Chapter 2: Birthday's and Growing Older (pt.1)
"Sup." = English
'Hi…'= Thought
"Hey." = Spanish
"What's up!?" = Japanese
TRIGGER WARNING: Talk of SUICIDE!
~FOUR MONTHS LATER~
Today was her first birthday; she had surprisingly been born on April 1st 1960, basically, it was the universe's form of saying 'Haha, and you thought you could escape me.' She woke up that cheery morning to an excited Luka climbing into her crib and peppering her up in hugs and kisses.
"Happy Bir'day Niki!" he exclaimed happily.
She giggled joyfully as she buried her face into his pirate pajamas, "Luka!" she chirped. That's right chirped, Nicolasa had said her first 'official' words the month before- much to her father's joy and surprise when she screamed 'Papi!' at the dinner table one night when they had guest over to get his attention.
"Jeje, your finally one!" Luka exclaimed excitedly, "I'm so proud!" he sniffed suspiciously before showering her with kisses again.
"Lu-Lu, off..." she whined, trying to hide a smile, as she failed to get her emotional older brother to stop slobbering her up with love. "No more…" she giggled.
"I can' stop, you are too cute!" he admonished as he squeezed her once more, tucking her small frame to his slightly bigger one.
"Lu-Lu… you so annoy-" she starting complaining, feeling more than a little suffocated by her brother's intense love before a familiar loving voice interrupted her.
"Where's the birthday girl!" her Papi said happily as he basically bounced into her nursery, "Ah, I see that the big brother has already made his presence known, huh Lu-Lu?" he asked teasingly as he used the pet name Nicolasa had been using for Luka.
Luka pouted, "No Papi! Only Niki can call me Lu-Lu!" he chastised with a pout.
"Oh, really?" their father asked in barely concealed amusement, "Well then I'm sorry Luka, only Niki can call you Lu-Lu." He agreed if only to get her brother to stop his sulking, as he untangled the siblings and picked her up lovingly into his arms. Kissing her temple gently before smiling at her proudly, "Happy Birthday, my sweetest treasure!"
Luka pulled himself up with the help from the bars on the crib before lifting his arms up, "Papi pick me up too!" he demanded as their joyful dad complied with a laugh and a bright smile as he lifted his only son up onto his hip with practiced ease.
"Alright you two let's get breakfast over with so we can get ready for Niki's birthday party!" he said in teasing tone as the both of them cheered in -false, not that he knew that- excitement. After all, a party meant having to share not only their dad's attention with other people but each other as well.
Breakfast went by quickly and messily, prompting their dad to draw them a bath and dump the three-year-old and one-year-old into the tub. Giggling the siblings made their bath as difficult as possible, not because they don't love their father… but because being a baby/toddler was mind-numbingly boring and they needed to be able to draw amusement from the 'little things' in order to stay sane.
After being dried off, Nicolasa and Luka watched passively from their perch, on their dad's massive king sized bed, as he brought out two 'fancy' looking outfits and began to dress them. Deciding that they had been mischievous enough that morning with a glance, they let their frazzled looking father dress them quickly and make their hair (for Luka this meant having it combed back, and for Nicolasa this meant she now had two tiny little pigtails on top her head with blue little bows to match her party dress) before he set them down on the floor.
Nicolasa looked around the room curiously, she had only been in her Papi's bedroom a handful of times before and that was usually at night, when they had some special nighttime cuddles before going to sleep… So she'd never actually explored his room before. Luka seemed to immediately notice her curiosity and smiled gently at her before taking hold of her small pudgy hand and pulling her up to her feet shakily.
"Come on Niki, I bet you have never looked at yourself in the mirror before." He said excitedly as he tugged her over to the walking closet they had just seen their dad disappear into before taking her to the back of the closet. Nicolasa stared at her reflection in wonder.
