Ring A Bell
Disclaimer: Yeah, no.
Summary: Side-story taken from Alternate. In which Estelle becomes thirteen year-old Yuri's legal guardian and realizes that there's much more involved than she could ever see coming.
AN: WELL HELLO THERE. Y'all probably thought I was dead and as far as writing goes, I kind of was. This is the first thing I've been able to write in months and there are probably other things that I could be doing but I also kind of don't care. Write what you can, right? Well, for me that's this and if you're not okay with that, then you're welcome to be annoyed with me.
Carry on!
"Are you going to be okay?"
Yuri scowls from where he sits in the car, clinging just a little bit to the brand-new backpack he'd been presented with this morning. It's not like he hadn't known this was happening; three days ago he'd come downstairs for breakfast and Estelle had been sitting at the kitchen table and filling out sheet after sheet from a thick stack of papers.
He needed to go to school, she'd told him, and Yuri had felt sick the instant the words were out of her mouth.
School…he hadn't much liked it when he went regularly and he wasn't too eager to go back even though he knew, logically, that he had to. It was illegal for him not to and if he didn't, Estelle would get in trouble, and then what would happen? Logically, Yuri knows that he has to do certain things even though he doesn't want to.
He knows all about doing things that he doesn't want to.
But that doesn't make the drive to the school any more comfortable.
It's close enough that he can walk but for the first day Estelle said that she wanted to drive him, which Yuri doesn't really get, but okay.
Leblanc's driving, as usual, and Yuri gives him stinkeye in the mirror. The guy's a total jerk and it's fine that he doesn't like him 'cause Yuri doesn't like him much either.
"It's cool," he mutters when Estelle nudges him gently in the shoulder for an answer. He doesn't want to seem totally ungrateful and he also doesn't want to make her sad. She's one of those crazy people who likes books and reading and all that boring stuff, and Yuri would rather be outside than stuck in some room with a bunch of other kids. He doesn't want to spend the whole year getting stared at.
They arrive at the middle school and Yuri stares balefully at it. It looks kind of like a prison, nothing like the colorful, cheerful photos that Estelle had shown him from the packet of papers. Yuri's not surprised. Nevertheless, he shoves open the car door and gathers his things.
"You remember where you're supposed to go?"
"In the main office to check in and then someone there will show me where my class is," Yuri quotes back to her, and Estelle beams at him.
"That's right."
Yuri sidles over to get out.
"Oh, wait a second!"
He freezes and the next thing he knows, Estelle's sliding over to give him a quick hug and brush her lips to his temple. She does that a lot, the touching and the hugging, and Yuri wants to hate it but he can't, not when it makes the bottom of his stomach warm up the way it does. He really, really wants to hate it but he really, really can't.
"Have a good day," Estelle tells him.
"You too," Yuri replies, because she's going to class right after this and it's a really hard one that sometimes gives her headaches, and she could be studying but instead she's taking him to school.
Estelle waves until he turns around and walks into the building, and Yuri has the sudden, irrational need to get out of here. He doesn't want to be here but he has to be, and Yuri makes himself walk to the main office, where a smiling lady sits at her computer.
"I'm new," Yuri tells her when she looks up.
"Oh, you must be Yuri!" she exclaims, "We've been expecting you. Welcome." She closes out whatever she's working on the computer and rummages around in her desk, pulling out a packet of papers. "The top one is a map of the school with all your classrooms marked, the next is your schedule, and then there's a free planner with hall passes in the back to get you started. Would you like me to show you how to get to homeroom?"
Yuri waves her off.
"I'll be okay," he says.
"Your locker is going to be number 2401 on the second floor. Feel free to stick your extra things in it in between classes, okay?"
Yuri mumbles a thank you and leaves, slightly uncomfortable in the presence of someone so perpetually cheerful. Estelle doesn't count; this lady's more like a happy pod person.
