A/N - Definitely Better will update every Saturday, with the 6th of August being its last update before my mini-hiatus

Coran, like most other people, was born at age zero. More specifically, they were born on a sweltering hot summer day in the country of Plegia. They remembered nothing of their birth of course. Most people don't.

The discovery of crawling occurred some time before they had achieved a full year of life, bringing them to strange new places, such as under the kitchen table. At age one they had begun attempts at common human speech, and were succeeding for the most part. When they reached the ripe young age of two, they could walk like a regular human being.

It was also the age of two when they begun hearing words that sounded terrible and nasty to their ear. After throwing a fit about not wanting to be a boy or a girl, their parents had turned on each other in a way they had never seen before. It was quite frightening. The same time next year, such conversations were commonplace. Coran discovered at some point that these 'conversations' were really called 'arguments' and a loving couple shouldn't shout at each other so much. They realized their parents must not love each other anymore.

Their mother left them alone with their father the day before their fourth birthday. They remembered it being awfully hot, as if the sun were trying to stop her from leaving them. But it was to no avail. The red-haired, dark skinned Plegian woman left them regardless of the sun's best efforts.

Coran received their first beating on their fourth birthday. They remembered their father coming home late at night. They had been reading a simple Lightning tome their mother had left with them before her departure when the door slammed open. Jumping slightly at the loud noise, they went to greet the man they called father, only to be met with a violent shove. They couldn't remember the rest. Only that there was a sharp pain in their head and they found themself unable to speak without stuttering for the rest of their days. They were sore for a week.

At age five, Coran stopped calling the man their father. They began to spend more and more time out of the house, exploring the town they lived in. Their favorite thing to do at that time was to sit in the plaza, either trying to read their mother's Lightning time or watching people pass by. So much of their time was spent in the plaza, in the bookstore, and helping out around town, that the residents came to expect their presence. One day the baker gave them a rather nice pastry he claimed to have baked just for them. The schoolteacher would let them sit in on lessons despite not being an actual student. Even the owner of the bookstore began to trust Coran enough to borrow books to read out in the plaza as long as they promised to return them to their rightful place on the shelves.

The man they used to call father became known as the local drunk. Coran found that they couldn't avoid him by staying away from home, so they could only pray to the gods that he wouldn't be in one of his fits of rage when he saw them. Time spent with him was either depressing or painful. Coran found themself resenting him. Of course their mother didn't stay with him. He was a mess. They wondered why she couldn't have taken them with her…

It was on Coran's sixth birthday that they felt a true interruption in the monotony of their daily life. The old man couldn't have been younger than seventy when they first met him. He was a traveller, dressed in heavy robes. A staff was strapped to his back, his bag full of books. Coran found themself drawn to him, like a tentative little bird hesitant to eat seeds scattered about a human's territory. His face, wrinkled and elderly, offered kindness and wisdom. Something about him gave Coran a sort of hope that they would get past the stage in their life they had reached. The daily schedule of avoiding their 'guardian' and following the behests of the townsfolk had gotten old, and they found solace only in the aging Lightning tome they could barely understand.

Coran abandoned their duties, following the strange traveller. His skin was pale, like Coran's own. The six year old had only ever seen such pale skin in their own body. Plegia was a country full of dark skinned people, and though they didn't say it to their face, Coran knew everyone thought they were unnatural. They couldn't even say what had happened during their development to make them so pale, and they didn't particularly like it. It seemed their skin burned if they stayed in the sun for too long, though other people seemed not to have the same issue. Certain people who lost family in a war seemed to resent them for having fair skin, though they couldn't guess the reason. They didn't know recent history, only ancient fairy tales and gossip.
At the end of the day, Coran discovered that the old man called himself a Sage, and he travelled around, seeing many new sights and helping people. The young child wanted to be just like him. A dark sky scattered with stars hung overhead when the Sage walked across the plaza to the inn. Coran followed him for the last few moments, not expecting anything much to come from it, just wanting to see the man's kind face.

"You're a funny little child, aren't you?" He spoke to them, and they jumped, looking around. "Yes, you. The little one." The Sage knelt down beside them, lowering himself to their eye-level. Coran felt grateful for this.

"W-what do you m-m-mean?" They managed.

"You've been following me around all day, giving me looks of wonder. It's really quite flattering for a humble old man like myself." Coran blinked.

"You j-just g-go where you w-want and h-help people... It's s-sounds so g-good..." The man smiled kindly, his words slow.

"Nothing brings a bigger smile to my face than helping someone in need." Coran thought back to the times they helped the people in town with anything important and nodded.

"Y-yes..."

"What's your name, little one?"

"C-Coran..."

"It was nice to meet you, Coran. I'm Julius. Just a traveling Sage, as I'm sure you've discovered." Coran blinked several times and nodded. "I'm off to my room at the inn. Do take care now."

Julius ruffled Coran's already messy hair and stood up slowly before walking into the inn. Coran stared at the door he walked through before coming to their senses.

Though he was kind a man, they doubted Julius would care to adopt a tiny, weak, stuttering, abused six year old.

Word Count: 1,135

In which Coran lives the first six years of their life.

So begins my new story! It is mainly in an attempt to make Coran a better character, a proper OC! Their life here is what would have happened in the original FEA universe without the complications that come with being Robin. It's still not a very good life, but in the end it's definitely better than the struggles they go through in Another Chance.

I will say something about this story: THE CHAPTERS ARE GOING TO BE VERY SHORT

It started as a series of short blurbs, and has stayed that way, as that is a very fun writing style for me. This is one of the longest chapters in the entirety of what's been written thus far (the only one to rival it in length out of the 17 chapters is chapter 14), and I apologize for that, but it's easiest to write it this way, and I couldn't imagine the chapters being any longer than they are, even if some of said 'chapters' consist of only one paragraph.

If you are not already aware, Coran is my agender MU from Awakening, and they use they/them pronouns. They are the main character of my modern AU fic (Another Chance), and their appearance is as follows:

Male Build: 2

Face: 2

Hair: 3

Hair Colour: 2

You can easily build them here: .io/RobinCustomizer/ (make sure to replace the.s with actual .s!)

On another IMPORTANT note, it would mean a lot to me if you would check out my profile! I have a poll open for you all to vote on which of my fics you'd like to see more of, along with summaries of everything I'll be posting every day until August 12th!

Next Saturday: Coran begins their new life.