The little toddler whose hands were clasped with her older brother's stared back at her in wonder and fascination. She had the same greenish-grey almond-shaped eyes and long thick eyelashes and an upturned/dainty nose that Luka had, but her hair was black and wavy (despite how short it was at the moment) similar to her father's own hair. Her olive tan skin had no blemishes other than the five beauty marks on her face (one below her right eye, one on the left corner of her mouth, and three shaped like a 'U' under her left eye). Her face was pudgy with infanthood but she could tell that it was heart shaped and she seemed to have been gifted with natural pink pouty lips (that she'd been utilizing unknowingly to her advantage by giving her father the 'puppy eyes' to get her and Luka out of trouble whenever the siblings had ever crossed the line in their endless pursuit to end their boredom) that smiled back at her curiously as she stared at her reflection. Blinking amusedly she noticed that just like Luka she also had a dimple on her cheek but it was just on the right side of her face mirroring her brother's smile.
Luka smiled lovingly at her reflection, "You're pretty, Niki. You look like Mami." He told her seriously.
Nicolasa's eyes widened in surprise, before she looked up at her older brother in wonder, "Mami?" she asked disbelievingly, she had been practically blind when she was born and had never really had a chance to look at the woman who had given birth to her before she'd died.
"Yea, you and Mami are very beautiful." He told her in an honest voice before kissing her forehead clumsily.
"Luka, Niki? Where are you two?" their fathers concerned voice questioned as he looked for them in between the clothing hanging in the closet, before his face relaxed as he saw his two well dressed (for once, as the majority of the time the two of them like to run around barefoot in diapers after pulling off whatever clothes he'd put on them in the morning) children hugging each other in front of the mirror. "Oh, is this what you two have been up to?" he questioned them as they pulled away from each other.
Nicolasa giggled excitedly as she pointed to the mirror to show him her reflection, her dad laughed at her excitement before he picked her up and set her on his hip, "I see you've discovered your reflection today, huh?" he asked her as he hugged her into his chest, "You've gotten so big princesa, it feels as if were only yesterday when I brought you home from the hospital," he confessed to her sweetly before sighing sadly, "If only your Mami was here, she would have been so proud of you…"
Nicolasa exchanged a concerned look with Luka as he led them to the living room before grabbing her dad's face to get his attention, "I lub chu Papi." Nicolasa said as she looked at him seriously.
Her dad's previous melancholy expression melted off his face before a wide smile bloomed across it, showing off her dads elongated canine teeth, "I love you too princesa."
Luka tugged cutely on his pants as they stopped in front of the fireplace, "Me too!" he said seriously "I love Papi too!"
Her dad smiled lovingly at Luka before picking him up with his free arm, "I love you more." He told Luka with a smile as he kissed the top of his head making Luka smile cutely in response.
After throwing a pinch of salt into the fireplace and yelling: "The Angel's Lair," the small family of three disappeared from the living room.
~SIX MONTHS LATER~
Nicolasa wasn't ashamed to admit that the first time her father ever morphed in front of her she had screamed in fright. Then again no one could blame a one and half year old for freaking out after seeing their beloved father turn into a white lion right before their eyes. Even Luka had been initially unsettled before he remembered that the lion before them was still their father.
"Niki, it's okay! Don't be scared, that's just Papi!" he tried to explain to her while she hid fearfully behind him.
Shooting him a disbelieving glance she let out another shriek of fear as the massive lion padded closer to where they were standing. "That's a lion! Not Papi!" she shot back at Luka, "Where Papi go?" she asked worriedly, the white lion didn't seem to be acting aggressively and had even stopped moving closer when she had shrieked in terror, but Nicolasa was just about ready to trust the lion as far as she could throw him.
Luka turned around and hugged her tightly before pulling back and looking into her eyes, "No Niki. That is Papi, 'member? He told us he was gonna show us something special that everyone in our family learns how to do." He stated seriously before whispering in her ear, "Besides, I've seen Papi do that b'fore when Mami was still here. I promise it's okay."
Nicolasa peeked at the lion from behind Luka before looking at her older brother dubiously, "Po'mise?" she asked nervously.
"Promise." He stated before smiling goofily down at her and tugging at her hand, "Come on let's go and pet Rey, that's Papi's animal name!" he told her cheerfully as he dragged her towards the lion, who was at this point laying languidly down in the middle of the living room as he stared back at them with warm attentive greyish-blue eyes. Her father's eyes. Nicolasa felt herself calm down as she stared into the lion's loving eyes, now fully convinced that her father had magically turned himself into one of Africa's giant cats.