The school is huge, he thinks as he walks down the hallway. And kind of empty. They'd gotten there just as the last of the latecomers had gone in so classes had already started. Yuri decides that at the very least he probably ought to look and see what his classes are.
His stomach drops.
Math, English, science, and history are pretty much what he saw coming but instead of three electives there are only two (music and PE) with one written in:
Remedial tutoring.
Remedial tutoring?!
It sinks in and Yuri feels hot shame pool in his gut. It's not his fault, he insists silently. He's not stupid. Do they think he's stupid? Yuri thinks about that the entire walk to homeroom and gets more and more upset about it with every step.
He's not stupid and he's not a baby and it's not his fault!
The door to the classroom opens before Yuri can lay a hand on it and he looks up to see an older man with glasses in a suit looking down at him.
"You Yuri Lowell?" he asks.
Yuri nods.
"You're late."
Yuri nods again, silent. The man opens the door wider.
"Well, come on in, then, and introduce yourself. I'm your history teacher, Mr. Whitehorse."
Mr. Whitehorse is huge and he looks like he could rip through his suit if he flexed hard enough. Yuri is slightly terrified of him.
But only slightly.
Twenty pairs of eyes watch him enter and Yuri stares right back at them and dares them to say anything. Mr. Whitehorse nudges his shoulder and reluctantly, Yuri steps forward.
"Hi," he says finally, "I'm Yuri Lowell." There's a too-long pause in which he's clearly expected to say something more and when he doesn't, Mr. Whitehorse clears his throat.
"Go on and sit down next to Flynn. Scifo, raise your hand, y'brat."
Yuri's gone still as a statue. Flynn…Flynn Scifo? He stares across the room and meets the very familiar blue eyes of a very familiar blonde boy who's gaping at him in much the same manner. Yuri's already flip-flopping stomach sinks further. He shouldn't have been surprised that Flynn was at this school; it was the biggest public junior high in the city and it was also the closest. It was just…
Yuri hasn't seen Flynn once in five years since his parents died and he got kicked out of his first foster home. He looks…the same.
Yuri tugs on his ponytail; Estelle insisted on getting it out of his face at least for his first day and Yuri wishes that it as loose like he preferred so he could duck behind his bangs. Yuri knows he doesn't look the same. He's taller and his hair's long and he knows he's kind of skinny and bony and bad-looking. His gives his hair another tug.
"Any day would be nice, kid."
Yuri jerks and shuffles over to the free seat. Flynn immediately leans over despite the scowl from their teacher.
"Yuri?" he hisses, "Where have you…when did you—? Why?"
"What, no welcome back?" Yuri manages to quip with all the sass he can muster. Flynn frowns a little but leans back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Welcome back."
Yuri looks away.
Flynn rips out a piece of paper from his notebook and scribbles on it, then flicks it onto Yuri's desk. Before he can open it, however, a large hand comes down and sweeps it away.
Mr. Whitehorse is not amused.
"Scifo, knock it off and pay attention." Flynn flushes brightly and ducks his head. Yuri snorts. "You too. You can talk when I'm not." Mr. Whitehorse talks a lot and Yuri tries his best to keep up with writing down the things he says, hating the contrast between Flynn's tidy scrawl and his chicken scratch. He's not stupid, it's just…
It's been a while.
This sucks.
Flynn keeps looking over and looking desperately like he wants to risk passing another note. Yuri doesn't blame him when he resists the urge. Mr. Whitehorse is kind of a scary guy. Still, Yuri can't deny that he's missed Flynn loads and is happy that he seems to have been doing well.
Yuri just doesn't want to be here.
Eventually though class does end and that's when Flynn make his move and scrambles across the space between their desks like a frightened cat.
"Where have you been?" tumbles out of his mouth, "I thought you moved. Every year I'd look for your name on the class roster…" Yuri, meanwhile, feels like he's going to be sick.
"Oh, I…I just went to other schools." He forces a smile. "You know…private ones and stuff." Yeah, maybe if he were taking classes on dumpster diving.
