Author Note: So I was looking on this website today and I realized that there are no TedxCherish fics. So Baxter54132 and I decided to change that. I drew the title from something Ted says in one of the chapters focusing on this pair. Also, I have no idea what kind of currency the mamodo world uses, so I just ended up using dollars. Rated T for safety.
Disclaimer: I own nothing
As the sun rose over the hill, the sound of birds chirping filled the air. A slight breeze blew a few leaves off of the single tree in the area. The rising light shined upon a moderately sized wood building, casting a long shadow behind it. Of the houses sixteen inhabitants, only two were awake.
They sat in one of the two rooms the building contained, at the end of an enormous wood table. On the table sat a pile of rectangular food stuffs, stacked neatly in a pyramid. Cherish met Ted's gaze over the pile.
"It's sunrise." Cherish stated the obvious, rising from her three legged stool and brushing off her skirt. "I have to go to work; do you need my help waking the kids?" She smiled softly as she asked, speaking quietly and glancing at the curtain separating the rooms.
"I can handle it." Ted couldn't help but smile as well. He stood up and gestured at the food on the table. "You should eat something first though."
Cherish shook her head once, "I'm not hungry." She weaved her way around the table and stools, trying to reach the door. Ted cut her off before she could get there.
He reached towards her arm, placing one hand around her wrist. "Are you sure?" Their height difference became increasingly relevant since Ted was forced to look up at least a whole foot and a half to meet her gaze. She flinched, almost imperceptibly, when his hand closed around her wrist, jerking backwards out of his grasp. A shadow cast across her face.
"See you later." She hurried out the door, escaping before Ted could stop her.
As she shut the door behind her, Ted watched with worried blue eyes. Ever since Cherish got this job she had grown so distant. She spent practically all of her time working and none of it with the kids. Or with him, not that he would ever say that though. The look on her face just now froze in his mind, that sudden flash of pain. It haunted him as he brushed past the curtain to wake the kids.
All fourteen children were between eight and four years old, and they slept in a huge pile every night. Ted and Cherish slept with them, though they took care to be up every morning before the group.
Ted grinned as he watched them sleep, and took a deep breath in. "Wake up everybody!" He shouted, "It's time for breakfast!"
One of the boys leaped up, "Breakfast!" he shouted. Another kid rolled their eyes at him, and the group slowly untangled as they pulled themselves apart. They flooded into the other room, all sitting around the table. Ted followed behind, grinning broadly. He waded to the other side of the room, grabbing one of the rectangular food stuffs and holding it up.
"Guess what?" He waved it around, "We got wheat squares!"
"Awesome!" One of the kids shouted, and the others quickly joined in. Ted passed the rectangles around, and each kid got one. Once each kid had one, he was surprised to find that there was only one left. When Cherish had cut up the wheat squares, she had only cut it into fifteen pieces instead of sixteen. Ted scowled at the door, but adjusted his expression when he noticed the kids watching.
"So what are we gonna do today guys?" Ted asked enthusiastically, and the kids reacted likewise.
"Build something!" "Go exploring!" "Dig a hole!" "Play a game!" Many of them spluttered crumbs onto the table as they shouted.
Ted smiled at the kids, forcing his worries to the back of his mind. They needed him to be strong.
Cherish hustled down the warn path, tugging her sleeve farther down her arm. Hopefully Ted hadn't noticed her near slip up. She didn't glance back at the house as it vanished from sight. Ted would only worry unnecessarily if he knew.
Town was about a mile and a half from the house, and Cherish covered the ground silently. A few birds chirped in the trees, marking the edges of the path. As she neared the town, these trees grew sparse. The path became a paved road, leading through a group of wood buildings.
Cherish's target was a two story wooden building with a large fence around the back. The front was unlabeled and undecorated with only one door leading in from the street. She opened it slowly, glancing around with an air of caution. Seeing nobody, she sighed in relief. The boss must have been outside already.
She ventured through the empty room, passing a stack of boxes and a table with some bottles on it. Another door in the back was already open, and it led out into the fenced area. As Cherish emerged from the building, the boss looked over at her from the back with a sneer planted firmly on his face.
At nearly seven feet tall, he towered over Cherish. On his arms lower arms he wore black bands covered in small metal spikes. The boss lumbered towards her with narrowed eyes and clenched fists. "About time you got here!" He snarled. "Get to work!"
"Yes sir." Cherish looked around briefly, before walking over to the left. There was a huge stack of wood planks, and her job was to cut them into equal sized planks. After cutting them, she built boxes for them and taped them up to sell. Her saw leaned against the stack, and she hefted it slowly. It sat heavily in her hand.