She watched on curiously as Luka flung himself against the lion's side and began rubbing his face against his fur, giggling in amusement as Luka clambered onto the lions back and began petting Rey's/Papi's mane, Nicolasa tentatively reached out her hand in front of the lion's nose. The albino lion blinked before sniffing her pudgy hand and licking her fingers.
Nicolasa shrieked as a high pitched giggle escaped her throat and threw herself onto the lions head and began rubbing her face against his, who knew lion's fur could feel so soft?
The small family of three spent the rest of the afternoon in a familiar manner as their father gave them piggy back rides in his lion form until it was time for dinner. It even eventually became the siblings' favorite pastime to play with their father's animal form on days where he wasn't too busy.
~FOUR YEARS AND THREE MONTHS LATER~
"Luka!" Nicolasa whined in annoyance as her older brother snatched her music paper away and ran to the other side of the room, "Give it back! I'm trying to practice here!" she demanded jutting out her hip imperiously as she held onto her twelve-hole transverse ocarina that had been carved out of wood. It had been given to her by her Papi for her fifth birthday.
Luka laughed merrily at the tone his little sister was making, "Niki, I just want to see the music you're learning!" the seven-year-old admonished her, "I'm trying to convince my cuatro teacher to get us a duet to work on together." He explained as he read the sheet of music, "Seems like you're getting pretty advanced already." He said proudly, "We'll definitely be able to convince our music teacher to let us do another duet together." He said excitedly, making Nicolasa roll her eyes.
"We have the same music instructor Lu-Lu…. Besides Luka, we already play the guitar together why do you want to learn these instruments together too?" she asked him exasperatedly.
Luka looked at the floor in slight embarrassment; "Well…" he trailed off making Nicolasa look at him in concern.
"Lu-Lu, what's wrong?" she asked gently in concern as he looked up from the floor.
"It's just that… you're gonna start kindergarten this September, and they already decided to move me up two more grade levels again next year since fourth grade was too easy for me … we don't spend enough time together as it is." He said nervously as he played with the hem of his shirt.
Nicolasa smiled at her silly older brother, "Oh, Lu-Lu. I don't want to play music with anyone else!" she explained to him fondly, "You're the only one that understands me anyway…" she said referring to their past lives, "It's gonna be annoying to have to go to kindergarten… maybe they'll test me and move me up a couple of grades too!" she said excitedly, "This way the faster we make our way through school the faster we can graduate and never have to go back!"
Luka smiled widely at her, showing off the elongated canine teeth he had inherited from their dad, "That's true! The sooner we can get out the sooner we can get back home!"
It was no secret in their family that the two siblings were extremely intelligent for their physical ages, and the siblings had been talking in full sentences since they were both a year old, they had even learned how to read when they were just toddlers out of the sheer boredom it was to be a baby. Luka and Nicolasa had simply decided to never hide their intelligence, it would have been too much of a bother in the sibling's opinion, and their dad had encouraged them to read as many books as they could, until the point where it seemed that the two siblings had read the entirety of the medium-sized library in the house.
He had eventually decided to enroll the siblings in a mundane primary school in hope that it would alleviate their boredom and prompt the two introverted children into making friends their age… So far, for Luka that plan had been a horrible failure. Due to his advanced intelligence, he didn't get along with the kids in his age group and the older kids as well (those whom he went to class with) didn't want to associate themselves with a younger kid, especially one that would fall under the category of a 'nerd.'
It was also no secret in their family that Luka absolutely abhorred mundane school, sure he liked learning but he already knew everything that was being taught in school. He hated the students for picking on him for being smart. He hated the teachers who only made things worse by favoring him in class. He hated being separated from his sister (the only human being on the planet who actually understood him). And he hated not being able to play or practice his music whenever he wanted…
"Or maybe we can even convince Papi to homeschool us instead!" Nicolasa chirped hopefully as she tried to cheer up her older brother, "The same way we have English and Japanese tutors, and flamenco classes-and music lessons!"
