Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Emma woke up bright and early, immediately getting to work waking up the other Grace Field children and the new Goldy Pond children that had taken residence in the dining room with them. This was now part of her daily tasks, and was easy enough for most of the children but it was the Goldy Pond children that gave her some issue. Some of the youngers were a bit jittery about being woken, however gentle, though after their fright subsided, they were happy to know they were safe. The older kids would not take being woken up. They liked to sleep in for longer, and it was easier to give them the extra hour if it meant not having a gang of moody older kids moping about the place. Though it interrupted Emma’s routine and set breakfast back an hour, it meant everyone stayed happy. At the very least, Emma and Ray could make sure everything ran smoothly to have food ready for when the teens did wake up.
After finishing waking everyone who would accept it in the dining hall, Emma went to check on the few rooms in the entrance hall that contained mostly the kids, and some of the teens. When it was just the fifteen of them, getting everybody gathered up for the day was no issue, but now there where sixty of them, it had become quite the task. ‘Good morning!’ she whispered into the rooms and gave a little wave before moving onto the adjacent room to give another ‘good morning!’ to the next group of kids. A couple of the youngest from Goldy Pond liked to follow Emma around during this routine, which made her bones ache for their family left at Grace Field who acted much the same every morning.
When Emma got to the room that house the last few children and Lucas, she gave him a more personalised greeting; ‘Did you sleep well? Were the kids okay? Do you need anything else for the nights?’ she felt like a mama in her own right. Each morning Lucas would smile at her warmly, insisting everything was more than perfect for them, and assure her everyone was okay. Emma beamed back at him, and left to go back down the hall to the dining hall to help set up the tables for the day.
On her way out, she bumped into Ray coming out of one of the unused rooms. ‘Oh- sorry,’ he insisted, leaning to either side to try and look around her.
‘Everything okay?’
‘Yeah, yeah. I’m looking for that old fart. He wasn’t around at dinner last night, if you noticed, and- you know how much they want to hang around him- Alicia and Rossi complained they didn’t now where he was. I told them he might not be awake yet, but I went to check anyway.’ Emma gave him a concerned look, then peeked over her shoulder. She wasn’t sure where Yuugo would’ve gotten off to without saying anything, he’d been pretty good at communicating with them while she was comatose, and he’d seemed in good spirits two days ago after she’d awoken.
‘Well, he’s not in any of the bedrooms the kids were in, and he wasn’t with Lucas, I don’t think he’d be in the kitchen, we don’t need food right now, so there’s no need to go out… There’s no need for him to be in with the monitors or the unused room, but that’s the only place I can think. Want me to look with you?’
Ray shook his head and walked past Emma, ‘I can look myself. Go help with set up, get Adam to help you move tables, they’re getting rowdy in there.’ Emma watched him go then resigned to doing as she was told.

***

After Emma had left him, Lucas greeted each of his kids with the hug they would beg him for, before sending them out with gentle threats of there will be none left if you don’t hurry! Now alone, he massaged his weak leg and winced, letting out a loud sigh. A few minutes passed and he sat up on the edge of his bed, then he pulled his shirt on, slowly yet desperately trying to do up his buttons. He hadn’t had much practice doing this alone, not since he always had someone to--
Oliver opened the door with some urgency, looking like he had just woken from a very deep sleep, his eyes barely open, ‘I’m sorry, I over slept, sorry-’ Lucas raised a hand to stop him talking.
‘It’s alright, just come help me please.’ He hurried over and knelt next to Lucas’ bed, getting his shirt buttoned far faster than Lucas could have done alone.
‘Now everyone’s all healed up and Emma’s awake, guess I got complacent…’
‘Oliver, I understand. I used to be able to do this, I can learn again. Don’t worry yourself.’He reassured the boy with a smile and squeezed his shoulder. ‘Not that I don’t appreciate the help, of course.’
‘Got it.’ Oliver mumbled, his face flushed at Lucas’ touch and he stood, making to leave the room. ‘Oh, breakfast is almost ready. I overheard Ray say something about a meeting on my way over.’ Lucas gave him a nod, pulled his cane up from the floor, and walked to the dining hall with Oliver.

