Prompts: I love your bby purple and big Black stories. Two ideas. 1. Another Impostor comes onto the ship and Black puts them in their place of what will *not* happen. 2. Purple asks Black to play a game and it’s either hide and seek or tag - anon
okay- idea for the child purple and parent black (among us au) !
so what if imposters had like, hatching seasons where the lil baby imposters hatch, and that means the adults are SUPER protective of the little ones because predators see the babies as easy prey. even tho black isn’t anywhere near any other imposters, since they’ve pretty much adopted purple this means that they’re RLY protective of the lil human. putting them in a nest, keeping an eye on them constantly, purring.
maybe this makes black more doting and sweet than they usually are, so when purple accidentally trips or gets some kind of scrape, black is like “BABY? BABY OKAY? LITTLE HUMAN BABY SAFE???? HELLO????????”
just a suggestion, you don’t have to write anything, but it would be awesome if you did!!
Read on Ao3
Warnings: implied/reference child abuse
Pairings: none, gen
Word Count: 4922
When it came to taking over human ships, there were rules that you learned. Don’t kill crew members too quickly, don’t self-report unless you’re sure you can get away with it, and for the love of Polus, don’t get attached.
Well, none of those rules had a little human stowaway in mind when they were drawn up, now, did they?
‘Don’t get attached’ flew right out of the airlock, in case you haven’t been paying attention. But since Black had technically taken over the Skeld by the time they found Purple, well, they could pass it off as the rules no longer applying. Often times it would be expected for one human to be left alive on the ship anyway, just as an insurance policy. It wouldn’t be abnormal for ships to dock on Polus with a crewmate in tow.
At least, that’s what Black tells themselves as they get closer and closer to Polus.
Purple, meanwhile, is entirely oblivious to the teeny existential and parental crisis Black is having, sitting in the copilot’s seat toying with a balled-up sock. They’d found it underneath the bunks and now couldn’t be separated from it. Black’s senses appreciate the fact that they’d managed to persuade Purple to let them wash it before giving it back to them.
“Black?”
“Yes?”
“What’re you looking at?”
Black blinks. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare at you. I kinda zoned out for a moment.”
Purple shakes their head, twisting the sock back and forth in their lap. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No, no, baby, I promise. I just spaced out.” Black stretches out a tendril and offers it to them to squeeze. “See?”
Purple wraps their little hand around it and gives it a squeeze. The warmth ripples up Black’s arm and their maw purrs. Purple giggles and goes back to bouncing the sock across their lap. Out of the corner of their eyes, Black watches them moving it up and down, back and forth. Sometimes they stop, making it face them with their hands, then moving it up and down again.
Black has seen holos of human children before. Caught in the brief moments before bunk doors close or placed on the desks of workstations, sometimes even introduced over a call that flickers as the ship moves in and out of signal ranges. They’ve never seen a human that looks quite as small as Purple, even the newborns, but they’ve seen this movement before. Moving an object back and forth, up and down, their head tilting this way and that as they watch.
Purple is playing.
Another rush of warmth makes their hold over their maw slip, opening and closing contentedly as a little furrow of concentration appears between Purple’s brows. They look like a child now, caught in the world of their own imagination, some far-off world where the sock is…whatever they want it to be.
Nowhere in the rules for taking over human ships did it include how to care for a human child.
Is it the same as their own children? The…nutritional requirements are different, for sure, but…stimulation? Education? Amount of exercise? Surely just flying through the cold darkness of space is as boring to a human child as it is to one of theirs. For fuck’s sake, there’s a reason they put new Impostors with seasoned ones when they’re first starting out just so they don’t try and take apart the reactors out of sheer boredom.
An image of tiny Purple in front of a reactor going into meltdown flashes across Black’s mind and they stifle a shudder.
“Black?”
“Yes, baby?”
“Where are we going?”
Ah. “…we’re going toward Polus.”
“What’s Polus?”
“It’s a planet out the outskirts of Known Space,” Black says, bringing up the map, “see? There it is.”
Purple leans closer, clutching the sock to their chest and squinting at the display. “That’s really far away.”
Far away from where, from the ship? From where we started? Or from where you’re from? “Is it?”
Purple nods. “Why’re we going there?”