Luka smiled widely at her, "Yea! He'll definitely give in! It wouldn't make sense for him not to!" he agreed.
"Hmmm, 'he'll give in' to what?" their father asked as he looked at his excited children as they sprang up from where they'd been sitting and quickly made their way to him.
"Papi!" they cheered in surprise and barely concealed hope and anticipation as they wrapped their arms around him.
~FLASHBACK: A YEAR AND A HALF AGO~
"Lu-Lu?" Nicolasa whispered to the older boy from where she was laying on her tummy in her sleeping bag.
"Yea?" he whispered back as he shuffled around so that he was facing her.
The brother and sister had decided to have a 'camp out in the living room that night and had spent the entire afternoon building the fort they were now going to be sleeping.
Nicolasa nervously chewed her lip before looking her brother seriously in the eyes, "My name was Rosaline Louisa Thomas, but my Nana used to call me Rosie."
She could make out Luka's eyes widening in surprise before he looked at her in understanding, "My name used to be Akiyama Naoki." He whispered back causing her to smile gently at him before she swallowed nervously and continued.
"I was born in the USA, Tennessee on October 2nd, 1997. My first 'parents,' had me when they were teenagers. They didn't want me but my Nana didn't let my mother have an abortion." She confessed nervously.
"I was born in Tokyo, Japan on November 13th, 1995. I was an unexpected baby because my 'parents' already had an heir… my older brother Ichiro… they didn't really pay much attention to me." Luka shrugged.
"My 'parents' were druggies and drunkards. All they cared about was doing marijuana and drinking. When they were drunk they would hit me. After my Nana passed away we didn't have money for food, so they told me to either get a job so they could buy more drugs or they would pimp my body." Nicolasa said nonchalantly.
"I'm gay. My 'parents' saw me kissing another boy when I was thirteen; my 'dad' shaved my head. He never let me grow out my hair again. The kids in school somehow found out. I was bullied in and out of school over the internet. The boys in my class would beat me until I'd lose consciousness afterschool every day." Luka explained.
"There was a boy in my grade who was ostracized after he came out…. I didn't have any friends, they thought I was weird and gloomy… they didn't want to be friends with someone that would wear the same clothes every day because I couldn't wash my laundry or bathe regularly. My 'dad' got even more violent after he would drink, and he started beating me even more. He broke my ribs and my arm once."
"The kids in school put tacks in my shoes and in my locker, and they vandalized all my books and my desk. They would steal my lunch and corner me in the bathroom where they would dunk my head in the toilet. They ruined my school uniform. My 'parents and my brother' didn't care. I had to pay or the repairs on my own. My 'dad' said that maybe it would get rid of the faggot inside of me."
"I started cutting myself. It was liberating. At first, I was scared that it was going to painful, but even the little pain I got from that was enjoyable since it took my mind off of everything else. The scars were hideous but beautiful, and they were everywhere. I would often lose myself staring at them, sometimes I miss them. Throughout all that time I only had Boo, she was my stuff animal. She wasn't the prettiest stuffed dog in the world but she was mine, she was in my arms when I died." She said almost serenely.
"The teachers weren't helping me, I heard them once in the teachers' lounge talking about how they wished I would just go away because I was bringing down school morale causing problems. I heard my 'parents' speaking one night, they were planning to disown me and kick me out of the house if I didn't change my preference from male to female. Then I found out that it had been Ichiro who had told the school I as gay. That was the last straw." He growled angrily, the betrayal of his once-brother still as raw around now as it had been when he'd first found out. Nicolasa's grip on his hand tightened in comfort.
"The girls from school found out that I had to work so that my parents could buy more drugs, they started up a bunch of horrible rumors about how I was a slut and that I had diseases like AID's from how much 'I slept around.' No one believed me when I said it was a lie, they just told me 'to go work my corner…' it was heartbreaking." She said softly.