***

Ray pushed the door open to Yuugo’s old bunkroom first. Nothing in here looked out of place, his notebook was still on the floor where they had previously found it, his old clothes remained dusty and untouched, nothing new had been added to the walls. Nothing at all seemed to be tampered with. He sighed and pulled the door closed, leaving it ajar. Now he opened the monitor room, and to some relief found Yuugo asleep inside. Head on the table, arms folded in front of his head, Lucas’ coat draped over his shoulders. Ray moved quietly around the table and listened to his soft breathing. He mumbled a little in his sleep, but Ray couldn’t make out any clear words. He gave him a little nudge and he didn’t stir. He kicked the leg of the chair a couple of times, and he didn’t stir. He looked over at the door of the room, and held his gaze there for a second, before briefly wrapping his arms around Yuugo’s chest before making his way out of the room and forcefully shutting the door behind him, in the hopes that might wake Yuugo.

***

Emma was swarmed by children the moment she entered the dining room again – it was like wading through a thick swamp, yet all the muck and sludge was tiny hands and bodies latching onto you and hugging you and holding your hand and pulling you to get you to play with them. She tried, desperately, to give everyone as much attention as possible before she had to call on Don and Gilda for help. The two of them managed to wrestle a good handful off of Emma, yet the rest of that fight as her own.
Ray came in behind her, and could barely make her out under the pile. He helped her peel off the remaining children and scolded them, pushing them to go help with food instead of bothering Emma. By now, the older Goldy Pond kids who had crashed in the dining hall had woken up, and were tucking away their bed rolls and pillows. Ray retrieved Adam himself to get his help with the tables, and together the three of them got to work setting up the dining room for their sixty siblings.
‘May be about time the older escapees moved into the rooms,’ he muttered, ‘it’s getting crowded in here, and it makes setting up for breakfast a pain when they won’t get up.’
‘They’re still scared, and we all sleep together still. Splitting everyone up doesn’t seem fair if we stay together.’
‘The youngest seem happy enough sleeping alone, so I don’t see why the oldest can’t,’
Emma knew he was right, ‘but if we all stay together, won’t it feel like we’re pushing them away? I want us to be a family, together.’
Ray rolled his eyes and smirked, nudging her with his elbow. ‘Of course you do,’ he shook his head, ‘No, look- there are seventy-two beds, sixty-four if Yuugo won’t let us clean up his hovel, so why don’t we all sleep there? We slept in groups back at Grace Field, it’s nothing our family won’t be used to, so they can set an example.’
She considered this deeply while they made progress setting up the room. He was right: she, Norman, and Ray all used to sleep in different rooms with their own group of the younger kids, so they were used to being separated at night, so… When she got the chance to work next to him again, she posited her idea- ‘Maybe if we can make it so each room has at least one older kid, they’ll have someone older to help them, just in case. And we can mix the rooms! Eight beds in each rooms, we can fit two of us in with six of them.’ She beamed at him and he gave a small smile back to her.
‘Yeah, I think that works. We can call a meeting after breakfast. It gives us something to do for the day, they can bond while we all clean up the rooms.