Black takes a deep breath. “That’s where I live.”
Purple looks up at them. “Y-you?”
“Yeah, baby, I live there. That’s where I grew up.”
“With the others like you?”
“Yes. We…we fly ships there a lot.”
Purple looks out the window. The sock falls into their lap. “Are you bringing me too?”
“Would you like to go?”
“…I’ve never been on a planet before.”
That gives Black pause. Never been on any planet? “Where did you grow up, then?”
Purple’s shoulders hunch. They begin to toy with the edge of their shirt. Black quickly flicks out another tendril.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, baby.”
Purple just squeezes.
“Polus isn’t like a lot of other planets,” they say instead, trying to change the subject, “it’s got a different atmosphere.”
They look up at Black. “What’s an atmosphere?”
“An atmosphere is a layer of air and gas that surrounds a planet. It’s the reason you don’t need to wear a spacesuit while you’re on the surface.”
“It’s what you breathe?”
“Yes, baby, that’s exactly right.”
“How can what we breathe be different?”
“Well, humans need oxygen to breathe. It’s a special type of air that’s found in your atmosphere.”
“Is that what the oxygen room is for?”
“Yes, exactly.” Black presses one of the buttons to bring up the O2 display. “See? This makes oxygen so you don’t need to wear your suits inside the ship.”
Purple looks at the display, then at Black. They slowly reach out a hand and press their fingers lightly to the side of Black’s suit. “But you’re wearing a suit.”
“I’m not human, baby.”
Purple’s eyes widen. “But you said you could breathe!”
“I can, baby, see?” Their maw opens and they shake their head a few times to turn into their human head, taking several deep breaths with both. “I can breathe oxygen just like you.”
“So why is the atmo—atoms—“
“Atmosphere.”
“Why is the atmosphere different?”
Black sighs, making Purple giggle as they slide out of the copilot’s chair. Black opens their arms and helps Purple crawl into their lap. “Honestly, baby, there is someone who could explain why different planets form different atmospheres but it is not me.”
“Okay.” Purple snuggles into their chest, the sock in one hand, a fistful of the tendril in the other. Black wraps an arm around their waist and steadies the controls with the other.
They fly in silence for a while.
“…Black?”
“Mm?”
Purple stiffens a little in their arms. “Will…will I have to wear a suit when we get to Polus?”
A familiar stench of fear begins to fill the room and Black shifts, letting the rest of the suit go and bringing Purple up to look at their human face. “No, baby, you won’t. The places we’re going will have hair for you to breathe.”
“So I don’t have to wear a suit?”
“No, baby, you don’t.”
Purple’s little fingers wrap around the collar of Black’s shirt and Black lets out a small hum.
“Can you tell me,” they start softly, “why the suits scare you?”
“I don’t like the helmets.”
“Okay, you don’t like the helmets. Would it be better if I kept it off?” Black raises Purple’s hand to lie against their cheek. “So you could see this face?”
They smile as Purple starts to gently run their fingers over their skin.
“Yeah?”
“…mhm.” Purple leans down and wraps their arms around Black’s shoulders. “I wanna know that you can breathe.”
Black frowns, shifting Purple back a little so they can look at them. “What do you mean, so that I can breathe?”
Little hands squeeze the fabric of their shirt. “Inside the helmets there’s no air.”
“No air?”
Purple nods. “The…the suits don’t have air. You have to put air in them.”
“Yes, I guess that’s true, but why…why doesn’t the helmet have air?”
Purple’s fingers twitch. “People notice when you put air into them.”
The fear spikes and Black just nods, letting them wrap their arms around them again and bury their nose in the crook of their neck. They keep their breathing audible, letting their maw nibble gently at Purple’s shirt. Their hand rubs up and down, up and down.
People notice when you put air into them…has Purple been wearing inactive suits?
Most suits activated their oxygen automatically once the helmets were engaged. You had to attach your oxygen pack before putting on the suit or have someone else do it for you. And once you put your helmet on, the air cycled through the system.
Either the suit didn’t have an oxygen pack attached, or…
People notice when you put air into them.
Before they can think too much about it and risk frightening Purple anymore, Black takes another deep breath and turns to rest their cheek against the top of Purple’s head. “You won’t have to wear a helmet or a suit when we get to Polus, baby, I promise.”
