Colfax Meets Sawyer (And Is Not Enthused) Part 1/3

Colfax didn’t know what was going on, but his calling as a scientist practically demanded he find out. At first, he hadn’t paid it any mind when he noticed that Charlie went down the same road after his classes every day, without wavering. Everyone had their routines, after all. But Adrian mentioned the petite British student’s apartment complex at one point.

It definitely wasn’t in that direction. Charlie had to be up to something. Colfax wasn’t about to leave a question like that unpursued.

After some trial and error and only one or two precise questions, Colfax deduced that Charlie was heading up into the hills at the edge of town for some reason. Colfax tried to ignore it. He’d solved most of his wondering, and really he didn’t care if Charlie liked to go hiking.

But somehow that didn’t last. Colfax was too curious to let it be. There were rumors about those hills. Every single one came from dubious sources (drunk fraternity brothers rather loved embellishing), but so many of them made Colfax pause and wonder anyway.

He waited for a day that he knew Charlie had classes until well into the afternoon. He made his way along the same route, planning to snoop around a little himself. In the end, the likelihood was high that Charlie was just going on walks. In that case, Colfax might be able to see something interesting for his own classes while he was out.

With all the bases covered (he’d told Adrian he might text him later about studying together), Colfax made his way towards the hills. The paths were easy to find. Lots of people went jogging around there, putting the fresh air among the trees to good use.

Colfax didn’t care about the scenery, though he did notice signs here and there of small animal nests and made mental notes of them. He’d have to come back out this way again to try to observe those animals’ habits.

A lot of time passed before he even realized it. The solitude offered by the area was an unexpected and very pleasant surprise. Colfax wasn’t even convinced he was on a proper path anymore, but that didn’t really matter. He trekked on, looking around and appreciating Charlie’s choice to come out here every day. If Colfax had the time, he’d be out here a lot, too.

Sawyer lay on his back in his clearing, gazing up at the clouds and making shapes out of them. It was a nice day; it was finally getting warmer, and a lot of the birds were coming back from their migration. Of course, some of them were new and didn’t seem to like him all that much, but the other ones were still chill and didn’t give him away when he picked his way through the trees on his walks. The deer, as usual, were quite friendly. They liked Sawyer because he kept away predators like wolves, or so Charlie said. Sawyer just thought they were fun to play around with.

In fact, when he first heard rustling coming down the small path, Sawyer thought it was a deer. He perked up, sitting up and leaning his head that direction. The noise was coming from the small footpath that branched off of the main one, the same path that Charlie usually took. The more he listened, too, the more Sawyer thought it probably was Charlie. It was too faint a shuffling to be a herd of deer, and they hardly ever wandered around on their own. A smile broke across the giant’s face and, as quietly as he could (which was astoundingly quiet given his size, though he had years of practice behind him) Sawyer crept through the trees. They rustled ever so slightly as he made his way through them, shuffling in a sort of half-crouch so that he could be completely concealed.

It only took him a few moments to get to where the sound was coming from. Sawyer’s brown eyes grew wide as they saw that it wasn’t Charlie, or a deer either. It was a different human. Sawyer hadn’t ever seen any humans this deep into the forest besides Charlie and the occasional drunk frat bro. This human looked completely sober. Sawyer cocked his head slightly to the side and watched the small man as he made his way down the path, wondering what he was doing there.

Colfax noticed nothing out of the ordinary about the hiking path. He was beginning to think he really had read too much into things. Charlie just really enjoyed taking his walks in the fresh air out here, away from it all. Colfax pursed his lips, almost disappointed that he may well have wasted his time out here. At least the weather was nice and the temperature was pleasant. He glanced up as the canopy above was rustled by a gentle breeze. Everything was very quiet and serene.

At least he'd found a good place to come to do his field studies when it came time to conduct them for some of his classes. He didn't want to be stuck with the other biology students all checking out the same field near one of the class buildings. They might try to actually discuss things with him and he simply didn't have the tolerance for that.

Colfax paused when something caught his eye. It hadn't rained terribly recently, so the ground was pretty dry. In some mud shaded by a hardy but bedraggled plant, there was a very odd track. Colfax raised an eyebrow and squatted down to look closer at it, reaching out to push the leaves aside.