Breakfast was standard fare by this point; usual soup, with usual home-grown veggies, with usual freshly caught meat. The children had recently started growing herbs they had been finding while out scavenging, and trying them out in their recipes to varying degrees of success. Today’s soup must have been good- it was the first time since they came back from Goldy Pond that everyone ate in near-silence, and quickly, too.
Everyone returned their dishes to the kitchen, and sat back at their tables, talking amongst themselves while they waited to get their instructions for the day. Emma made sure to return her bowl last, so as not to hang around acting awkward and making the other kids nervous. She sighed as she didn’t even get a chance to initiate the conversation:
‘Alright everyone, listen up,’ the room quietened to Ray’s voice and Emma saw everyone shuffle to look at him as she left the kitchen. Ray beckoned her over before continuing to address the room, ‘Today’s a little different. We’re going to have a day in, but there’s still work to do. Sonya, Malcolm, you two are on dish-duty and Theo and Mark are on drying-duty. Lannion and Thoma, you can pack the dishes away,’ the latter two groaned at this, and all six of them moved to stand in front of the kitchen doors, ‘everyone else talk amongst yourselves for now, we’ll do the big announcement after they’re done. And remember- when someone does more than you, help them with a job later.’ He flicked his head towards the six to press the point, and everyone confirmed their orders, immediately getting to working and waiting.

Chapter Text

‘And so, because of those space concerns, we decided it would be a good idea if everyone split into rooms instead.’ Emma gave a queasy, yet hopeful smile and looked to Ray for support.
‘It also means we can assign tasks by rooms instead of individuals. Mostly.’
‘We know it’s a big change, and none of you have been here that long, and I know you all slept together in Goldy Pond… but there’s so many of us, I promise being split up isn’t that bad.’
Immediately the Goldy Pond kids broke out into chatter, discussing all they had said amongst themselves. Emma tried to listen to what they were saying, but everyone soon fell into silence as the doors to the dining hall swung open, and Yuugo walked down the aisle, straight through to the kitchen, where they had put leftovers from breakfast for him- this part he didn’t expect, he had been more than willing to get his own food if he had to. Rather, he accounted for needing to. Emma clapped her hands together to get the attention back on her. ‘So, what do you think?’
The Goldy Pond group exchanged glances between their tables. Finally, Zack stood: ‘I want bottom bunk.’
‘Bottom for me, too!’ Theo this time.
‘Well, I want top!’ Lannion and Thoma at once.
Eventually, everyone was stood up and brimming with excitement, ready to claim their to-be bunks. It was Ray who got the attention back on track this time. ‘Alright, you’re all in, then. First, the rooms need to be tidied and cleaned. Don’t touch Yuugo’s old room, me and Emma will deal with that. We’ll make arrangements for Adam, Yuugo, and Lucas separately too. For now, Yuugo and Lucas will keep out of the way, and Adam-’ Ray pointed at him, ‘help when asked.’
They couldn’t begin to stop the torrent of children and teenagers that ensued. Some went directly to the rooms to start clearing out old bedsheets they had stripped from mattresses when they pilfered them for the dining hall, bags, stored boxes, old clothes, and other items. Another group went straight to get buckets of water, mops, cloths, and other cleaning supplies. Half of the rooms had already been loosely tidied for the twenty-three Goldy Pond kids who had been using them for the past nine days since arriving at the shelter, but were still in need of a good, deep clean.
As the bulk of the children had left to get to their tasks, Lucas headed to the kitchen to talk to his old friend, seeing as he was firmly told to keep out of the way, and much to Emma and Ray’s surprise, three of the older Grace Field children stayed behind to let the chaos died down. Ray jumped on this opportunity, and approached Gilda, tugging on her elbow. ‘Come on, I need to speak with you. We’ll go to the reading room.’