Cherish quickly got to work, cutting plank after plank into even three foot boards. The sun passed overhead, making its way across the sky. Only once it started setting, casting a pink glow across the area, did Cherish put the saw back down. She wiped one hand across her forehead, pleased with her pile of planks. As she went back into the building, she hoped the boss would feel the same.
He sat at the table, one of the bottles in hand. A candle flickered on the table, casting a few feet of ambient light. His cheeks were flushed and he leaned on the back two legs of his chair recklessly. The boss raised the bottle with one hand when he saw her, a lurid grin on his face.
"Cheers." He took a deep swig, glaring at the bottle when he realized it was empty. Cherish walked over to the table with light steps, keeping her hands by her side.
"I just finished for the day." She asserted slowly, waiting just out of reach for his reaction.
"Really?" His eyes glinted in the shadows. "Did you pass your quota?" He set the legs of his chair flat, and it scraped the ground as he pushed it back to stand up.
"I reached it." Cherish shifted her feet slightly, "and I passed it by 50."
"By 50, huh." The boss slurred, coming within a foot of Cherish. She didn't move as his face morphed into rage. He raised one fist and smashed it across her face, knocking her to the ground. Her hat flew across the room. "Tomorrow it better be 200." He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and dropped in on the ground in front of her, "It's pay day, though I don't think you earned it." His face morphed, changing into an evil like smirk, "Have you considered my offer? There are ways you could make a lot more money, and from this angle…" His voice trailed off and his eyes glinted.
Cherish snapped her head up, her glare boring straight into his soul. "Never." She asserted firmly. "I will never be that desperate."
The boss kicked her in the side once before staggering away to puke his guts out.
Cherish clenched her fists as he went, forcing herself not to react. Damn him! She cursed in her head, if only there was something she could do. But there wasn't, her boss was the only person in town who would hire 'one of those orphan brats' to do anything, and she couldn't risk losing this job. She restrained the urge to rub her left cheek as she picked up the envelope and opened it gingerly. 30 dollars sat inside, enough money to feed her family of orphans for just a little while longer.
As Cherish picked herself up off the ground, she gathered her hat and dusted it off. She placed it back on her head and tucked the money into her skirt pocket. She emerged onto the street, noting that the sun had barely moved during her encounter.
By the time she made it back to her house, the sun was completely gone, leaving a crescent moon in its place. It was late enough in the evening that the kids should already be sleeping. Or at least, that's what she hoped. If they saw the dark bruise on her cheek they might ask some questions she wasn't prepared to answer. It was quite a bit more conspicuous than any of her injuries had been before.
From the outside, the house was quiet. Cherish poked her head around the lean-to they called a door, frowning when she saw one resident still awake. He sat in near darkness, only illuminated by the moonlight creeping in through the cracks. From where he sat, he could only see the outline of Cherish as she entered their home.
"You should be sleeping Ted." She scolded him half-heartedly. She closed the door and collapsed onto the same stool she occupied that morning.
"I was waiting for you." His eyes flashed in the sifted moonlight. "How was work?"
"It went well," Cherish pulled the money out of her pocket, handing it over to Ted. "You should put that in the jar, we are going to need to buy some supplies soon."
"Alright, I will put it there before bed." Ted suddenly jumped off of his stool, grinning broadly. "The kids found something for you today." He walked away from the table, rummaging in a bag near one of the walls. "They wanted to stay up to give it to you when you got back, but when the sun started to set I put them to bed." He found what he was looking for and held it behind his back as he approached Cherish. Once he was at her side, he pulled it out with a flourish. It was a moderately sized red apple, perfectly ripe for eating.
"Wow." Cherish almost didn't want to touch it. "But these are practically out of season, how did you find one?"
"Well," Ted plopped down on the stool next to her, smiling enthusiastically. "Timmy spotted it in one of the nearby trees, and all of the kids worked together to get it down. And I know you didn't eat any.." His grin faded and his voice trailed off as she picked up the apple, turning her head away from him to examine it closely. "What happened to your face?" His voice dropped a few tones, his right fist clenched until the knuckles turned white.
"Hmm?" Cherish raised an eyebrow at him, "Nothing happened. I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't lie to me!" Ted stood back up, his fists shaking slightly. "I've been in my fair share of fights and I know how a face looks after somebody's punched it."
Cherish rose off her stool as well, placing one hand on Ted's shaking shoulder. "Nothing happened." She forced herself to smile. "I think it is a little late for you to still be up, why don't you go to bed and I will join you after I eat this."
"Fine." Ted looked away with a huff, stalking into the other room. Cherish watched him go with a small smile. He was more perceptive than she gave him credit for.