“What will we do?”
That’s a great fucking question. “We’ll probably dock at the main station, then they’ll look over the ship to make sure it isn’t damaged in a bad way, then we’ll go get looked at by the medical staff.”
“M-medical staff?”
“Yes, baby, they’ll want to make sure we’re not hurt or—hey, hey,” Black soothes, purring and giving Purple a reassuring squeeze when they suddenly cling to Black tighter, “shh, baby, what’s all this?”
“You’re not human, what if they find out? What if they take you away? What if—“
“Shh, easy, baby, they’ll know.”
“They—they will?”
Black takes a deep breath, in part to help Purple calm down, in part to steel their own nerves. “Polus is where I’m from, remember? They’re…like me.”
Purple still, then pulls back to look at them. “L-like you?”
“Yes, baby.”
“So…there’re no humans?”
“Only a few, and you won’t have to see them except the doctor who looks at you.” Black reaches out and cups Purple’s face. “You’ll be okay, Purple, I won’t let anybody take you.”
“I get to stay with you too, right?”
“Yes, Purple. You can stay with me as long as you want.”
Is it a risky promise to make? Yes. Is it a stupid promise to make? Also yes?
Would Black take it back?
As Purple settles into their arms, rubbing their cheek against their shoulder and mumbling something about being home, not on your fucking life.
“But we’ve still got a while before we get there,” Black murmurs, “since it’s pretty far away. So you don’t have to worry about it just yet.”
“That’s okay, I’m good at waiting.”
I’m sure you are, and I’m sure you don’t know how devastating that is.
A soft squeak comes from the little one in their arms and they look down to see Purple yawn so wide they almost look like they have a little maw. Black chuckles and ruffles their hair.
“You tired, baby?”
“Mmno,” Purple mumbles, snuggling back into their arms, “‘m fine.”
“Oh, come on, baby,” Black sighs, picking the child up in their arms and walking toward the crew quarters, “let’s tuck you in.”
“No, I’m fine, I can stay awake! I can—ah—“
Black walks through the opening doors as Purple yawns again. “I know you can, baby, but why don’t you sleep instead? I’ll stay with you.”
“You will?”
They lay the precious little thing down in the middle of the nest of blankets, gently running a finger down their cheek. “Yeah, you want me to stay?”
Purple blinks drowsily up at them and reaches, making little grabby hands as Black tugs the blankets into place. They smile and shake their head like a dog to make Purple giggle as they shift fully into the human disguise.
“Come on, baby,” they coax, “lie down, I’ll be right here. Let me finish and I’ll come join you.”
Purple relaxes into the pillows as Black adjusts the blankets. Impostor Nests aren’t replicable by human materials, but they’ve tried to make do. Mattresses laid side by side, blankets tucked together and built up to create the sides, pillows added for support. They remember crawling into it and their maw grumbling at how poor the quality was, improper nest, won’t do, can’t take care of baby, only for Purple to latch onto them and cry.
They remember pulling back, heart in their throat, a million apologies and reassurances waiting on the tip of their tongue only for Purple to babble out something.
“S-so safe,” they’d managed, breaking Black’s heart and mending it in the same breath, “s-safe now!”
“Oh, baby, of course, I’ll always keep you safe, just stay with me.”
Little Purple had fallen asleep in record time and Black had refused to take the nest apart for more than the time needed to wash the blankets. Even now, as sleep tugs at Purple, they stay doggedly awake until Black lies beside them, opening their arms and pulling them close.
Their maw purrs, nibbling gently at Purple’s shirt as they drift to sleep. I will show them, baby, I’ll show them you’re mine and no one’s gonna lay a hand on you on my watch.
“What do you want to do?”
“Huh?”
“I’m sure just flying through space can be a bit boring. Is there something you want to do?”
A slight breath from over their shoulder but nothing comes with it.
“You can tell me,” Black coaxes, “I want to know.”
“…will you play with me?”
“Play with you?”
Purple buries their face in Black’s shoulder. “Never mind, it’s stupid.”
“It’s not stupid, baby, I can play with you.”
Purple pulls back, staring at Black with wide eyes. “R-really?”