"I was frustrated and angry and I didn't want to live anymore. I made a video stating my name and who I was, where I was from, my school and confessed everything. I named all of my tormentors, all of the teachers that would look away, everybody that could have helped me but didn't. I spoke about how Ichiro ruined my life. One night, I sent the video to all the major news sites and uploaded it to a bunch of websites." Luka explained.
"I lost my job because my boss thought that the rumors were true. My 'parents' found out and they were furious… My 'dad' was so angry that he didn't stop hitting me until I lost consciousness. I woke up the next morning when he brought another man with him… I- I was raped." She said quietly as Luka gasped in horror before she continued, "The man paid my 'father' and then he left. He was so happy- he even told me I did a good job before he and my 'mother' left to go buy more weed. I was so disgusted with myself that I slit my wrists and purposefully nicked both my veins, I remember feeling really calm and I was holding Boo in my arms… I died when the sun set over the horizon." She whispered out hoarsely.
"After I sent the video, I broke into the school I vandalized all of the lockers of the students who would torment me, I slit my wrist so that I could write with my own blood and wrote over the desks of everyone in the classroom. For the people who would just ignore me I wrote: 'Coward. You could have saved me.' And for those who actually participated in bullying me I wrote: 'Murderer, I'll see you in hell.' Or 'Your fault, murderer.' By that point I was losing a lot of blood and I knew that people were looking for me, so I quickly threw my noose over the ceiling light and tied it up and put it around my neck. I remember standing on top of my desk as the sun started coming up… I kicked the desk out from underneath me and I stopped breathing… I remember feeling really peaceful though." He sighed softly before looking at Nicolasa in surprise when she started giggling.
"Lu-Lu, we're s-so fucked up." She laughed quietly, "I think we were destined to be siblings!"
Luka giggled at his morbid little sister, "Yea, I think so too. Niki?"
"Yea, Lu-Lu?" she asked curiously.
"I still love you and I'm still going to protect you with my life." He told her determinedly as he thought back furiously over how she'd explained that her first 'father' had sold her body away for drugs.
Nicolasa smiled fondly at her brother before untangling their hands and crawling out of her sleeping bag and into his, "Me too. I love you even more than I ever loved Boo, and she was my only friend in the entire world before you. Besides, I think it's cute you're gay." She whispered in his ear, "You're much too pretty to be straight." She stated.
Luka's face went red, "Niki!" he whined, "I'm not pretty I- I'm handsome, b-but not pretty!" he spluttered put indignantly causing Niki to giggle, "You- you're so annoying…." He complained.
"Yea." Nicolasa agreed smiling before kissing his cheek, "But you love me anyway."
"True." He agreed as he hugged her smaller frame to his protectively, "Night Niki."
"Night Lu-Lu." She whispered back as she let sleep take her at last.
~END OF FLASHBACK~
~FIVE MONTHS LATER~
Nicolasa sat bored out of her mind in her third-grade classroom as her teacher, Senora Alma droned on about where the five oceans were as she pointed to them on her pull out map. As soon as she had entered the school the teachers, after realizing that she was Luka's younger sister, had given her the advanced placement test so she had been moved up from what was supposed to be her first year of kindergarten to her first year in third grade (they didn't feel comfortable letting a five-year-old into any of the higher levels until they saw her performing in a school setting despite the fact that intellectually she could have been placed in higher grades much like her brother).
Luka and Nicolasa had made a tentative deal with their father in which he would consider hiring them private tutors and becoming homeschooled for all subjects based on their performance in school. If their dad didn't like the way things were being done in their school (aka. problems with other students because of their age, aka. bullying, teachers treating them as if they are incompetent due to their physical age, etc.) by the December break, he agreed that he would pull them both out of mundane school.
Sighing under her breath her fingers began to play with the small ceramic birdie ocarina pendant, which her brother had lovingly picked out for her as a 'First Day of School' present for his little 'songbird.' Looking up at the board she scowled up in annoyance, she wasn't seated the farthest away from the map but for some reason, she just couldn't read the map at all, well unless she was standing directly in front of it that is.