"Can I see your schedule?" Flynn asks eagerly, "Maybe we have some of the same classes together." Yuri looks at his schedule but doesn't hand it over.
"I've got math next, then music, science, English, PE, and…" Yuri pauses before he gets to remedial tutoring. He really doesn't want to tell Flynn about that. So he bluffs and prays that it goes well, and tries to think of the last class that Flynn Scifo would ever take. "Home ec."
"Oh, cool, we've got science together too if you have it with Yaeger." Yuri checks and yes, he does have science with who he can only assume is a Mr. Yaeger. Not a word is breathed about Yuri's nonexistent home ec and they gather their things to go. Flynn chatters excitedly the whole while and Yuri listens, preferring that to any stores he could share.
What's he going to talk about, the last few weeks?
He'd much rather hear Flynn talk about soccer and his mom's new job and the new Power Rangers series and all the other things that mean that Yuri doesn't have to try too hard.
Math is about what he expects. Ms. Kaufman is tall and pretty and terrible enthusiastic about numbers, but she's super snarky and kind of evil and Yuri finds that he actually really likes her class, even though he's not entirely sure of what they're doing. It's almost all busy work and, thankfully, there's no one he knows in math so Yuri can focus on figuring out the material.
Music is…special. Ms. Aiheap is a woman who looks like she's about Estelle's age, young and bright-eyed and pretty, and the only thing she has Yuri do as far as introductions is sing his name which is kind of weird, but okay. So this is the woman who's going to teaching him during 'home ec' then. Does she know about him, then? She doesn't seem like the type to judge anyone on anything other than their willingness to sing their name.
Ms. Aiheap is really nice and music might have been fun if Yuri didn't spend the entire period watching her intensely and worrying.
Yaeger (not Mr. Yaeger, he insists) teaches science and no one knows whether Yaeger is his first name or his last name. Flynn doesn't, at least, but Yuri gives the guy brownie points for not blinking twice at Yuri's appearance in his class, nor does he make him introduce himself. He's kind of crazy though and spends way too much time waxing poetic about the dissections they'll be doing at the end of the year. Still, it can always be worse.
Afterwards, Yuri's not sure whether lunch is an upgrade or not.
The only person he's really talked to so far has been Flynn, which is fine but also kind of lonely when there's so many other people around. Yuri used to have tons of friends and now he doesn't know anyone. The lunchroom is loud and crowded and he loads up his tray until it's practically overflowing and focuses more on eating and less on socializing. Until Flynn comes over with two newcomers in tow.
Yuri recognizes one of them from his math class even though he didn't know her name at the time. Sodia sits down next to Flynn very deliberately and Yuri frowns at the look she gives him. Okay, then. Witcher's a sixth grader but hangs out with Fynn on the regular. They're kind of a trio, it seems.
Well, good for Flynn. Yuri scarfs half his chicken sandwich.
"Were you raised in a barn?" Witcher asks with a hint of sneer. "Slow down, it's not going anywhere." Yuri retaliates by opening his mouth and displaying his half-chewed food. "Ewww!"
"Mind your own beeswax."
"So, uh, Yuri," Flynn begins in an attempt to smooth over the situation, "Are you going to join any clubs?" Eyebrows raising, Yuri glances up.
He honestly hasn't thought about it even once. Mostly he's been focused on surviving the day, much less the year, much less…everything else. So no, he has no idea whether he'll do anything with clubs.
"Maybe," he answers eventually, "If I find something I like."
"You should join the soccer team," Flynn continues, completely unaware of Yuri's internal struggle, "You were really good before—" he cuts off and freezes because Yuri's gone to stone. He squirms and finishes lamely, "You were really good."
"Yeah," Yuri mumbles into his food. It tastes like sawdust. "Before."
Crap.