When the next morning came, the sun rose like it always did. Cherish and Ted woke up before the rest of the kids like they had the day before. She left before waking the others, also like the day before.
But not everything was the same. In the early morning light, Ted could easily discern the purple mark on her cheek. She pretended like it wasn't there, but it obviously was. After Cherish left, he went to the other room. He carefully woke up Eric, the third oldest in the group. He also was the most sensible of all the younger kids.
Eric followed Ted into the other room, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "What's going on?" he yawned, holding one small hand over his mouth.
"I need you to look after everybody for a few hours." Ted clenched his right fist, "There is something I need to do."
Eric's eyes narrowed, "I can manage, but only if what you're doing will get back at whoever hurt Cherish." Ted raised one eyebrow, and the young boy flushed slightly. "I was eavesdropping, and I woke up early this morning to see for myself." His eyes darkened, leaving an expression that didn't match his young age.
Ted shook his head slightly, placing one hand on the boys head. "Don't worry about it." He smirked, "I'm gonna make that bastard pay!"
Eric nodded somberly, "Then I think I can handle everybody for a few hours."
"Thanks a bunch." Ted released him, walking over to the door. "Breakfast is already on the table, I should be back in a few hours."
"Okay."
Ted slipped outside; setting off down the path he Cherish had walked only a half hour before. He walked at a quick pace, a pit of anger simmering inside his stomach. The closer he got to town, the higher it boiled.
By the time he reached the building where Cherish worked, he was ready to smash it into tiny pieces. But he forced himself to take a deep breath and think about the situation rationally. He was making a lot of assumptions, and before he broke anything he would need some proof. He knew Cherish worked in the back, so he decided to climb up onto the roof to see if she was back there.
The corners of the building had bricks sticking out that made near perfect hand holds, so he scaled the building quickly. Once he reached the top, he crawled across to the other side. He carefully peeked over the edge, looking out into the fenced area.
Cherish was over to the left, using a saw to cut planks of wood. She had her back to the building, so she probably didn't see him. Her boss was on the other side of the clearing, holding a clip board and a pen. Ted scowled down at them. He didn't see anything astray, but that could change.
He didn't have to wait long.
The boss scribbled something down on his clipboard before staggering towards Cherish. He said something to her, gesturing with one arm, but Ted couldn't hear him from so far away. Cherish put down her saw to turn and face her boss, and Ted pushed his head lower to avoid being seen.
He nearly gave up on not being spotted when the boss grabbed Cherish by her upper arm and practically threw her into the pile of planks. Ted barely restrained himself from jumping off the roof right then, but the edge of it did suffer. He left two hand sized rivets along the side of the roof.
Ted's whole body shook as he watched the boss sneer at Cherish before hobbling to his building. Once he was out of sight, Cherish brushed off her shirt and resumed working. Ted stared slack jawed at her failure to react; he suspected this, but never actually believed it was true.
He crawled back across the roof, climbing down the same way he got up. He went over to the entrance to the building, not bothering to knock on the door. It hit the inside wall with a bang as he punched it open.
The boss sat at a table on the right side of the room, a bottle in hand. He was unfazed by the small boy barging in, raising his bottle genially. Ted stalked across the room, both fists raised, but he halted when the boss spoke.
"You don't want to do that kid." The older man smirked, "I don't think you understand the situation."
"I understand perfectly." Ted grabbed the boss by his collar, causing him to drop the bottle. It shattered on impact with the floor, spread dangerous shards of glass within a few foot radius.
"Really." The boss stood up, forcing Ted to release him and stagger back a few feet. "Then tell me this. What'll happen after you fight me?" Suddenly, the boss didn't seem quite so drunk.
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Ted regained his balance and squared his feet, ready to attack this huge man. After he beat him, then he wouldn't be able to hurt Cherish ever again. She would be protected. But, he forced himself to look at the other side; she also wouldn't have a job anymore. Nobody within thirty miles would hire Ted or Cherish. That would also mean no source of income to feed the kids, and that just couldn't happen.
They couldn't afford to go back to starvation.
Ted forced himself to lower his fists, his whole form trembling. He just felt so useless. The only thing he knew was fighting, and it would only make the situation worse. He spun around and took a few shaky steps away.
"Once I'm old enough and get a job." Ted glared at the boss over his shoulder, an invisible flame burning around him. "I will kill you."
The boss rummaged in a bag, pulling out another bottle of alcohol. "Cheers."
Ted stormed out the front door, not bothering to close it behind him. Once he was outside, a nearby tree received the brunt of his wrath.
It tumbled to the ground in splinters.
End Note: So I ended up making my villain really genre savvy. Though I don't know it that's a good thing or not.
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