***

Upon entering the kitchen, Lucas saw Yuugo hunched over the sink, eating his bowl of soup in silence. He looked like a strange animal; something so recognisable and yet so unfamiliar. He deliberately nudged him with an elbow as he walked past, hopping up to sit on the counter behind him, ‘Good morning,’ he was met with silence, ‘I said, good morning.’ He reached forward with his cane and jabbed Yuugo in the back of the leg; right in the knee. Yuugo stumbled a little and shot him a glance that conveyed some approximation of if this wasn’t a spoon, it would be buried in you. Lucas couldn’t help to chuckle at him, and resolved to resting his cane between his legs- it was better if he didn’t get it taken off of him.
Yuugo dropped his bowl into the sink and washed it with a certain amount of sass that told Lucas he was, at least, in a little bit of trouble. After Yuugo dried and put away his spoon and bowl, Lucas was met with a wet towel being thrown directly for his head, which he barely ducked out of the way, before retrieving it and throwing it straight back, prompting Yuugo to catch it and throw it on the counter next to him. ‘I don’t know where you were raised, but that’s not how I was raised to greet my friends.’
‘Oh, ha-ha.’
‘This might be the best mood I’ve seen you in! Sleep okay? I heard Ray asking Emma where you were, some of the others asked about your absence too.’
‘Mm-hm. And he found me,’ Yuugo repositioned himself to lean back at the sink, arms folded, eyeing Lucas. ‘Don’t know what’s gotten into that kid, he’s bothered me almost every morning since you got back, and if not the morning, then at night,’ he rubbed his beard thoughtfully and gazed up past his compatriot, ‘Did his damnedest to wake me, too. I think this morning broke the record of three? Four? Attempts to get me moving.’
‘He’s so much like you, you know.’ Yuugo was taken aback by this. Why was he saying this? ‘Moody. Quiet. A bit too smart for his own good. Desperate, maybe.’ Lucas was smirking at him now, Yuugo narrowed his eyes trying to understand his last comment. ‘So, did you hear their announcement? The sleeping arrangement’s changing. Think you and I might be roomed together again.’
He perked up. ‘Heard them saying something. What are they doing…?’
‘Freeing up the dining hall so it can stay set up for meals all the time. Just moving everyone into the bunk-rooms, but sounds like they’ll leave your little room untouched, if it matters. Am I allowed to go in there yet--’
‘No.’
‘Alright.’ Lucas adjusted his position on the counter, an awkward silence falling between them both. Yuugo was looking at the floor now.
‘I’ll go talk to them about it.’ He pushed himself off the counter and headed for the kitchen door.
‘No problem, don’t be a stranger, we’re under strict orders to not do anything today, so I expect you to keep me company.’ Lucas followed out behind him.

***

Gilda let Ray guide her into the archival room before he shut the door gently, crossing the room briskly to stare at the spines of the books contained within; he always had an easier time speaking his mind when he didn’t have to look at the person in question and could occupy his focus with something else. ‘So, I’ve been thinking about something, and you know I trust you with things like this, so keep it between us,’
‘You know I will. Just spit it out!’
‘Okay, okay. I’ve got some thoughts, emotionally. Like, inside. About me, about…’
‘And you didn’t know what to do with that so thought you’d get me to help you?’
‘Well, yeah, I-’
‘Ray, to say everyone considers you the smartest, you never think to just talk to someone?’
‘When it concerns the geezer, do you think he’ll ‘just talk’ to me? Does he seem the type?’ He turned to look at her now, a puzzled expression on his face. Her arms were folded and he got the impression she’d lost a bit of patience with him.
‘O~oh, Yuugo, huh?’ She smiled a bit, ‘but no, obviously, he’s been avoiding his best friend since he got back, clearly not someone who deals with his emotions well. Let alone one of us… But everyone can see you’re so alike! And you have to be direct with you, so be direct with him!’
This offended Ray in some strange way- on one hand, it was complimentary to him and his wants and needs, on the other being directly compared to Yuugo got his back up. ‘I’ve got no problems being direct with him! It’s the subject that complicates it!’ This gave Gilda pause.
‘...I see your point. So, what exactly is going on here?’
He turned away from her again to continue scanning the books. ‘If you didn’t rush me earlier, I feel, I don’t know, a way towards him? I don’t know what the feeling is. It’s complicated.’ He looked down to his feet, and eventually turned to look at Gilda again. ‘You know how Oliver is with Lucas? It’s kind of like that.’
‘You know he considers him his, like, dad? Right?’ Ray’s face flushed, a shade of pink she’d never seen him go before. ‘Oh my gosh, why didn’t you just say that? You know you can ask, no you should ask Oliver about this? He’s like you and Emma, too, come to think of it, he’s bound to give you good advice about what to do.’
‘So are you electing yourself to go get Oliver for me? Save me the trouble?’
She sighed at him, turning to leave and opening the door, almost stepping out; ‘I guess so. I’ll take over whatever he’s doing with the cleaning, I’ll go send him over. Don’t go anywhere!’ She shut the door behind her with enthusiasm, Ray buried his face in his hands from embarrassment.