The mood's gotten awkward and it's Sodia, surprisingly, who breaks it. She digs into her bag and pulls out a ziploc of chocolate graham crackers and doles them out to everyone, including Yuri, and by the time they're finished with those it's (thankfully) time to go.
It's not that Yuri doesn't like Flynn anymore; he does and he really wants to be friends with him again. It's just…really hard. Yuri doesn't know what to say to him and what used to be easy just isn't anymore. Which makes sense; Yuri's not the same as he was before. He can't ever go back to being the person he was.
It's really hard and Yuri's sort of relieved when he has a class by himself.
Mr. Pantarei is kind of odd and Yuri wants to know how much he got made fun of in school for that name. Yuri's not sure if he likes him and he definitely doesn't like the length of the list of books he's expected to have read by the end of the year for this class. It's horrible.
Actually, Yuri hates this class already because Mr. Pantarei keeps asking him questions that he doesn't know the answers to even though he said the first time that no, he's never read To Kill A Mockingbird. Yuri actually kind of hates Mr. Pantarei.
And he wants to go…
Well, Estelle's home isn't his home. It's just a place he's staying until she finally gets sick of him. Yuri doesn't want to go home.
Yuri doesn't have a home.
So he puts his head down on the desk and ignores Mr. Pantarei and pretends that the list of twelve books isn't folded up in his notebook and waits for the day to be over.
PE at least involves running around outside in the sun. The teacher is a huge, imposing man known only as Clint who has them run laps for most of the class and shouts whenever anyone starts walking, but it's sort of mindless and Yuri doesn't have to think too much, and he's already good at running. He's had practice, after all, and is still going strong by the time most of his classmates are walking and panting and ignoring the bellows of their teacher.
And then, finally, it comes to what Yuri's been dreading. Seventh period rolls around and he very seriously considers skipping it. He doesn't want to sit in a classroom with Miss Aiheap while she thinks he's stupid the whole time. Yuri wonders how many kids are going to be in class with him, if there will be any he's seen already.
He's at the door and about to walk away when it opens before he can.
"Hello, Yuri."
Yuri stares up at Ms. Aiheap.
It's Ms. Aiheap but it's also very much not Miss Aiheap. His confusion must show on his face because she laughs.
"You must have had music with my sister," she says, "I'm a twin. My name is Hisca Aiheap and my sister is Chastel Aiheap. Please come in, Yuri."
The classroom's empty of all other students even though there are about ten desks. Yuri sits down reluctantly in one of them and Ms. Aiheap sits down in the one next to him.
"How was your first day?"
Yuri blinks at him and Ms. Aiheap smiles wider.
"First day in a new school with a lot of new people? Must be hard."
"What'd they say about me?" Yuri demands. He's done with playing and he just wants out of here. He's sick of lying. Kind brown eyes go serious.
"That you'd had a really hard time of things and would probably need some catching up. I don't care where you came from, I care that you're here now." This lady is weird and Yuri says so. "I don't teach other classes like the teachers who coach sports on the side. I'm here just so that the students who need it get a little extra help. It's not just you, I promise." Yuri eyes the empty desks critically and Ms. Aiheap sighs, just a little. "What classes other than electives did you like best today?"
"...math," Yuri answers finally after some deliberation. He did enjoy math though he enjoyed Ms. Kaufman verbally eviscerating the kid who dared to fall asleep in her class even more.
"Okay, then! We'll just run through a few problems to start to see what we need to go over, maybe look over the work for your next class. Ooooh, you've got Kaufman. She's a little tough but she's a very good teacher." With a conspiratorial wink, Ms. Aiheap leans forward and adds, "And a hoot at the staff Christmas party."
Against his own volition, Yuri's lips tilt upwards.
And that's what they do for the next twenty-five minutes; Ms. Aiheap pulls questions from the book and Yuri gets horribly tangled up in numbers and concepts he doesn't know. Ms. Aiheap peppers the period with questions, innocuous ones about favorite colors, foods, and what he likes to do, and Yuri finds himself relaxing without meaning to.