"Santos!" the stern voice of Senora Alma, as well as the cruel giggles of her fellow classmates, broke her train of thought as she stared condescendingly down at her, "Can you tell me the names of all five oceans?" she asked, trying to embarrass the five-year-old for not paying attention to her 'riveting' lesson.
Nicolasa nodded carelessly, "Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic Ocean's." she said in a bland tone, showing her teacher just what she thought of her class.
Senora Alma tried and failed to hide a scowl at her perfect answer, "Very good." She said stiffly before returning to her lesson.
Someone sitting behind her, most likely Vanessa Pierro, yanked on her ponytail maliciously as they began giggling amongst themselves at their teasing… Nicolasa's eyes stung bitterly with unshed tears as she bit her lower lip to keep herself from crying out. She hated school. It was, unfortunately, the same no matter what universe or continent she was on.
"Papi!" Nicolasa shouted as she ran into her father's outstretched arms, as she hurriedly left the school building, the brisk December wind not stopping her from her course.
"Well, hello there princessa!" her father said amusedly as she quickly burrowed her face into the crook of his neck, before becoming concerned at her unusual lack of response and the small wet tears he could feel trickling down his neck, "Niki, what happened? Are you hurting?"
Nicolasa sniffed sadly, "Papá, I don't have to come here anymore right?" she asked him nervously, not moving to look at him. "I don't like it here, the other children always pick on me and the teachers are mean to me…." She whispered.
Pulling her away from where she was hiding her face, her father looked at her seriously and little sadly, "No princessa. You don't have to come here anymore." He promised.
Nicolasa smiled happily for the first time that day, "Really!? Thank you Papi! Thank you!" she squealed as she attacked her dad with hugs and kisses, not minding all of the questioning glances from the other parents and children.
"Come on, Niki let's go home okay?" he asked her gently after she'd finished singing him praises in her excitement of never having to return to the elementary school.
Nicolasa frowned in confusion, "But don't we have to go pick up Luka now?"
Her father sighed morosely, "A couple of boys from the middle school were picking on your brother today and it got out of hand. I picked him up earlier today from the nurse's office." He explained to her gently as Nicolasa's previously confused expression turned into pure fury on behalf of her older brother.
"What did they do?" she bit out angrily as she tried to control herself from cussing, after all five-year-olds (no matter how intelligent they are) aren't supposed to know, much less use, such language.
Her father began rubbing her arms in a comforting manner, "He had a black eye, but I already put a healing balm on it. I already pulled him out of school…. You guys were right, the mundane world doesn't know how to handle genius' like you two." He said sheepishly before looking at her apologetically, "I'm sorry that I put you guys through that."
Nicolasa smiled sadly, "It's okay Papi. You didn't know."
Then again it wasn't just the mundane world that didn't know how to react to unknowns. It was all humans. After all as a species, humans didn't like what they could not understand... even if they were humans too.
Author's Note:
Hey! So it's been a while since I posted the first chapter and I figured that the 10 people who are following (and 6 favorites) this story were due another one!
I really want to thank Cassiopea-D-Orion for being the only person to review this fic so far! It means a lot to me that you deemed it worth a review! I'm sorry if it made you cry... but at the same time I'm not sorry :)) Oh, and thank you for the compliment! I was very nervous about posting this but your review made me feel a lot better about my decision. This fic is very different from my previous work and I hope that it reflects how much I've grown!
If anyone reading this likes One Piece, I've just uploaded chapter 17 of My Second Chance: Gift from Fate (OC insert) today as well. Be sure to check that out. It's my baby... even if the first two chapters are a bit shitty!
Warning:
This story is going to be a bit more triggering and dark than my other fics because of the subject matter revolving around death, depression, self-worth issues, suicide, etc. If anyone out there is suffering from depression or having suicidal thoughts, this story may not be for you. And that's okay. I wrote this during a very dark period in my life. I had a note written and everything, but I got the help I needed and here I am a year later posting this. If anyone reading this needs someone to talk to or hash out their feelings with, feel free to message me. Writing this fic was extremely therapeutic for me and I hope that it can touch/impact other people as it has to me.
Words: 4932 (Approximately)
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Love, Mara-Chan (o l l o)