“Yeah, baby, if that’s what you want, I’ll play.” They smile and tuck a strand of hair behind Purple’s ear. “What do you want to play?”
A red flush rises to Purple’s cheeks. “Um…”
It’s a bittersweetness that fills Black’s maw when they realize poor Purple doesn’t know what to play.
“I’ve, um,” they mumble after a moment, “I’ve heard about a game.”
“Yeah? What’s it called?”
“Hide and seek.”
“How do you play?”
“I, um…” Purple toys with the hem of their shirt. “I think it’s where someone hides and someone else tries to find them? I haven’t—I think I’ve played it before.”
…I’m sure you have, Purple, but not necessarily in the way it’s meant to be played. Black nods. “So do you want to hide and I’ll come find you? Or do you want me to hide and then come find me?”
“Can I come find you?”
“Sure.” Black picks them up and sets them carefully in the captain’s chair. “You gotta give me a bit of a head start, okay? Then come and find me.”
“I’ll count to thirty.”
“Sounds good.” Black kneels down in front of the chair. “And baby, if you get scared and you need to find me, call for me, okay? I’ll come get you.”
Purple nods, setting the sock down. “I will.”
“Okay. You wanna start counting?”
“One…two…three…four…”
Black stands up and walks out of Navigation. They turn through the cafeteria and walk into Admin, sitting down under the far side of the table and waiting. After a pause, they hear footsteps coming from outside.
Come find me, baby, I’m right here.
The footsteps pause, then slowly venture into Admin. Black holds their breath as little feet come around the table and a face peeks under the lip.
“I found you!”
“You did!” Black opens their arms and Purple gives them a hug. “Good job. Do you want me to hide again?”
“I think we’re supposed to take turns.”
“Okay. So I count and then find you?”
“Mhm.” Purple twists their hands. “Are—is that okay?”
“Yeah, Purple, that’s fine.”
“And you have to play by the rules too. Which means if you get scared you have to call for me and I’ll come out.”
Oh, you precious thing. “Okay, Purple, I promise.”
“Okay. Are you going to count?”
Black holds their hands over their eyes and begins to count. They hear Purple’s footsteps hurry out of the room and patiently wait until they’ve counted to thirty to stand up and leave.
As soon as they cross the threshold into Storage, they catch sight of one of the boxes. They probably should have realized they have an unfair advantage in that they can smell Purple, but they’ll be a good sport.
“Now,” they say, mostly to themselves and to the box, “if I were an adorable little child, where would I hide?”
The box starts to giggle and Black can’t help the smile that spreads over their face.
“Hmm, I don’t think I’d hide near the garbage chute,” they say, walking over and tapping it, “it smells really bad.”
The giggle gets louder.
“Would I hide with the fuel? No, I’m not fuel, I don’t go in the engines,” they continue, walking back toward the boxes.
They have to bite their lip to keep from laughing as they reach the giggling box.
“Is this box…giggling?” The giggles get louder. “It is! I don’t remember boxes that giggle, that must mean…”
They carefully lift the lid off and reveal Purple grinning up at them. They gasp, holding their hand over their mouth.
“There you are!”
“You found me!”
“I found you, now come on out of there, how’d you even fit in there?” Purple holds out their arms and Black scoops them up. “Gotcha.”
“Now your turn!”
“Alright baby, you gonna count for me?”
“One…two…three…”
In order to keep things fair, Black sticks to hiding in pretty obvious places. There aren’t a lot of areas big enough to conceal their bulk so Purple finds them pretty quickly once they get to the right room. And maybe Black’s okay with letting them know that if they ever do need to find them, it won’t be hard.
Purple, on the other hand…
Purple is very good at hiding. Part of Black worries that the game will be a little too triggering for them to properly enjoy it, and occasionally they find themselves cheating by smelling out where they are when they start to get worried. But Purple also giggles whenever Black talks about where they could be which is perfectly acceptable. They find them in the cafeteria tucked behind a few chairs, in Weapons beneath the console, and under the desk in Security.
“You’re really good at finding me,” Purple had murmured as Black tugged them gently into their arms from the space behind the engine.
“I’m an Impostor, baby, I can smell you.”
“You can…” Purple’s eyes had widened. “What do I smell like?”
