Carlos was not sure what to think when the son of Jafar walked into his orphanage, welding a can of condensed milk and a smirk on his handsome face. He had 52 kids, ages a month to 9 years, staying with him. The majority of them were under the age of six. Most people got offers to join either It was exhausting to work for that long, but Carlos couldn't see himself stopping. When Jay had walked in, Carlos was holding three babies, one in each arm and one resting on his lap, and was attempting to calm all three down. One was falling asleep, and the other two were close behind. Carlos was reasonably wary when he saw Jay walk in.
"Can I stay for a night?" he asked. He smirked a little at the sight of Carlos with the three children on his lap.
"Got payment?" Carlos whispered, praying that no one would wake up. Jay tossed the can of condensed milk onto the counter.
Carlos sighed, before carefully balancing the three children in his arms so no one would fall. "Take any room at the very top floor," Carlos said as he walked up the stairs. Jay followed, his smirk growing after every floor.
"Which one do you sleep in?" They had reached the room with the toddlers, and Carlos set all the children down before looking up.
"This one."
Jay frowned. "Do you not sleep on a bed?"
"Nope, don't need to. Plus, I need to be quick if someone wakes up, so a chain reaction doesn't start." Even with these precautions, Carlos barely conked out for an hour. He was beginning to think that he'd have a meltdown at some point. He'd already fainted a couple times, but the older children, luckily, were more than willing to give him some well deserved rest. And by the older kids, he meant Dizzy. She was the only one of his first seven babies who had stuck around. The rest joined Uma's pirate crew. He knew that Dizzy got an offer from Evie to join the VKs, but had refused and stayed with Carlos. That made Carlos so grateful, and so relieved. At least he got some help around, and at least someone was avoiding the gang wars that went on daily outside their walls.
Jay's frown deepened. "The rooms you can stay in are on the fifth floor," Carlos said, laying on the floor, his back against a wall, where he usually slept. "Frankly speaking, I don't know what you'll do in there, which is why you're so high up."
Jay snickered briefly, before laying next to Carlos, close enough that their legs were touching. "Mind if I stay here?"
Carlos cocked an eyebrow. "Sure," he muttered, too tired to care. "Just don't wake anyone."
The feeling of Jay's leg pressed up against his was the last thing Carlos felt before he fell into the darkness of oblivion.
oOo
The next day, Carlos woke up, by himself, to only half the children in the bed in front of him. He closed his eyes again, before realizing that half his kids were missing and bolting up, throwing a jacket on his shoulders and grabbing the girl that was just coming to. He had no idea what psychopath took his children, but he would get them back at any and all costs.
Carlos ran downstairs, only to find Jay sitting down the half of toddlers and babies that were missing on the floor, feeding them like he normally did in the morning. Dizzy was helping too, showing Jay what to and what to not feed the toddlers, and how mashed was mashed enough. The ones that needed to be bottle-fed were already bottle-fed, and were set on the playmat, which was just an old rug that didn't have too many holes in it.
"Carlos!" Dizzy said, running at him. She wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face into Carlos's shoulder. Carlos wrapped his free arm around Dizzy, looking around confusedly.
"Morning, Diz," he said, rubbing the bleariness out of his eyes. "What - ?"
"You looked like you needed the sleep more than I did," Jay said, walking over with a baby in each arm. "Thought I'd help you out."
"Thanks," Carlos said, beginning to rock the girl in his arms soothingly as she began whimpering. Jay offered him a bottle, which he took. As he fed her, he stared at Jay for a long time. Seemed like there was more to the son of Jafar than he had thought.
oOo
Carlos had been teetering into fainting territory for a while at that point. It had been over a month since he'd spoken to Jay, and within that month, someone had decided that dropping 14 three to five year olds was a good idea. Three to five year olds were the worst, in Carlos's opinion (not that he had a preference or played favorites). Three to five year olds were just at the age where they could somewhat get the concept that their parents abandoned them, but couldn't bring themselves to accept it. Carlos had to practically bar the doors and windows until they realized they weren't leaving.