Chapter Text

Navigating the shelter’s front hallway was like navigating a bomb site – with the small exception of kids everywhere- and Gilda’s attempts to make it down the hall while in search of Oliver were not going very well. She dodged mops, brushes, buckets, piles of junk, and of course other children, and could barely see into any of the rooms to check for Oliver. She didn’t make it to the end of the hall before she was roped into helping one group clear out a room, and no excuse helped her break free.
Ray was left to wait in silence in the archive, making a small dent in some of the books that were here that he had never seen before, which he decided to leave after an approximate half-hour of no-show from Gilda. Maybe this was part of a plan to make him impatient and do it himself, or she wasn’t interested in helping him after all- though he shook this idea out of his head, this was unlike Gilda when he was in need of interpersonal counselling. The former was still on the table, and if this was the case it had worked to some extent. He made his way back out to the dining hall, and found himself in a situation he didn’t want to be in just this second.

***

Both Yuugo and Lucas refused to take their orders of keeping out of the way very seriously. After every last kid had cleared out of the dining hall and got deep into cleaning, they worked on pushing tables and chairs towards the sides of the room. The plan was to create space for the mattresses to sit in front of the main doors o as to cause less chaos later when kids would be trying to dodge tables with mattresses they were too small to manoeuvre efficiently. They made very slowly progress, with Lucas’ bad leg and lack of arm, out of forty-or-so mattresses that had been used for the dining hall they managed to pull five form the side hallway to pile, relatively neatly, in view of the doors. As they lugged the sixth mattress onto one pile, Lucas sat down in a heap, letting out a heavy sigh and massaging his leg. Yuugo crouched next to him and took over the job for him, and didn’t allow Lucas to swat his hands away.
'No need to overdo it, this isn’t important.’
‘You’re one to talk! You’re not in great shape either.’
Both of them turned as the adjoining hallway’s doors swung open- neither of them heard anyone come through, much less knew someone was through there- and Ray froze in his tracks upon spotting them. Yuugo sprung up from his crouch, ‘Oh, good, you can help me while Lucas stays exactly where he is and doesn’t move from it,’ he gestured with his head to the door Ray was stood in, ‘back through there, you’re grabbing mattresses with me. Try not to bury Lucas while he stays exactly where he is and doesn’t move from it.’ He reiterated sharply.
Ray looked between them, an annoyed expression on his face, ‘Didn’t we tell you to stay out of the way?’
‘We’re out of the way,’ Lucas beamed at him, patting the mattress, ‘no one’s come back through to be in the way of.’
He wasn’t terribly impressed, and resigned to doing as Yuugo told him. He picked out a mattress off the piles, got it onto the floor and turned it on its side, when Yuugo joined him, grabbing the other end and lifting it. They worked in silence, save for the odd grunt when one of them knocked into a door, table, or mattress, and Lucas threw verbal pot-shots about Yuugo’s usefulness.
After the tenth mattress, all three of them sat down together for a break. Sixteen out of forty. By this point, a couple of kids had come back through for more water and other cleaning supplies, a few of which gave them a thank you for moving the mattresses; mostly the older ones who understood on instinct that they were doing something helpful.
‘You know, I never appreciated how much you crammed all of these children into this room. Why didn’t you use the rooms in the first place?’ Yuugo said.
Ray gave a small shrug and thought for a minute. ‘Emma wanted us to be together cause we didn’t trust you. When we left, they probably felt safer staying together. Then, when we got back, I guess everyone was so excited about everyone else as many as could fit joined in.’
Yuugo leaned back and nodded. ‘I did threaten you multiple times, then sent Emma to her death, then brought Emma back near-dead, so I guess I see why you’d stayed together.
Lucas gave him an incredulous look. ‘I’d ask when you stopped being such a push-over, though I wouldn’t say bullying children makes you not a push-over.’
‘I wasn’t bullying them, I asserted boundaries and where my space ended and theirs began- which is outside- and I’d hardly call these,’ he gestured at Ray dismissively, ‘children, in any case. They broke into my house and disturbed the peace and I was willing to defend myself.’ Lucas stifled a chuckle at him and Yuugo could see Ray had a small, smug smile on his face. ‘Now that I’m getting thoroughly harassed in my own home, let’s keep moving this shit out of the way.’

