I'm terribly sorry that this is not the next chapter of Beast Queen, but that one is giving me great difficulties, and I wanted to give you something on BQ's anniversary, so here is a little peek into Theron's mind during chapters 22 and 23!
(And I know I promised Robin or William first, but this one just flowed for me, so it got finished first ^^" I promise that at least one of the other two will be up soon; I have already started working on them.)
Beware that this is un-betaed and barely even proofread; it was late in the night for me when I finished and uploaded it.
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize from ½ Prince is not mine; it's Yu Wo's.
First Clarity:
Theron
I ran a hand through my hair and sighed as I stood before the way-too-pretentious mahogany doors inscribed with the family crest.
Seriously, she is his wife. What could possibly be so hard about handing her a couple of papers?
I let out a imperceptible groan as I let the hand fall from the top of my head and dragged it down my face.
Never mind, stupid question.
I knew very well what the problem was. They might think that they were being subtle about it, but the truth was that just about the whole household knew. I would not even have asked myself the question if not for the fact that this little detour cut down on my Kitten-time. That tended to make me a bit irritable even in the best of circumstances, and considering the fact that it had been so long since the last time I been able to properly meet her (that is, stay and talk, tickle and tease her, and not just say hi, hug her and then leave again) and that I had been stuck in those infernal meetings, surrounded by squabbling, insignificant, pathetic idiots with an incredibly inflated sense of self-importance for the past month, well...
I admitted to myself that I might be a bit unreasonable.
That minor piece of self-reflection done with, I resolved to just get it over with. Dawdling outside the doors would not exactly get me to my Kitten faster, even if it would keep me away from mother, who had had a very unpredictable temper lately.
Straightening out from my slouch – mother was ever one for appearances, and if it would keep her off my back for long enough that I would be able to slink out of her office, then I would gladly ignore my stiff and tired body for a while – I strode forward and pushed the doors open.
"Mother! Father asked me to..." I trailed off as I took in the empty room. Shrugging, I made my way over to her desk and borrowed a post-it and a pen before sitting down on her ridiculously uncomfortable throne-like chair-thing. I had always wondered how she could stand spending hours in the thing. Twirling the pen, I contemplated what to write.
I will admit to wanting to get back at her for getting Tigris injured. And for making Rizza cry (no matter how insufferable she could be, she was still my sister and nobody was allowed to make her cry, damn it), as well as the usual shit going on between her and Father, I suppose. Not that she knew that I was aware of any of this, but point was that no-one touches my Kitten and gets away with it. Not even her mother.
"Hmmm... well, I won't be here when she reads it anyway. Might as well go all out," I mused. Thinking out loud was a bad habit of mine that I blamed on my adorable Kitten. She was so silent all the time – though especially in the beginning, only answering direct questions as succinctly as possible and never taking an initiative – that I had gotten used to filling out silences with my thoughts in the hopes of provoking some sort of reaction from her. Luckily, it only showed when I was with her or completely alone, otherwise it would have turned into a problem. Smiling wryly to myself, I put my mind back to my task.
"Let's see..." Putting the pen to the note, I dictated the message out loud to myself so that it would get the right amount of insolence; that is, enough to drive mummy dearest up a wall but too little to have her direct her anger at anyone other than me. "'Hiya! These are the notes from the meetings you have been too snooty and lazy to attend. Dad, being the awesome person he is, took them for you despite how hard it was to sort out the semi-useful stuff from the worthless shit. The things family do for each other, huh? Not that you'd know. Strange, that. One could almost think you didn't have a heart or something. Which is ridiculous, because you clearly still have a pulse. Oh, well.' ...damn, I'm out of room. Umm... I guess a 'Ta!' will do to round it up?" Nodding, I jotted it down and squeezed my name into the remaining space with a flourish before leaning back and reading through the note. "Too much, perhaps? Hmm..." Tilting my head and squinting at the paper, I pulled it away from the other notes.
"Nah, it'll work if I put some grammatical and spelling errors in there to pull her attention a bit," I decided and started transferring the text to a new note, this time sprinkling it with errors. "There! That should do it." Putting the note on the wad of papers I had brought with me, I tucked my draft into my pocket before haphazardly throwing down the wad of notes onto the table.
Mother had never liked disorderly things.
My work done, I made my way to Tigris' basement, doing my best to keep my speed to normal levels. When I got there, though (narrowly avoiding a collision with a maid carrying a pile of cloth on my way), my Kitten was nowhere to be seen, and if she had waited a single moment longer in coming down the stairs, I would probably have done or thought something really stupid.
Well, stupider, I guess.
Let it be known that it is not a good idea to give a trained killer surprise bear hugs.
Even if the trained killer in question is your sister and can be thoroughly adorable at times.
Victor had always told me that my intelligence tended to be cut in half if I so much as thought about her, and I could never quite prove him wrong, since that would be denying the promise that I had made to myself on that day so very long ago.
Tigris would always come before everything else. No matter what.
If that meant that a fair part of my mental capacities were always devoted to keeping her as safe and happy as I could, then so be it.
Luckily for me, my Kitten is good at assessing situations very quickly. While tense and ready to retaliate when I swept her up, she quickly relaxed when I laughed and welcomed her back.
"Kitten! There you are! I've missed you!"
I had. I really had. I could never fully relax, fully focus, if I could not be entirely certain that she was okay, that she was safe. I could only do that when I was with her. My joy was halted in its tracks when she replied, though.
"Brother."