“C’mere.” Black gathers the little one close and leans down to sniff their hair. “You smell a little like the power in Electrical, kind of sweet and sharp, and earthy.”
“Earthy?”
“Mhm. Like rainwater.” They move to let Purple bury their nose in the crook of their neck, doing the same. “And you smell like the spices we knocked over in the kitchen.”
Purple twitches and giggles. Black chuckles, only for them to wriggle a little more.
“And now you smell like giggles.”
“Can we keep playing?”
“Sure, baby.”
They stop for food when Purple’s rumbling tummy gives them away before the giggles can, ending up in the cafeteria while Black goes to check and make sure they’re still on course. They confirm the heading and go to return to the Cafeteria when one of the consoles beeps.
“Skeld, come in, Skeld, come in.”
Black glances over their shoulder and bites back a curse. They press the button. “Skeld here, go ahead.”
“Request ID.”
“Black, ID 783920.”
“Oh, thank fuck,” the voice says over the end of the line, “the punk humans on the ship I was trying to take over rigged it to blow. I’m the only survivor, mind if I tag along back to Polus?”
Another Impostor.
Another Impostor on this ship.
Another Impostor near Purple.
Fuck.
“Hello? Skeld, you still there?”
“That was reckless,” Black bites out, “giving away the information like that.”
“Give me some credit, I scanned your ship, you’re the only registering life sign.”
So Purple doesn’t show up on the scans. Too small? “Are you trackable at all?”
“The escape pod has some beacon, but I’ve disabled it long-range for now. C’mon, it’s cold out here, can’t I just come on?”
“Request ID.”
“Seriously?”
“It’ll need to be logged anyway.”
“Fine. Cyan, ID 121139.”
“Stand by.”
“What? Seriously, I—“
The hail shuts off with a click as Black strides back toward the cafeteria. Purple looks up, a cookie still clutched in their hands as Black comes closer and drops to kneel next to them.
“Hey, baby, I have a question for you.”
Purple nods, taking another bite.
“There’s an escape pod with another one of me in it asking to be let on board,” they say as gently as they can, “so we can help them get back to Polus.”
Purple swallows, their eyes wide. “Another one of…you? Not a human.”
“Not a human, baby.”
“…we should help them, right?”
Black bites back a curse. “We can, yes, but…not all of my kind…like humans.”
Purple seems to shrink a little at that, curling in on themselves. “I don’t like humans either.”
Believe me, I don’t like your humans one bit. “I won’t let them hurt you, baby, but if you don’t want them on the ship, we don’t have to.”
“But—but then they’ll die, right?”
“No, baby, this is a well-traveled route. Their pod has a beacon, another ship will find them.”
Purple stares at them. “That’s not true.”
Black blinks. “What?”
“You don’t know that another ship will come,” Purple says in a low voice that sounds far too old for them, “you don’t.”
“I…” Black swallows. “That’s right, you’re right, I don’t.”
Purple glances out of the windows. “We should help them.”
Black rises slowly, standing with the weight of the ship on their shoulders. They take one breath, two breaths, three breaths.
“You,” they say quietly, “are a credit to your species, and they do not deserve you.”
Purple doesn’t hear them so they call their name gently. “Yeah?”
“They’re going to come in through the airlock,” Black says, “and I will tell them not to hurt you. If you don’t want to meet them, you don’t have to.”
“C-can I meet them?”
“If you want, baby. Why don’t you go wait in the bunks?” Easiest defendable location. No vents. One way in and one way out. “Then I can bring them to you if you want.”
Purple nods, reaching out to give Black a quick and surprisingly fierce hug before going toward the bunks. Black takes a deep breath and goes back to Navigation.
“Pod, come in.”
“Pod here, damn, what took you so long?”
“Bring around the port side, we’ll retrieve you there.”
“About time.”
Black squares their shoulders and the helmet forms. Their boots thump on the steel floor and they hope Purple is safe in their room, snuggled under the covers, like any child should be when monsters roam the halls.
The craft docks. A figure in a light blue suit crawls out of it. Black pushes the door open and they saunter out, giving Black a lazy two-fingered salute.
“Thanks for the pickup,” they say, leaning against the way, “damn bastards got the drop on me. But they’re all dead, so that’s what matters.”
“Are you alone?”