Sawyer watched the human with a smile, completely enamored. His experience with the smaller people was decidedly limited, and it was fun to watch somebody in broad daylight who wasn’t Charlie (whose movements and mannerisms he’d already memorized over the years). The tiny man looked so intent on something. Sawyer was immeasurably curious about what he was doing out here, and what he was looking for on the ground. Of course, he couldn’t see it very well. The giant shifted, moving forward and trying to get a better glimpse, and in doing so brushed up against a tree a little too hard with one of his shoulders. It cracked loudly and he winced, instinctively curling up a little and causing a great deal more rustling while doing so. He quickly looked back to the mysterious human, wondering if he’d scared him off.

Colfax looked up in surprise, barely avoiding tipping himself over from the jolt. He stood hastily, looking in the direction of all the noise. He didn't know what could have caused it, except that it had to be big. An animal that could attack him, or...

What.

Colfax stared in mostly-concealed shock at what appeared to be a giant staring down at him from the trees not far off. At least, certainly not far off compared to the giant. He searched his brain for a logical explanation for what he was seeing, but what unnerved Colfax the most was that there wasn't one. Giants simply weren't supposed to exist, yet here he was looking at one. And it clearly saw him, too.

Colfax didn't know what to do, and that was unsettling. He always knew what to do. He frowned cautiously. So far nothing had happened, and he wondered if he could keep it that way. He slowly inched backwards, refusing to take his eyes off the giant.

When their eyes met Sawyer sucked in a breath. He hadn’t meant to be seen; he’d mostly been focusing on the human’s quick scramble upright, knowing he’d startled the poor thing and feeling a bit bad about it (and about thinking it was pretty adorable, really). Sawyer’s brain starting going fast as seconds passed, trying to figure out what to do. He wasn’t supposed to be seen by anybody. Charlie was very adamant about that, and often warned Sawyer about how dangerous it could be. Sawyer’s small friend only tolerated his interactions with the drunk fraternity members because they were, well, drunk. They wouldn’t think anything of it the next morning. This human, however, was thoroughly sober… and slowly backing away.

Sawyer kept eye contact with the human, noticing that he was frowning. Sawyer could only guess what was going through his head- but he was about to find out. Moving quickly, and knowing after years of starling Charlie that the human wouldn’t expect it, Sawyer sprung up to sit up straight and snatched up the human in both his hands. Sawyer stood fully, glancing around to make sure there weren’t any more. His heart was beating fast, both from uncertainty about what he was doing and excitement. It wasn’t often at all that he got to talk to a different human, much less a sober one during the day. He was sure that it was going to be a lot of fun. Probably. If the human liked him. Sawyer hoped he wasn’t too scared, but really, the giant had no other choice. He had to figure out what to do, and Charlie wouldn’t be back for a while yet. Until then Sawyer had to deal with the problem on his own.

With this in mind Sawyer picked his way carefully through the trees back to his clearing, making sure not to injure any more of them on accident. Back at his usual spot Sawyer sat down near the rock outcropping. Sitting cross-legged he peered down curiously and opened his hands, eager to see the human up close. They were always so cute.

Colfax was not prepared for any of it. The light bursting in on his small space made him cringe for a moment before he let himself comprehend what had happened. He'd been carried off by the giant. He was in a pair of enormous hands. He probably wouldn't even be able to stand on their surface, curved as they were around him.

He still had butterflies in his stomach from the feeling of gravity tugging down on him. He'd been snatched up so fast he couldn't even yell out in surprise. The giant made easy work of stealing him off the ground and walking off with him.

Colfax was in very little control, and he didn't like it one bit. He scrambled to at least sit up, his back pressed against fingers that nearly matched his body length. After a deep breath and a few seconds staring wide eyed up at the face above him, he managed to close his eyes, modify his expression, and reopen them to give the giant a flat glare. It was better than showing his concern, regardless of what might happen next.

The wide-eyed look was adorable, but as it flattened out into a low glare Sawyer chuckled. Charlie made the same expressions whenever Sawyer surprised him, and now that they were coming from this new human Sawyer took that as a good sign. The dark-haired human must not be afraid of him. “Oh, don’t look at me like that,” Sawyer teased, ruffling the human’s hair with a nearby thumb and grinning down at him. “You were the one wandering all the way into my part of the woods. What were you doing there, anyways?” Sawyer looked down at the human with open curiosity, still intrigued by what he had been investigating on the ground. Besides, it was too odd of an occurrence to let go; and really, he wasn’t letting go of the human anytime soon. Not now that he’d been decidedly seen.