Her voice was flat; monotone. Lifeless. I felt dread and panic, horror, fear, anger, rage swell up from the pit of my stomach.
What did they do?! What did they do to her? She shouldn't be like this! They dare... they dared harm her. They dared harm her, when she stands under my protection?!
Realizing the dangerous path my thoughts were taking, I quickly reigned them in before they could proceed further. She was very sensitive to emotions. I could not afford to force her further in behind her walls right now.
Gently setting her feet back on the ground and loosening my embrace, I let my hands rest on her shoulders, unwilling to let her go entirely and hoping that my touch might help her break out of her shell. Scanning her for any injury, any irregularity that might have forced her into this state, I greeted her again, more subdued this time.
"Hey." I tried to smile, I really did. I knew that me smiling and goofing off usually helped her get back to normal; it is the whole reason as to why I do it, really. I was not naturally as happy-go-lucky as I was – or at least acted – around her.
I was just so afraid.
There are not many things which frighten me. That which would usually cause people to break down in terror, I tended to see as nothing but a challenge to overcome; something which was a very useful trait to have in this cut-throat, almost lawless place, but this was my sister.
My sweet, precious sister who had never done anything wrong, who only wanted to be held and loved and needed and whom the world, no, her own mother, had never been fair to.
I feared for her.
I feared she would one day loose sight of her emotions, of her will, and become nothing but the tool mother had tried to craft her into.
Every time she retreated into that shell, I feared for her. I knew that she only did it to protect herself, to protect her sanity against the horrors she was subjected to, but I could not help but feel like that emotionless state did more harm than good.
Knowing that I had to ask a question in order to get a response from her when she was like this, I tentatively asked;
"How are you feeling?"
I felt hope surge up when she delicately wrinkled her brow and cocked her head slightly to the right before uncertainly answering;
"Better?" That fragile hope did not last for long, however, because all emotion swiftly fell off her face after that. "Vincent Reyforth called me out to his lab and healed all damage acquired during, between and after the last two missions assigned to me, so I am fine."
It took everything I had to force a smile back on my face after that.
Two missions?! Wait, no, focus on the good. She is not injured anymore. She has been healed. That is good.
It got a bit easier to keep the smile in place.
"Good. I was worried for you, Tigris."
I still am. Why have you shut off your emotions? What happened to you, Kitten?
She replied as I tried to search her eyes for answers, hindered by the lifeless blue lenses covering up her natural warm amber.
"I apologize for worrying you."
I felt my throat constrict and pulled her into another embrace so that she would not see the tears in my eyes and so that I could assure myself that she was really, truly all right... or at least that she would be, once I found a way to break her out of her shell.
She should not have to apologize. It was not her fault. It was never her fault. I hated that she could not see that. She had not chosen the life she was leading; it had been forced upon her.
And I hated myself for being unable to do anything about it.
Or at least nothing that mattered.
Burying my nose into her soft hair, I fought past the lump in my throat to respond to her apology.
"You don't have to apologize to me, Tigris. I thought I already told you that."
I clenched my jaw, trying to bite back the tears, when her muffled and lifeless reply sounded from her resting place on my chest, sending soft vibrations through me.
"You did."
I forced a chuckle simply to keep from sobbing as I gave myself a mental slap. I had to pull myself together, or else I would be unable to help her.
Plastering a big grin onto my face, I ruffled her hair - thankfully let out of the ponytail she had probably had it in earlier if judging by the hair band sitting on her wrist – to fluff it up again from where I had flattened it.
"Great! Just checking! We can't have you forgetting stuff, now can we? You already seem old enough with all those white hairs of yours without us adding dementia to the list, don't you think?" It was nonsense, really. I was back to simply filling up the silence, hoping desperately that something I said in my ramblings would jolt her out of her current state.
Desperately searching for something more to say, I latched on to the card I could see by her bed. The Naming Day card I had written for her. Her present! Second Life. That might induce a reaction, especially if she had tried it out. I still wanted to kick myself for not coming up with the idea earlier. It wasn't the freedom she deserved, but it was something.
"Anyway, what did you think about the present? You did open it, right? Because I'll have you know that I won't take it back even if you didn't!"
Really, I know that she means well, but Tigris had a bad habit of not accepting presents. I humoured her, sometimes, simply to make her feel better, but this was the one present I would force on her, if need be. She needed that game. She needed to know what it was like to have freedom and friends. She needed to understand that this, what she had now, was not okay. That a human being should not live like this; imprisoned and used by her own family as if she were nothing more than a convenient beast.
My musings were interrupted when Tigris decided to collide with my chest, full-force.
"Oof... easy there, Tigris... I'm not as durable as-" I stopped myself as I noticed that she was trembling. "Hey, what's wrong?"
The weak laugh she gave me in response to that did in no way ease my worry, even if I was elated by the fact that I seemed to have broken through to her. That belief was reinforced when she gave a strangled;
"You used way too much tape, Theron."
I could not help it. I laughed.
She's back, she's back, she's back!
I threw my arms around her and hugged her tightly.
She is finally back. My sweet, sweet kitten.
I missed you.
The End!
I hope you liked it! I like Theron. He's an interesting and complicated character, and I hope I did him justice, but he may have turned out slightly different in print compared to how he appears in my head. Well, no matter. I can always poke about in this later on when I have had some sleep.
Oh, and don't worry about the "Victor" character mentioned. He'll be explained later on ^^
Anyway, if you'd drop a review on your way out, I'd be really, really happy!
