Official
by: Laura Boeff
"Cosmo?"
Cosmo looked up at Ace,
seeing the slight, worried frown in the older man's eyes, though his face
held nothing but a calm smile. Licking dry lips, Cosmo tried to smile back.
Tried. He didn't know why this was so hard. It was what he wanted. More
than anything these days.
But still....
Still... It meant giving
up who he had been. Legally.. Officially.. Symbolically. It meant shedding
the worst parts of his past. His father, his criminal dealings and...
His mother.
The one bright point in
his life. The one thing he didn't want to lose.
"Cosmo, you don't have to
do this, if you don't want to," Ace said softly, laying a comforting hand
on his shoulder. Cosmo looked up at him again, then back at the piece of
paper in his hand. They were currently at the Electro City hall of records.
At a small side shelf with an amazingly thick pile of papers before them.
Who would have ever thought it'd take this much paperwork just to change
a name?
To change his name.
"I... it's okay, Ace," Cosmo
managed at last. It had been his idea after all. He'd mentioned it, trying
to make it sound like a joke, that he wanted to make 'Cosmo' his legal
name. He had braced for Ace to laugh. To find the idea ludicrous, but he
hadn't. Cosmo had been a touch floored, as well as pleased, when Ace paused
thoughtfully. Then announced, simply, that it was a good idea if that was
what he wanted to do.
What he wanted. Ace was
the only person who cared about what he wanted. Cosmo hadn't been ready
for him accepting the idea. He was left a bit shaken when he realized that
Ace might really help him change his name. Now that Ace was his legal guardian,
he could. That was when the niggling thoughts of doubt had risen.
Not that he didn't want
to change his name. He did! Cosmo was cool sounding. But still... It was
scary, in a way he never would have expected. Becoming someone new. Almost..
okay, sappy as it sounded; reborn.
Reborn in his new world
with a real, possible future ahead of him. One that he would have never
imagined just over a year ago. A year ago he was trying to fit into a gang.
Trying to scrape together the semblance of an existence, and dealing with
the real day to day problems of just finding food to eat and keeping
himself safe. And now...
Now he had a home.
A room of his own and someone
watching out for him. Ace. Ace had made this all possible. Even to this
day, Cosmo still wasn't sure why the magician had gone so far out of his
way to take him in, but he was thankful. Very thankful, even if he couldn't
find the courage to tell his guardian that.
Pen still in hand, Cosmo
studied the last of the forms to be signed. Giving up his birth name. One,
quick stroke of the pen and it would all happen. His past. Not that he
cared much about it. Little of it was good, but still... His mother had
given him his name. He remembered it clearly, her explaining why she had
one day at the kitchen table and what it meant. How would she feel now
about him giving it up? Shedding it, like he wanted to shed the memories
of his life.
A strange warmth unfurled
in his chest. She would want him to. She would want him to be happy. Cosmo
looked up to Ace and this time the smile wasn't so forced. A life, a good
life was what his mother had always wanted for him, had tried to give him.
And if part of that life meant changing his name, then she would be for
it all the more.
Eyes wet, Cosmo's wrist
flicked across the paper, writing his birth name for the last time, in
the appropriate column. Even while the wet ink dried, he stared at it,
feeling the weight lift off his shoulders.
It was done.
Ace's hand came to
his arm and rested there comfortably, but Cosmo wasn't upset. No, just
the opposite, he was happy, and amazed that he really had done it. He really
had done it and now it was official. He had taken the step. One more step
in a new life.