Colfax tried to duck indignantly away from the thumb, seething at the feeling and also glad he hadn't wrenched his neck. He huffed, though his heart was still hammering in his chest. He knew nothing about giants, save that they weren't supposed to be real. He needed to get out of there before something bad happened.

To that end, he ignored the questions and pushed himself back on the giant hands before finally tearing his gaze away from the face in front of him. He peered over the edge, wondering if he'd be able to make a jump safely enough to make a run for it.

Sawyer watched with open curiosity as the human moved around in his hands, wondering why he hadn’t spoken up yet. Maybe he was just shy. “I’m Sawyer, by the way,” Sawyer chatted, hoping that if anything he could get a name out of the little guy in return. He looked on as the human peered over the edge of his hands, wondering if he was going to jump. Charlie never did, but sometimes the frat bros liked to jump off for fun. Sawyer was good at catching them. Maybe this human wanted to play along like that too.

Colfax replied without really thinking, still looking over the side of the hands. "Colfax." The name was easily dropped, considering it was often the only thing he ended up saying to some people. He wasn't one for conversation, after all, though he did pause to think it was very strange that he'd just introduced himself to a giant. Stress caused some weird things, he supposed.

Since the giant was just looking curiously at him, Colfax saw few other options. He got his feet under himself and pushed himself over the side, thinking he might be able to roll in the grass on a slight incline. It would absorb the impact and give him a chance to run, maybe taking the giant by surprise.

Sawyer’s eyes only widened slightly at the action, though he’d really seen it coming. The telltale signs in the human’s movement had given him away, and given Sawyer more than enough time to shift one hand slightly so that it could dart out and catch him before he hit the ground. The human fell fast and Sawyer ended up snatching Colfax by the legs, holding him as securely as he could without hurting him. With the human swinging gently upside down now Sawyer raised him up to eye level and beamed at him. “You’re fast!” he complimented him. “It’s good I’m fast too or you would have hit the ground. That would probably have hurt.”

Colfax was in shock for a moment or two. Of all the things he might have expected, hanging upside down by his legs was not one of them. His arms hung loose until he lifted them to keep them closer to his center, and he looked up at the hand that held his legs secure. Remarkably, the only remotely painful thing about the giant catching him like that was his sudden stop; he wasn't being crushed at all despite how massive the hand was.

His heart fluttered in fear as he thought about how insecure he felt, dangling like that over a decent drop. Even sitting down, Sawyer's eye level was too high to be safe. Colfax didn't even squirm, for fear of actually dropping that far and landing right on his head. "Let me go, now!" he demanded after some indignant sputtering.

Needless to say the sputtering was adorable, and Sawyer’s smile didn’t falter in the least. He did, however, look between Colfax and the ground with an almost bemused expression. It wasn’t very far for him, but he would bet it seemed like a lot more to the human. “I don’t think you’d want me to let you go,” Sawyer pointed out helpfully. Still, he could see Colfax’s face turning red from being held upside down, and lowered him carefully so that he was cupped in two hands again. It wouldn’t do for Sawyer’s newest small friend to get a headache, even if they were just playing. “There,” he said happily. “Now if you keep jumping off you gotta do it slower, okay? That way I can catch you better.” If he kept trying to do it by surprise he might actually hit the ground, and that would ruin the point of the game.

Colfax frowned and pushed himself up again, correcting the heap he'd landed in when the giant released his legs. He still had his back pressed into the huge fingers and he was still trying to calm his frantic heart, but he was glaring at the smiling face above him. At least he appeared to have ruled out some of the fairy tale warnings about giants eating people. Instead, it almost seemed like Sawyer was playing with him. "I don't want to be caught, I just want to go," he snapped.

Sawyer’s face fell at the angry retort. Obviously they weren’t playing anymore; in fact, Colfax seemed really unhappy… with Sawyer. The giant wasn’t entirely sure what he’d done wrong but he felt bad about it anyways. He’d never really had somebody be this angry at him before. He didn’t particularly like the feeling. “But, um,” Sawyer protested quietly. “You can’t go. At least not yet! You saw me and, and we just started talking…” The giant trailed of uncertainly, looking down at the human in his hands with a pleading expression. Their friendship wasn’t off to a good start, apparently, and Sawyer really wanted to fix it.