“Of course I’m alone, you seen how small those things are?” Cyan jerks a thumb over their shoulder. “They already nixed my partner, so I hadda take ‘em all out.”
Ah. A two-man crew. “Who was your partner?”
Something in Cyan sobers. “White. A good one. Loyal ‘till the end.”
They turn to say something when suddenly they stop. The black empty plate of their helmet points down the hallway.
“…you aren’t alone,” they almost purr, turning back to look at Black, “are you?”
When Black doesn’t respond right away, they laugh and it sends a chill up Black’s spine.
“You got yourself a pet? Can I see them? It’s been so long since I’ve had a human to play with.”
In a split second, Black has them pinned to the wall by their throat.
Cyan splutters and gasps, another laugh spilling out of them to echo mercilessly off the steel walls. “Ooh, possessive, I like that. C’mon, I promise I won’t break them too m—“
Black slams their head into the wall.
“Damn,” they wheeze, “okay, okay, I’ll be nice, d—“
Their grip tightens and Cyan is finally quiet. Black tilts their head, taking advantage of their height and stepping closer.
“The human on board this ship,” they say in a dangerously even voice, “is under my protection.”
Cyan’s fingers try and fail to pry Black’s hand from their throat. “Don’t—tell—me you’ve gone—soft.”
“You are welcome to test that assumption at your earliest convenience.”
Black’s maw itches to devour them, wants to dare them to try something, all but waters with it, but they keep the suit in place and wait for Cyan to realize their weak struggling won’t get them anywhere.
“Okay—okay,” they gasp out eventually, “I won’t touch them.”
“Good.” Black lets them go, watching them grab for their throat, collapsing against the wall and taking a few wheezing breaths. They look up, still rubbing.
“You’d kill one of your own,” they manage, “for a human?”
Black stares them down. “As I said. Test that assumption at your earliest convenience.”
Cyan staggers up slowly, one hand on the wall to brace themselves, and freezes.
Black follows their gaze and their heart stops.
Purple peers around the end of the hallway and Cyan is looking directly at them.
“Run,” Black thunders, kicking Cyan back against the wall as Purple turns tail and flees, getting ready to—
Cyan lets themselves get slammed into the wall and holds up their hands. “You didn’t say it was a kid!”
Black pauses, hand on their knife, the other pinning Cyan against the bulkhead. Cyan looks back at them, panting, hands still raised.
“I didn’t know it was a kid,” they say again, the note of manic glee gone from their voice, “I won’t hurt a kid. I swear.”
Black lowers them slowly, watching as they keep their hands where they are until their feet touch the floor.
“I swear,” they repeat one more time, “if—I didn’t know it was a kid. Was it—did one of the crew…?”
Black shakes their head. “Stowaway.”
Cyan curses. “And no family looking for them?”
Black stays quiet.
“Okay, okay, I’ll—fine.” Cyan glances back. “Can I…see them?”
At Black’s wordless glare, they raise their hands again. “If they want, they will come and say hello.”
They don’t need to say anything else to know that Cyan will stay right there, instead looking around for Purple. The fear lingers in the hallway outside of Electrical and they carefully make their way inside, getting rid of the helmet and calling softly.
“It’s alright, now, Purple, it’s just me. They’re not here with me, they won’t hurt you, just come out and let me have a look at you, okay?”
Soft scuttling and then Purple’s frightened face peeks out. Black coos, settling onto the floor and holding their arms out.
“You did so good at hiding, baby,” they murmur as they cuddle Purple to their chest, “you did so good, are you okay? I’m so sorry they scared you so badly, it’s alright, they won’t hurt you, I promise.”
“P-promise?”
“I promise, baby.” Black presses a kiss to their forehead and lets their maw rumble protectively. “I promise.”
There’s a little yawn stifled against their shoulder and they scoop them up, beginning to walk back to the bunks. Purple dozes in their arms as they go, completely asleep by the time Black tucks them into bed.
Cyan watches from their spot in the hallway, quiet until Black closes the door. “They’re so…small.”
“Yes,” Black mutters, “they are.”
Cyan looks up at them. “What…what happened?”
“I don’t know.”
Cyan’s hands turn into fists. “When we find out, can I kill them?”
“Get in line.”