"What do you think about the people you're living with now? Are they nice?"
Yuri stares down at his hands.
"Not people," he answers, "Person."
Because, despite all the people in that house, which is usually just the security detail and a housekeeper that comes by every week, there's only one person that Yuri cares about.
"Her name is Estelle."
"Do you like her?"
Yuri frowns.
"She saved me."
"That doesn't mean you have to like her."
Yuri hasn't really thought too much about liking anything. She saved him, that's obvious, so he's grateful. But liking outside of those things...Yuri mulls it over. Estelle who hugs him every night before he goes to bed and works really hard and trips over the stairs almost every morning. Estelle who badgers him into watching morning cartoons -even while Leblanc rolls his eyes in the background- and then inevitably settles down to watch them too. Estelle who can't cook but she still tries until Yuri eventually pulls out the file folder of menus that she keeps in the drawer. Estelle who always orders extra even when Yuri would rather die than ask, when Yuri looks for the cheapest thing on the menu because he doesn't want to owe her any more than he already does.
Estelle who doesn't yell or hit, who knows that Yuri wears his shoes to bed and hasn't said anything about it.
Estelle who doesn't try to change him.
Yuri stares so hard at his math problems that the words and numbers begin to blur.
"Yeah," he says, "I like her."
Ms. Aiheap beams at him.
"You might tell her that when you feel ready. I think she'd like it."
Yuri's hands clench.
Math, which they spend about half the period on, is one thing. English is an entirely different animal. Ms. Aiheap winces a little when Yuri tells her who his teacher is and it's all downhill from there. Yuri didn't like reading then and he doesn't like it much more now. The books are too hard, he doesn't know enough of the words to get it easily, sounding out the words he doesn't know is mortifying…
He hates this and he hates Mr. Pantarei's stupid books and he hates Mr. Pantarei.
Ms. Aiheap is really nice about it and gives him a list of spelling words in addition to the extra math work but by the time it's time to go, Yuri's surly and miserable and just wants to go.
The bell rings and Yuri bolts out of that classroom like the devil's on his heels. The hallways are overflowing with kids and Yuri pushes his way past them to make for the doors-
Only to have a hand grab his shoulder.
It's only the blonde hair that keeps Yuri from pulling back and punching him in the face. Flynn stares at the fist only inches away from his nose.
"...hi, Yuri," his says, voice faint.
"...hey." Yuri pulls his fist back. "What's up?"
"Not much…" Flynn shifts his bag on his shoulder. "Are you taking the bus or walking or…?"
"I'm being picked up today."
"Me too! Want to wait together?"
Yuri has no issue with this and says so, and the two of them wait outside on the pickup loop, Yuri scanning the line for Estelle's car.
"Does your mom still drive the blue one?" Yuri asks. He fully expects Flynn to say no, because people get new cars all the time, especially in the span of five years. So he's understandably surprised when Flynn nods.
"Yeah. She wants a new one but the one we have still works."
"Maybe she'll meet a super rich guy at work," Yuri suggests. Flynn sniggers at the very idea and for a while it feels like things used to. Maybe things can work, Yuri thinks. Maybe, even if everything else about this place sucks, Yuri can at least have his friend back. They grin at each other and things almost feel normal.
"What's your car look like?" Flynn asks.
"Grey Bentley," Yuri replies and keeps looking. Flynn whistles.
"Dang. Nice car."
It is a nice car. Not something that Yuri would pick out if he had the money, not something Estelle would pick either. But it belonged to her father and, much in the logic of Mrs. Scifo, it still ran just fine so why fuss with it?
That and Leblanc is almost unhealthily attached to that car and Yuri's pretty sure that he'll actually cry if it ever craps out.
"That it?"
Yuri looks and sure enough, there's Estelle's car. Something like relief loosens in his chest when he sees it; Yuri's sure she wouldn't actually leave him there...but it's happened before.
