Eric was nibbling on a fig newton bar when Jackie suddenly came barging in, followed by the soft-spoken JJ. The human yelped and fumbled to not drop his lunch, while Chase pitched an empty wrapper.

"Hey! What happened to knocking?" He protested. JJ brought up a loose fist and politely knocked on the cavern wall. "... Thanks." Eric let out a little titter and hid his face with the fruit bar.

"Chase, this is no time for caviling!" Jackie insisted. "We came here because we wanted to make sure the little duder was okay. He's been hiding in here for the past three days, and you keep postponing having supper with us! Is he sick? Is he trying to lose weight? Is he vegan? Is he—?"

"Whooaa, Jackie— Jackie!" Chase subtly shifted his leg in front of Eric, as if to shield him from the barrage of questions. "Slow down bro! He's okay. He's not sick, and he isn't a vegan." Eric seemed to take an interest in the floor as he continued to anxiously nibble.

"[Avoiding Stockholm Syndrome?]" JJ prompted. Chase shook his head, and the mute shrugged cluelessly as he scratched his head.

"Then what?" Jackie pleaded. "Little duder, if ye don't like us then you can just say so! We're just worried about ya." Eric shriveled, hunching under the superhero's distressed stare. He licked the crumbs from his fingers and awkwardly set the wrapper aside, wincing when Chase spoke up.

"Of course he likes you! He doesn't hate us, he just... He isn't up to talking to a bunch of us at once. He's still gettin' used to us." The young human found himself nodding as he kept his gaze averted.

"Well... Yeah, okay." Jackie's shoulders relaxed as he sighed in admission. "But ya can't just hog him, Chase, we wanna get to know him too!" Chase smiled thinly.

"He will when he wants to. I don't wanna force him into anything." Relieved, Eric turned away from the conversation and resumed eating from the small stash that they had "borrowed" from storage. The three giants chatted together a little bit longer before saying goodbye and leaving them be.

Above him, Chase let out a big sigh and propped his chin on his arm. "I'm sorry, little dude," he apologized. Eric turned sharply toward him.

"F-for-for what?" He held a packet of fruit snacks in his wringing hands, eyes widened with concern.

"Well... I mean I kinda just spoke for you, and I should have let you speak for yourself."

"O-oh..." Eric shrugged and meekly popped a grape-flavored gummy in his mouth. "I-It's-it's fine, I'm-I'm used to it." Chase frowned.

"Used to it?" He echoed.

"Y-yeah, my-my dad does everything for me..." Eric trailed off and quietly corrected, "D-did."

"... Oh." The giant fell quiet for a few seconds. "... My-my dad was nothin' like that," he mentioned tersely. "I mean... He didn't really give a shit what I cared about. Just 'do this' and 'be that', th-the usual BS..." Eric cast a sidelong glance to his side, but he didn't look up.

"I-I-I mean, it-it was f-for the-for the best," he stammered, "He-he did e-everything right, and-and I-I-I always m-messed everything up." Chase's frown carved deeper with an unreadable emotion darkening his eyes.

"... Hey." He put his hand next to the human, wincing sympathetically when the little guy jolted in surprise. "You do not mess everything up. Screwing up once in a while is perfectly fine— it's those mistakes that let us grow and become better people— but letting your dad push you around and make all of the choices for you isn't gonna help you. It'll only make it worse. No one should make important decisions about you without your consent, and even then it should be in the interest of your well-being, of who you are and who you want to be." His eyes narrowed as a slight scowl crossed his lips. "And if someone tries to tell you who you want to be or who you should be, then fuck them. Be your own person, not somebody else's."

"... I-including-including M-Marvin?" Eric asked quietly. Chase softened and closed his eyes, letting out a deep sigh.

"That... That's a little bit different. Yeah, it's not fair to keep you here, but... he's just doing it just to make sure we stay safe."

"Safe?" Eric scrunched his face up, thinking. "But-but you-you're-you're g-giants, how-how could I- how could I p-possibly—?"

"I dunno, little dude." Chase slumped over Eric, chest giving out another quiet sigh. "But if the government or something found out about us, I'm pretty sure that would tear us apart from everything we know... We just have to stay hidden... We have to...."Eric blinked in his shadow and looked up at his overhanging thorax. It immediately reminded him just how small he was in comparison: sure, his legs were grand black walls that folded around him with deliberate attention, his arms massive pale pillars and his hands well-capable of leaving craters in the cold ground... Yet Eric found it strange. He didn't feel the same anxiety that he did around his dad— at least, not as severely— and he felt... Well, he wasn't quite sure what he felt. His muscles weren't so tense and jittery, and he didn't stammer as often as he had before. It had only been what, a week?, since he'd come here, and yet that same warmth that had drawn him to Chase had begun to embed itself in his chest. Around the others, he still felt awkward and timid, afraid he'd say the wrong thing and mess it up, but here and now he felt better. He was still afraid of "screwing up", but Chase was so much more forgiving than anybody Eric had ever met.

But guilt seeped back into his heart as he remembered why the other giants hadn't seen him in a few days, and why Chase was now spending all of his time with him instead of his brothers. And he didn't even know his name. Ashamed, Eric looked down and set the fruit snacks aside, his apetite gone.

