by specialty vendors, so the price point for even the basics seemed unreasonable to someone like Claire, but fortunately, Bekah seemed to have invested in a healthy wardrobe already. Claire saw Cup’s outfits rotate seasonally, but she suspected Bekah was the decision maker insofar as what Cup wore for the day, given that Cup was constantly fidgeting and itching herself in about half those outfits. Clothing that was both cute and comfortable was hard to come by even for people Claire's size, and she couldn't imagine the situation was any better dealing with stitching made by people the size of a mountain compared to you.
Claire’s legs shifted, moving the screen of her laptop a few inches and by chance clearing her line of sight to the doorway, where the corner of her eye detected a presence that hadn’t been there a moment ago, staring over at her wide-eyed.
“Wah!” Claire yelped softly, mildly surprised.
“Sorrysorryaaaaaaa!” cried Cup, dashing rightward and vanishing from sight around the doorframe, hat falling to the floor again where she had been a moment ago.
“Oh- oh no you’re okay sweetheart!” Claire called, closing her laptop and sitting up on the bed, legs crossing under her. “I was zoned out, you just surprised me a little, you’re not in trouble! You can come- awww, there she is!” she finished, giggling at the sight of a head the size of a pea poking around the corner. Her hair was tied back in a neat low bun, making her head look even smaller than it already was. The rest of her stepped out the next moment, collecting her hat sheepishly.
Claire waited a few beats for Cup to say something, but it looked like that wasn’t in the cards just yet, so instead, she gave her a soft look and pushed herself back, rearranging herself on the bed so that she laid on her stomach with her legs crossed behind her, arms propping her up. “Think you can come a little closer? I don't want you to have to shout.” Claire had a hypothesis that sitting so that she didn't look like she was about to get up and lunge forward might be somewhat reassuring for someone the size of her little finger.
It took a few seconds more of standing before Cup managed to take a few cautious steps inside. It occurred to Claire that this might have been the first time Cup set foot in her room, at least since she had moved in...that she knew of. Cup's attention was focused on the ground in front of her, however, seemingly finding it easier to keep her eyes down to avoid meeting Claire's gaze.
“That's better,” Claire said once Cup came to a stop roughly just out of arm's reach. “Hiya, Cup.”
“Hi, Claire,” Cup said hesitantly, the name sounding a little odd in her thin voice, unused to speaking it. “I'm sorry. For the trouble.”
“Nothing to apologize for, hun,” Claire said gently, “I know Bekah can be a little scatterbrained when it comes to planning for this kind of thing.” Cup winced at that and fidgeted with her hat uncomfortably. Claire supposed it made sense that one's owner would be a delicate topic to discuss behind their back, and made a note of this.
"Is this your first time apart from her?" She asked delicately. An embarrassed nod was given in answer, and Claire pursed her lips. "Mind if I come down there?"
Cup stared back in polite incomprehension. And wobbled a little.
"Closer to level with you, I mean," Claire clarified. "Is it okay if my legs come over the edge of the bed here so I can get down? I don't wanna startle you." Cup instinctively took a step back as if Claire were about to lurch off the bed abruptly, but when this didn't happen, she gave a nod, and even managed not to scurry off as Claire carefully climbed off the bed, but did take a few healthy steps back and give her enough space to comfortably settle down prone on her stomach. Once situated, Claire rested her chin on her folded hands on the floor, face just a foot or so away from the two-inch lady.
As Claire reflected on the fact that this was probably the closest up she'd seen the little thing before, Cup cocked her head to the side, blinking perplexedly. "You are on the floor!" she stated, almost as if Claire weren't aware, and she seemed like she wanted to ask why, but wasn't quite able to get the words out, instead pacing at a trot around Claire's radius a couple of times, occasionally tilting her head the other way. She was reminded of the way house-pets liked to come investigate when a person sat down in what was usually their space.
"Yeah, I'm down in Cup-town now," Claire remarked offhandedly. "How are you feeling, sweetie?" Cup's head cocked to the opposite side, as if something about that too seemed odd to her, and Claire caught herself kind of fascinatedly watching the gears in her mind turn. Cup had somewhat wide-set eyes that seemed relatively large for her scale, and her face came to a sharply pointed chin, giving the whole picture an almost cricket-like quality that Claire felt frankly guilty for thinking of.
"I'm. Okay," Cup lied plainly, averting her gaze to her feet and only peeking up at Claire occasionally. "I did not stay under the shelf."
"That's good," Claire said with an encouraging smile.
"I went under the coat rack. By the door. Instead."
"Oh!"
"In case Bekah came back."
"Right."
"I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry for, hun," Claire said gently before proceeding with caution. "How long have you two...known each other?"
Cup hesitated. "A long time," she said at last in a way that made Claire think it would be uncomfortable for her to push further. "I was a present." She had a few peculiarities to her speech that didn't match any particular accent to Claire's ear but still sounded...a bit odd, one of them being a slight tendency to overpronounce the letter T. That made an unfortunate smile tug at Claire's lips despite the meaning of the statement making her stomach twinge, which she felt ashamed of. Claire could infer enough that Cup had been a pet for at least her entire adult life, probably more. That...maybe explained some things about her behavior.
