❝Dammit! Why is this happening to me?!❞
- Arturia at some point.


Ah, why is she even not surprised?

Arturia used to pity those parents who are constantly called out to the counselor's office. It must have been hard to have children as difficult as theirs, she always thought with a shake of her head before going home. For them to put their parents into so much stress, Arturia couldn't help but detest them and decides—at the age of nine—that she would do all that she can to raise her child into a law abiding citizen!

Which is why she became a police officer in the first place. By doing so (at least that's what she thinks) she'll know how to discipline her child when future comes.

That's right. She's always been a law abiding citizen and her respect for the law is something that drove her to be someone who keeps said law in order.

... So please pray the fuck tell why this is happening to her?!

"Unbelievable!" The woman—who she seriously thinks is wearing too much make up—exclaims and points her manicured finger at her. "My dear son goes home one day all bruised up and whose fault do you think that is?! That runt! That daughter of yours had the audacity to lay her dirty finger on him!" She screams and even proceeds on banging her hands on top of the coffee table dividing them.

Arturia doesn't clarify the fact that she isn't Mordred's mother (really) for reasons that she finds it irrelevant, but she do willed herself to not sigh in exhaustion mainly because this woman might get the wrong idea and this entire ordeal will worsen.

Instead, she puts a hand over Mordred's mouth who is sitting beside her on the sofa.

(Knowing her, the little girl might spit something that would not help them in their current predicament.)

"I truly apologize for Mordred's action. I admit that I do lack a lot in terms of disciplining her..." she says and doesn't miss how the little girl throws a glare at her from her spot. "...but with that being said, I was informed that she isn't the only one to be blamed for the entire situation." She ends and let her eyes fall on the little boy sitting beside the woman. While he is indeed covered in bruises, it doesn't escape Arturia's eyes how he flinched and guiltily looks to his side, avoiding the woman's gaze.

"What is this? Are you saying that my boy is capable of barbaric actions like how your daughter is?! How preposterous!" She exclaims and even goes as far as putting a hand over her chest. "He is being raised and taught by the finest tutors out there! Proper etiquette and actions are one of the things that I made sure that he learns so that he grows into the perfect gentleman and you dare accuse him on being on your level?! You commoner?!"

Ah, great. That's just freaking great. Another extremely rich jerk who thinks that they are above everyone else.

As if Gilgamesh isn't already enough, she just has to meet this woman.

"Now, now, Mrs. Jekyll. Please let us all calm down, okay?" Jeanne—who also happens to be the children's teacher—finally see this as the time to intervene. Wearing her kindest smile, the woman places two cups of tea on top of the coffee table in between Arturia and Mrs. Jekyll.

In all honesty this is not even her job.

Mr. Tokisada is supposed to be the one acting as the mediator (with him being the principal for the gradeschooler and preschooler), but again, he's out tending to more important matters.

(Actually, he's only wooing his wife who is sulking once again, leaving Jeanne to deal with these affairs.)

"How can you even tell me to calm down when my son was hurt?! Are you an idiot?!" Mrs. Jekyll exclaims once more.

"N-no, I didn't meant to offend you." Smiling uneasily, Jeanne clasp both of her hand. "But what I'm implying is that we take a deep breath and then let's talk this over, okay?"

"Hah?! Talk? You think a meager talk can fix what that little runt had done?! No! Absolutely not! I want to press some charges! That woman and her daughter needs to learn!"

"P-please ma'am, I don't think we need to go that far. I'm pretty sure we can all come to an agreement when this day ends." The woman suggest only to be meet by another apprehensive reply courtesy of Mrs. Jekyll. No matter where you may look at it, it's pretty obvious that she wants blood by how she reflects all of Jeanne's suggestion of things that doesn't include pressing charges and murder.

With Jeanne doing her best to stop the seething woman, Arturia takes this as the chance to finally let out the exhausted sigh she's been stopping.

Something tells her that this is going to be a pretty long day.