"Yeah," he breathes, "That's it."
When he goes to approach the car, Flynn follows him, and when Yuri flings open the door Estelle's there and waiting for him. Yuri throws his things down onto the seat and is about to slide in when her eyes flick behind him.
"Who's this?"
Yuri scowls and Flynn leans around him to grin at Estelle and wave, entirely shameless.
"Hi! I'm Flynn Scifo."
"Hello, Flynn. My name is Estellise." Flynn goes pink underneath his toothy grin. Yuri wants to clobber him for it.
"See you tomorrow, Yuri?" he asks.
"Duh," Yuri grumbles. Flynn backs away so he can shut the door and finally, finally the school day is over. He sighs and slumps over.
"How was your day?" Yuri looks up just as Estelle picks up his bag and sets it next to her.
"It was…" for a moment, he thinks about saying that it had been fine even though that would have been a complete lie. There had been good parts and bad parts and exactly none of that had been 'fine'. "I'm really tired." That's definitely true.
"I'm glad you made a friend."
"I knew Flynn from...from before. He was my best friend." Yuri's voice drops down to a whisper and Estelle breaks her own rule about seatbelts to unbuckle hers and drape her arm around his shoulders. In the rearview window, Leblanc's eyebrow twitches.
"That's so great," she breathes. Yuri wonders why she seems so relieved. "That makes me so happy. How were your teachers?"
Yuri makes a face and that questions opens up a veritable deluge of opinions. It's easy to talk about Mr. Whitehorse who's scary and seems kind of like a jerk but is actually really cool, and Ms. Kaufman who's scary but also awesome. Estelle makes a funny smile hen Yuri mentions Ms. Aiheap for music and he doesn't know why, but she laughs when he tells her about Yaeger and his weirdness, and they're almost back at the house by the time his rant about Mr. Pantarei is over.
"I really don't like that guy!"
"Maybe he's just very serious," Estelle muses, "I have some professors like that."
"No," Yuri's very insistent about this. "He cares more about his stupid books than kids." Well, fine. Yuri doesn't care about his dumb books either. He shows Estelle the list of books he's going to have to read.
"Oh, I have most of these!"
Yuri's not surprised. He wouldn't be surprised if she had every book. Ever.
"Your teacher likes the classics," she continues, "Most of these are quite old." It figured. "But they're good." Yuri's pretty sure she's wrong.
"...the school thinks I'm stupid," he mumbles. Estelle frowns.
"Why would you think that?"
"They put me in a special class with Ms. Aiheap's sister. Only dumb kids have to take classes like that."
They pull into the driveway and the arm around Yuri's shoulders tugs him in a little closer.
"Oh, Yuri, no one thinks you're dumb."
"Yeah they do."
"They just want to make sure you're caught up. It's been a long time for you."
Yuri grits his teeth.
"I hate it."
Estelle sighs.
"I know you do." Then she brightens. "Since I have most of them, why don't we read them together? It's more fun that way."
Yuri's not a baby and he doesn't need to be read to like one. Still, Estelle looks so happy that he thinks saying that might hurt her feelings so he keeps his mouth shut instead and doesn't answer.
They end up ordering pizza that night and Estelle asks him questions throughout the evening. She can't help him much with math but she does own every book on Yuri's reading list. All of them are old and worn with bent spines and thinning pages that mean that they've been read a lot. Yuri takes the stack gingerly.
"Which one are you doing in class right now?" Estelle asks. Yuri shrugs.
"To Kill A Mockingbird and A Wrinkle In Time."
"Oh, I love both of those!"
Bookworm.
So for the time spent between dinner and bed, they sit in the living room and read, Yuri with one of his school books and Estelle with one of her own, a terrifyingly huge anthology of olde english literature, and they sit in quiet. Yuri's not the best at reading and stumbles over the words and Estelle ends up helping him more than doing her own work, and in the end she scoots over to the same sofa and they read together.