***

It wouldn’t be long until the cleaning was finished- all of the rooms had made it to the final part, the mopping and putting back together, which had created the mad dash for more cleaning supplies. Gilda still hadn’t managed to catch sight of Oliver, but she had caught up to Emma. They had sent Theo and Jemima out to find other rooms to help with. Together, they pushed the bunks back to the walls they were moved from.
‘What did Ray want?’ Emma nosed.
‘Oh, just asking for some advice. You know how he is.’
‘That’s nothing serious, I hope!’
‘Not entirely… though he was pretty pressed about it. I was supposed to get Oliver to talk to him, but I was pulled in and I’ve been unable to get away.’
Emma nodded to this, and thought for a second. ‘What does he want with Oliver…? It’s not about the rooms changing is it? I know he can struggle with change sometimes.’
‘No, not at all! He didn’t mention that at all, actually. But I don’t think I can tell you what we talked about, I think he’d have me exiled.’
The two giggled and shoved the remaining rattling bunk into the corner, standing back to assess their work. ‘All we need now is the mattresses. Come with me, I’ll find Adam to help me move the mattresses, and we can also find Oliver for you and Ray.’

The two made their way down the hallway and knocked on every door, checking on how everyone else was progressing while checking for their persons of interest. Emma found Adam quickly, in the fourth room helping some of the younger members move bunks back; she gave him the instruction to go wait for her in the dining hall once they’d finished with the bunks. Shortly after, in the sixth room, they found Oliver. This group- comprised of Oliver, Alicia, Gillian, and Chris- were finishing up their mopping stage, and it was Gillian who noticed them first.
‘Hello! Did you guys finish your room? Find anything fun while cleaning?’
‘We didn’t find anything interesting, just old clothes, which could do with fixing up,’ Gillian got a twinkle in her eye, ‘We actually came to find Oliver, Gilda needs to talk to him.’ Oliver looked taken back by this statement. Though everyone got on fine, there was still a lack of blending happening between the two families. It wasn’t very often one of the Grace Field kids needed one of the Goldy Pond kids, or vice versa.
‘I can be with you in about… fifteen minutes?’
Gillian hit him in the side with the handle of her mop, ‘Don’t be silly. It’s not like we’ve got anything difficult to do, go talk to her.’
‘Someone different to talk to besides Mister Lucas!’ said Alicia, grinning up at him. Emma and Gilda forgot just how little of a filter their siblings could have sometimes, though Oliver seemed more offended at Gillian’s comment, and he didn’t argue. He propped his mop against the wall, and stepped outside with Gilda. Emma gave them a keen thumbs up then left them to go wait for Adam in the dining hall.
‘Alright then, what’s this about?’ His arms were folded.
‘Ray sent me to get you. He needs your advice on something, he tried me first but I told him you’d be the best person to ask.’
Again, Oliver was perplexed. ‘O-kay,’ he hesitated, ‘I don’t know what I can help with that someone else can’t, so consider me intrigued.’
Gilda smiled at him appreciatively, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him towards the dining hall.