"I bet a present like you would put a big smile on anyone's face," Claire said, earning her the teensy blushing smile she had been angling for, even if talking about giving such a human-like thing as Cup as a gift made Claire feel a little nauseous. She decided to steer the conversation in a lighter direction. "I think Bekah said once your name was short for Teacup, right?"
"That's me!" she chimed, little face beaming.
"It's pretty. Is that your, um, given name?" Claire asked.
Cup stared blankly, as if the question were confusing. "Of course. Bekah gave it to me," she said plainly.
Claire nodded slowly, but grew curious. "Is that- I mean, your birth name, or- ope." Claire paused midsentence when Cup chose that moment to lose her nerve, sprinting around Claire's radius and under her bed. Claire let her run, not making any sudden movements, but pinching her lips shut as she listened for the sound of tiny footsteps to stop. They did so much sooner than she'd expected. When she slowly turned her head to look, she saw Cup crouched just under the edge below the dangling sheets at the edge of the bed, 'large' watery eyes staring up cautiously at her.
"Sorry."
"S'okay, sweetie, we don't have to talk about that."
"Bekah would not like that."
"I understand."
"Thank you. Claire. I'm going to stay under here though. Please." She said this with the matter-of-factness of describing the weather.
"I get it, it looks cozy," Claire said, slowly turning around to lay on her stomach on the floor and perch her hands on her chin again. "Bekah didn't say too much about you when I moved in, but she did mention you used to hang out in this room before she decided to rent it out. Sorry about that, if I got you kicked out of your space."
Cup's whole body seemed to shiver at once, and her eyes widened. "N-no! I was not allowed to be in here alone! My space is in Bekah's room! I'm especially not allowed here now! It is yours and not mine! I didn't! I would never!"
"Oh- oh it's okay hun!"
There was a long pause as Cup stared up at Claire, frozen, and Claire really thought she was about to bolt for a moment. "I do not sneak!" Cup finally reiterated, with emphasis. A long pause. She lowered her eyes. "...this room is the quietest. When there are guests over. Or thunder. Thunder hurts," she added.
Claire raised her eyebrows, less convinced than she had been a moment ago that her room was unfamiliar territory to Cup, but she tried to assure the poor thing with a solemn nod of assurance. "I trust you, Cup. Besides, y'know, as long as you feel safe, you're always welcome in here any time you like, I don't mind at all. You seem nice," she added.
Cup's impossibly small eyes fluttered, and she then looked away, visibly full-body shivered, then bolted.
"There she goes," Claire murmured softly to herself as she watched Cup book it into the depths of the space under the bed, all the way to the back wall, where she pressed her back and stared back at Claire, still as a statue. Despite the assuring smile Claire gave her, she thought it was remarkable how creepy two inches could look when they just froze there in the shadows like that. After several seconds, she ventured, "All good in there, hun?" No reply. "That's okay, you take your time. I'll give you some space, okay?"
Claire gave her best attempt at a reassuring smile to the little blot of darkness in a floral dress under her bed. She started to get up as carefully as she'd gotten down, pausing once she was squatting on her feet. "I'll be mostly in the kitchen this morning, but if you need anything at all- do you have your little bell?"
She did not seem to have her little bell.
"I'll go get your little bell," Claire said, standing up and brushing the floor dust off herself.
Cup had a little bell. It was possibly the smallest bell Claire had ever seen, and she wasn't entirely sure where Bekah had gotten it for her, because it certainly seemed just a bit too big for Cup to handle without looking kind of silly, but also far too small to have been meant for human use. The few times she had seen Cup outside Bekah's room or line of sight for any extended period of time, especially if there were, she lugged the little bell around with her, an old fashioned silver ornament that might have been a dining bell if it weren't so small. A safety precaution, which was mildly surprising, because Bekah usually didn't seem too concerned about that kind of thing.
While making a lap around the house to look for the bell, Claire also checked her phone. She remembered looking after a friend's dog once a few years back while they'd gone on a similar trip, and she'd gotten bombarded with texts checking in and requesting pics every half hour or so. Claire had never been one to keep pets, but she had the impression that was pretty standard pet-owner doting. Nothing from Bekah so far. She'd kind of been hoping for at least some basics, like what the little thing's usual routines were, or where her, like, water source was? Claire supposed Bekah was leaving that to Cup to explain.
The bell turned out to be in Bekah's room, lying on its side up against the wall baseboard not far from the doorway. She supposed that made sense. Ease of access, or something, but kind of strange not to have packed and brought with her on a trip she'd been expecting to go on. Cup had not emerged from the bed by the time Claire brought it back to her room, so she entered with soft footsteps and placed it at the edge of the bed with a quick "Here you go, hun," before collecting her laptop and heading back out to give Cup some space.
With another cup of coffee brewing, Claire leaned back against the counter with a glance toward her empty doorway and texted Bekah a thought that had crossed her mind once or twice this morning.
Hey how's the drive! btw was there any of cups stuff packed somewhere i need to get?
o shit lmao. it's in my bags
oh no!! essentials?
nah she'll be fine. thanks again ilysm <3