In the midst of foiling escape attempts and soothing tears from babies, toddlers and small children, Carlos had gotten about a half hour of sleep within the month. Even Carlos knew that wasn't a good thing. Thank god Diego had started a band with his friends and couldn't spy on him as much, because Carlos feared that even he couldn't hide the exhaustion running through his veins.
When Jay walked in, he paused when he saw Carlos nearly in tears, trying to soothe the screaming of a four year old boy, who kept trying to claim that his Dad was coming back for him. Carlos hated to crush any kid's dreams, but there were six cans with that kid. Carlos knew what that meant. The sooner the kids could accept it, the better. Everyone else was asleep or nearly there, thank god.
When the boy finally wept himself into unconsciousness, Carlos nearly started weeping himself. He was about an hour away from his body forcing him to give out, and normally he'd sleep for a day, maybe more, before his body would decide that it was ready to do it all again. Carlos knew it wasn't healthy, but it was all he could do at that point. Carlos finally noticed him, turning to face him. "Can I help you?"
"Wow, De Vil," Jay said, noting the shadows under the boy's eyes. "You could carry groceries with those bags under your eyes."
"Haha," Carlos's voice sounded raspy, and dull, despite the sharp sarcasm in the sound.
"Seriously, De Vil, you look like you're about to keel over."
Carlos sighed. "That's normally how it goes," Carlos muttered.
"I don't get it."
Carlos looked up at him and sighed. "I can usually work non-stop for a couple weeks. But eventually, my body will force me to conk out for a day or so, and when I wake up, I have to do it all over again. Dizzy can normally handle everyone for a day, but I can't leave her alone for too long."
Jay frowned. "That can't be good."
"It's not," Carlos quipped back. "It's all I've got."
No one said anything for a long time. Finally, Carlos looked up. "You need a room?"
"Yeah," Jay answered, holding a can of corn this time. Carlos grabbed the can and tried to put it in one of the cupboards in the kitchen. Key word: tried. Because the minute he reached, he lost his balance, and would've toppled over if Jay hadn't rushed over and caught Carlos in his arms. There were black dots crowding his vision that refused to be blinked away.
"Jay," he mumbled through the fog that had settled around him. He was fighting to stay conscious at this point. "I'm-I'm," Carlos never got to finish the sentence because he fainted right in the middle of trying to say that he was about to fall asleep.
Jay picked up Carlos's unconscious body and set him on the couch. He, nor any of the other people, had realized exactly how hard Carlos worked to keep his livelihood afloat and the children he housed fed and protected. He knew for a fact that some of the pirates thought that Carlos had it easy. Yet, you never saw any of them working themselves to the bone the way Carlos obviously was.
Jay gently picked up the kid Carlos was soothing and put him into an empty room. When he passed the room full of babies, he could see one beginning to whimper, and wake up. Jay quickly scooped him up and tucked him under his arm before going to the living room. He contacted Mal and Evie, as well as the leaders of the pirates, Uma and Harry.
The orphanage was considered unofficial neutral ground, for no reason except that the not even they felt comfortable with hurting little children. They got the majority of their gang members from visiting the children there, though. Evie was fond of the only other girl who helped out here, Dizzy, but Dizzy had opted to help Carlos out at the orphanage instead of joining a gang. Carlos had showed them all years ago what would happen if anyone screwed with anyone under his protection. That applied to pretty much everyone under the age of seven and Dizzy.
Mal, Evie, Uma, Harry and Gil were all sitting in Carlos's living room, and all of them were staring at the unconscious boy on the couch with varying degrees of shock. Carlos, as it turned out, was a far better actor than any of them had ever fathomed. "We can't let De Vil keep doing this by himself," Jay announced, gently picking up Carlos's head and putting it on his lap. Carlos was clearly dead to the world.
"Agreed," Uma muttered, looking at the deep shadows under Carlos's eyes.
"We can make sure he has a certain amount of people that help him. We can help with night shifts and stuff," Evie listed, grabbing Mal's hand in hers and running her thumbs on Mal's knuckles.