Luckily for Arturia, they manages to come to an agreement after for a grueling four hours of negotiations where Mrs. Jekyll broke down at some point for dramatic purposes. (She and Gilgamesh should really meet at some point. These jerks.)

So long that Mordred doesn't beat the crap out of her dear Henry again then she's not going to press charges. Suffice to say, that relieved Arturia. If the woman is to press charges then the younger woman would have no other option but to contact their father and that is going lead to whole new lot of trouble.

Trouble because Uther Pendragon has no slightest idea that Mordred even exist and Arthur explicitly asked her to keep his daughter a secret from their ever controlling father.

(Honestly, why are the men in her family so damn complicated?)

With a small tip of the head, Arturia keeps a straight face when the woman merely scoffs and drags her son away. The way the little boy looks behind his shoulder and gives them an apologetic look doesn't escapes her eyes, and it actually makes her wonder if Mordred really did beat such a helpless boy without any acceptable reasons.

Actually, just the fact that the boy looked apologetic is already suspicious. Really, something tells her that her niece's story holds more truth than what that woman spat earlier.

"Lame! You're so lame! Both of you are lame!" Mordred's ear piercing shriek is as uncomfortable and annoying as ever and Arturia could already feel an in coming headache. "You let that two-faced con artist trick you! You even made me apologize! That was so lame! I hate you both!" the little girl continues as she rapidly stomps her feet on the ground.

"We really didn't have a choice, Mor-chan." Jeanne says as she crouches down so that she can be leveled with the little girl. "And beating up Henry was not really nice."

"But he started it!" Mordred shrieks before falling to ground and flails her feet and arms around. "This is so unfair! So unfair! That idiot made fun of me and punched me first!"

With the way how frail Henry look, people might question the credibility of her words. But with how guilty that boy looks, it's not hard to put two and two together and realize that Mordred could be saying the truth. Still, everything's already done and there's no point staying where they are. Sighing, she picks the still throwing a tantrum Mordred from the floor and carries her.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience that we've caused you. I know that you're a very busy person and tending to this troublesome niece of mine is the last thing that you needed..." Arturia says her words with genuine gratitude and even goes as far as bowing. (Well, as much as she can with Mordred in her arms.) "I will make sure this doesn't happen again... Still, you really helped me a lot. If it weren't for you Mrs. Jekyll would have continued on pressing charges." She says to the other woman who merely waves her hands.

"It's fine! What are friends are for, right? And besides..." Jeanne scratches her cheeks and looks bashful for once. "You and A-Arthur helped me a lot when we were younger. See this as my token for gratitude." Is what she says before smiling brightly that nearly blinded Arturia. (The woman swears she even heard the gates of heaven opening followed by the angels singing.)

"Even still, you helped me a lot. You have my and Arthur's greatest gratitude." Says Arturia with a small smile on her face. Knowing that the woman is not going to let it rest so long as she doesn't accept her thanks, Jeanne says a small "you're welcome, I guess" with a small smile.

Satisfied by this, she bids her old friend good bye to finally go home and take that long rest she truly deserves. But with how Mordred is screaming and pulling on her hair (insisting that Arturia is a lame ass stupid hag who can't cook and how she dare humiliate her?!) she knows that she's not going to get that much needed relaxing time.

"I'm so pissed!" Screams the little girl while she continuously struggle within her aunt's hold. "Jekyll deserve my punch! I will take my revenge! I will make sure he cries so hard next time that I see him! This is so unfair!"

The girl's rant is only then met by the elder's exhausted sigh.

Arturia plans on simply ignoring Mordred until they get to her car because, really, rant as she may it doesn't changes the fact that she's been made the sore loser today. Mordred could cry and scream all she wants but no matter how you sees it at a little child's stand point, her brother's little prince freaking lost today's battle.

But with her inclining that she is still going to beat Henry's ass the next time she sees him, the woman couldn't help but halt on her steps.