She doesn't say anything when Yuri spends a long time on one page or when he sounds out words and doesn't try and help until he shoots her a split second of helpless stare that he doesn't mean to happen.
"Oh, shoot!" Estelle finally mutters and checks her phone for the time. It's nearly eleven-thirty. "We've both got to be up tomorrow and- geez, I'm terrible." Yuri gapes at her. What's she freaking out about now? "You should have been in bed at least an hour ago." Yuri grumbles a little; when they'd sat down a while ago to make a list of rules (a sheet of paper that Estelle had gotten laminated and stuck up on the fridge to inevitably be edited with dry erase markers later), Yuri hadn't wanted a bedtime at all. He wasn't a little kid and Estelle wasn't his mom, but she'd dug her heels in and eventually they'd compromised on ten-thirty.
Nevertheless he gets up, fumbling with his book and unsure of where to put it. It's hers so she might want it back. Would she get mad if he took it to school? All the other kids had copies with them...but Estelle loves books. In the end she solves the problem for him.
"Go on," she says gently, "I'll put this in your bag and you can give it back to me when you're done with it."
"Okay," Yuri replies and hands it over, makes to walk away, and then pauses. He turns back to Estelle and, before he loses his nerve, ducks in to throw his arms around her. "Goodnight."
Estelle stiffens for a moment and Yuri freezes, wondering suddenly if he's made a mistake. Oh god, what if he's not allowed to do that? What if hugs and stuff are only okay when she starts them? Yuri begins to pull away but before he can, Estelle's hugging him back, her arms firm around him to squeeze him close.
"Goodnight, Yuri." She runs a hand quickly through his hair and lets him go. "Sleep well, okay?'
Yuri's heart sounds in his head and he feels lightheaded, almost giddy with relief, and can barely manage a nod before he flees up the stairs.
Estelle sits on the couch long after he's gone and the noise from upstairs tapers off into nothingness, turning her very old, very worn book over in her hands. She remembers being in junior high and remembers hating every second of it, and she wants to do what she can to make his time there easier. Yuri's had a hard enough time of things as it is.
It's only been a couple of weeks and Estelle has no idea what she's doing. She's barely twenty-one, how's she supposed to know how this is supposed to go? She doesn't ever want Yuri to think that she's trying to replace his parents- not only is it impossible but Estelle doesn't want to. It's disrespectful and something about the idea makes her heart ache. Yuri had parents just like she did. If the idea of replacing hers is unthinkable even now, how's it got to be for him?
Estelle is in over her head.
Yuri's still so closed off. She knows why, of course, but she still worries to the point that it makes her feel sick to her stomach. Not that she knows a single thing about how he used to be and just the idea of how the last few years have gone for him…
Yuri can be however he needs to be and it's not her job to decide whether that's right or wrong.
And then Estelle remembers the trepidation on his face, then the resolution right before he hugged her. That's the first time he's touched her without her initiating it first since they met and Estelle hadn't seen it coming at all, especially considering that sometimes (more than sometimes) she feels as if he's merely tolerating her. She likes him, certainly; he's a funny, charming kid the few times that he's been relaxed enough with her to loosen up, and she likes him still even when he's prickly and unreachable.
He's got every right in the world to be.
Hopefully this means he's warming up to her a bit?
Hopefully.
Estelle sets her books aside and drops her head into her hands, letting out a shaky breath. There's no point in being afraid, she decides. There's someone upstairs who's depending on her, as much as he'd probably like to not, and she won't betray that. She sits there silently for a long, long time, until her eyes feel heavy and scratchy and she's all too aware of the fact that she hasn't done her reading for tomorrow.
She's in so far over her head and she wouldn't take it back for anything in the world.
AN2: Thank you so much for reading! If you have any comments, questions, concerns, arias of praise and worship, feel free to leave them in a review or a PM! I love hearing from you guys and hopefully it'll get the ball rolling for me again.