"Food, water, supplies, he shouldn't have to work as hard as he does to get them," Harry muttered. "It's not like he uses them for himself."
They looked where Harry was looking, and sure enough, they could see Carlos's ribs poking out of his chest. How he hid any of that was beyond the rest of them.
"Is he asleep?" a timid voice called from a staircase. They all looked to see Dizzy Tremaine walking down the stairs, holding a boy and a girl in her right and left arms. Both kids were wide awake and playing with her pigtails. She made her way down the stairs, before she grabbed two bottles and filled them up. "He's been doing this forever. He works without sleeping for like a month, and then he basically falls unconscious for a day, sometimes more. Then he wakes up and does it all over again."
No one spoke. "Forever?" Gil asked softly.
Dizzy nodded quickly, before starting to feed the babies. "Are you going to try to help?"
Jay, who had started carding his fingers through Carlos's hair, looked at the boy before nodding determinedly. "Yeah," he said softly. "We are."
oOo
When Carlos came to, he noticed two things. One: he was in a bed, and two: he wasn't alone. A tanned arm was wrapped firmly around his waist, and a body was spooning him from behind. Carlos sighed, before trying to squirm out of their grasp. Almost instantly, their arms tightened, and a voice whispered in his ear, "Stay."
It was Jay. The memories suddenly came rushing back, and Carlos started struggling again. "Jay, let me go. I need to - "
"Take a damn break." The slightly harsh quality to his tone made Carlos pause. He turned to look at the son of Jafar, and while his expression was closed off, there was legitimate rage clouding his eyes. "Why didn't you tell anyone you needed help?"
Carlos cocked an eyebrow. "Who would I tell?"
The worst part was that Carlos was right. He wasn't part of any gang, and the only person he had to rely on was a girl that was seven years younger than him. Jay knew this now.
"You're taking a week off." At Carlos's enraged look, Jay felt his own eyes harden. "I'm serious. Dizzy said you only get like 24 hours of sleep in a month. Even we get more than that, and we're almost always in the middle of a gang war."
Carlos squeezed the bridge of his nose. He could feel a migraine coming. "Yeah, I know, but it's all I can do. I'm kind of stuck and on my own here."
Jay didn't answer. Then, he slowly hugged Carlos tighter. Carlos froze, not knowing how to react. "You're not alone anymore," Jay murmured into his ear. "It'll be better from now on."
For some reason, Carlos believed him.
oOo
Things were different. There was always food stocked in Carlos's shelves, and there were always at least six or so people present, three from the VKs and three pirates. Carlos especially liked it when people who used to live there were assigned to help him out. He hid it, but he missed them occasionally.
Carlos was able to clock in six hours a night, and was able to sleep in a bed. He didn't charge people for using the bedrooms on the fifth floor anymore. He didn't need to. The Vks and the pirates made sure his shelves were never empty, and that he had enough for himself and all the kids.
When Diego found out about Carlos's sleeping schedule, he dragged Carlos to the fifth floor and proceeded to yell as loud as his lungs could go, which was pretty loud. Carlos was trembling in fear by the time he was done. He also started stopping by more regularly, making sure that Carlos was actually taking care of himself.
Jay also became a regular part of Carlos's schedule. Carlos had no idea what the Arabian boy's intentions were, but he was grateful for the company, and the help, nevertheless. Jay was pretty good with the kids, and was pretty good at making sure Carlos ate. He slept at Hell Hall almost every day, his father either not knowing or not caring. Carlos suspected the latter.
Jay and Carlos weren't friends, per say. Carlos didn't think that friends did that much touching.
One night, when Carlos was up reading some book on mechanics, the door opened, and Jay slouched his way in. "What are you doing up?" Carlos asked, folding the top corner of the page he was reading and setting the book aside. Instead of answering, Jay flopped onto Carlos's bed, and spooned him from behind. Carlos froze, before relaxing into his embrace.
If that happened almost every night after, well, it was no one's business except for Carlos and Jay.