"Mordred," she starts through gritted teeth and places the child down so that she is towering over her. "You can not beat up that boy again. We already agreed to that back in the chairman's room, didn't we?"

"No!" And she is again met with an ear piercing shriek. "You agreed to that! I'm still going to punch him so hard that he's going to lose all of his teeth!" Then she declares before stomping on the ground like that crazy tantrum thrower that she is.

Ah, fuck being nice. This is the fucking time that she fucking removes her ahoge and let hell freaking lose. Fuck Arthur, fuck everything.

Mordred is still in the midst of her tantrum fest when she abruptly stops upon feeling the sudden accumulation of dark aura around her. Confused, the little girl first surveyed her surrounding in search of something out of place, but when she sees nothing, she looks forward (correction: upward) and sees a pair of eyes menacingly looking down on her.

For once, a scared squeak actually escapes her mouth.

"Fine," The woman who is definitely not Arturia (because when did she got this scary?!) starts as she stares at her with her the coldest gaze Mordred had ever seen. "You can beat Henry up for as much as you want but believe me when I say this... When the monsters finally takes you away for your disobedience, when they finally drags you to the dark abyss with their large claws, trust me, I will not do anything and simply watch them take you away."

Maybe it's the way she says it or the way her eyes seemed to changed color (in Mordred's vision anyway) but there is just something about her words that completely struck fear into the little girl's very core. A fear that is enough to make her shiver and her lower lip wobble.

And as if it wasn't enough, Arturia continues. "Listen to me, little girl. No matter how much you scream for help and no matter how much you scream for Daddy, he is not going to come because you know why?" She says in a low voice and leans down just so she can be a little in level with Mordred. "Because bad and disobedient children are never going to get any help. The monster will continue to devour you alive and you will see your hope and dreams flash before your... Very... Eyes."

A hiccup and the formation of fat tears in the corner of Mordred's eyes are the first signs of doomsday.

And when a loud wail escapes the little girl's mouth, Arturia finally sobers up and regrets her life decisions once more.

Unlike the crying she did the other night due to some nightmare, this one is louder and Mordred's face is a lot redder. With a face palm, she curses the entire universe for the existence of an alternate persona within her that is triggered by certain situations. And of all the situations for said persona to make an appearance, it just had to be when she's with Mordred.

Arthur is definitely, going to skin her alive with that kind but sinister smile of his intact while he does so.

"M-Mordred, I was just kidding. Hush now. I will buy you hamburgers, how about that?" She tries to control the child but obviously it doesn't work and Mordred cries louder instead.

"You're a demon lady!" She screams as snot and tears run down her face. "I'm going to tell this to Daddy! You witch! Demon lady! Con-artist! Uwaaaaahhh! DADDY! DADDY, HELP ME!"

And as the woman struggles to calm her down, the little boy who is hiding on the corner shakes in fear while Arturia's words continues to echo in his head.

Originally running back to apologize to Mordred because in all honesty, and technically, he really did started the fight even though it really wasn't him (his situation is really complicated, okay?!), Henry Jekyll feels guilty that the wrong person is convicted of the crime that he, again technically, did.

But of course, after seeing that demonic being that took over Mordred's aunt, he have to withheld that apology because he just pissed on his pants.

Arturia on the other hand is really going to weep as well if Mordred still doesn't shut up.


© TYPE - MOON

I swear I'm sober when I wrote this.

(this chapter is supposed to be the requested Atalanta-Morded scene but due to some reason, this happened instead. Sorry. The Atalanta-Mordred scenario is going to be in the next chapter. I swear it on my neighbor's dog's grave.)

Yeah! I'm still alive lol. I apologize for disappearing. I decided to catch up to some mangas and books that are on my reading list and forgot to do my responsibilities in the process. Lmao, sorry.

That, and there's also school. Again, I apologize.

Ps.
You all need to read Fate/Strange Fake, for real. Richard is a total bro.