"You done eating?" Chase asked, his interjecting tone more chipper. Eric nodded, keeping his head down as he bunched his arms together against his chest, his hands together on the cold stone floor. The giant's fingers caringly picked away the empty wrappers and set them aside. "You alright?" He queried. Eric sat there for a few seconds, and then he finally brought himself to look up into his looming and kind face. But he couldn't bring himself to look the giant straight in the eye. He felt horrible. Chase's expression flickered in alarm when he noticed the watery film gathering in Eric's eyes.

"I-I'm-I'm so s-sorry," the youth whimpered piteously.

"Sorry?" Chase moved back to adjust his seating position, laying on his side so he could get a better look at the small human. "Sorry for what?" He tilted his head, his hat almost coming off as he bade Eric for an answer. Eric opened his mouth, but no words came out as he instead began to shudder and grizzle nonsense. He quickly sought refuge in his foulard, bringing it up to his face as he hid behind it and burst into tears, leaving Chase to stare with a startled expression. He quickly recovered, and concern washed over him as he reached over and put his hand behind the trembling human.

"It's alright little dude, it's gonna be okay... just like before, alright? Just let it out... breathe in... And out... In... And out..." Eric sobbed into the handkerchief, twitching with bawls that only rose in volume at Chase's voice. Chase frowned, and then he sat up and scooted closer. Eric visibly panicked as the giant's hand curled around him, but his feet didn't leave the floor. He was gently held in place, enveloped by those forbearing digits that now wrapped around him like a hug. Eric hesitated, and then he quickly wiggled his arms out of the way before putting his face down against the warm skin. The yellow hanky hung over the top finger, but it was now ignored as Eric instead weeped into Chase's hand.

The heat felt really nice. Like if all of his brothers were hugging him at once. And their dogs... Now Eric's fingers ached to gently rake through soft fur, or some kind of akin stress relief. He settled for the next best thing and traced the swirls in Chase's hand, and he was relieved that the giant said nothing. His tears slowed as he enforced the nervous tic, following the fingerprints down to the very tips. He put his hand on the smooth surface of the index finger's nail, feeling along the smooth ridges before coming back up to the proximal phalanx.

He let out a soft sniffle and closed his eyes; his arms curled around the giant's top digit, shyly embracing the finger and pulling it against his chest. Still Chase did not deny him, keeping quiet as he watched the youth cling to his hand: he couldn't help but smile softly, Eric already seemed to be calming down and even enjoying the awkward hand-hug. The tears had stopped when Eric smiled lightly, basking in the soothing body heat, but then it dropped as his eyes suddenly snapped open, seeming to have cone to a realization.

"O-oh, oh, I-I'm-I'm so-I'm so sorry, I-I—" He tried to stammer out an apology, but Chase shook his head with that reassuring smile.

"Hey, don't sweat it little dude." He lifted his thumb over Eric's head and smoothed the stray hairs that stuck up. Eric relaxed under the comforting strokes, wavering a little in apprehension as he practically melted. Chase's brow upturned: As far as he could tell, Eric was so afraid of being reprimanded for the simplest of things, and yet he seemed so deprived of touch. As he watched the little man rub away the drying tears that still stained his cheeks, Chase felt his heart throb with empathy.

He shifted his fingers down and gingerly scooped up Eric's legs, earning a small squeak as a brief spasm overtook the startled passenger. Eric kept his arms around the bro's index finger as he tucked his legs around the smallest one, blinking up at Chase with wide innocent eyes as he was lifted up to the same level as the giant's deltoids. He didn't get the chance to even stutter out a question before a gray wall rapidly approached, and the next thing Eric knew he was being gently smothered against Chase's chest. At first, he'd tensed, but then he slowly relaxed and buried his face in the giant's sternum.

Chase let out a quiet sigh of relief, not taking his eyes off the small form curled up behind his fingers. "... I'm not being a bad h̷̶͢o̕̕st, am I?" He murmured under his breath. Hell, it was like having the kids all over again; was it okay for E͘R̸̴R̷̵̀O̶͜R̴͞ to like one thing more than the other? Was this okay to eat? How could he get E͘R̸̴R̷̵̀O̶͜R̴͞ to get all of his vitamins in? Would doing this and that make him a bad role model?

Apparently Stacy thought so.

With a heavy sigh, Chase closed his eyes, his fingers curling that extra millimeter for protective comfort. Eric wasn't his kid, but by golly if he wasn't going to keep an eye out for the boy then so help him—!

"Er... E-Eric." Chase's eyes snapped open. For a second there, he thought he'd hallucinated something, but then he noticed Eric staring shyly up at him.

"... What?" Eric's shoulders slightly bunched as he timidly fidgeted.

"M-my-my name, it's-it's Eric D-Derekson.." Chase stared down at the meek young man. There was a nervous light glimmering behind those large crooked glasses, but also something else, something that instilled in Chase Brody the same emotion: hope; a yearning to be accepted, to be himself.

A desire to belong.

A huge, warm smile overcame Chase. "It's nice to meet you, Eric."