Disclaimer: I own nothing. Lacuna Familia – Hollow family
Angeal sighed shifting his duffle bag to a more comfortable spot on his back, "welcome to Banora," he declared reaching up with his free hand and grabbing a Banora White Apple, affectionately called Stupid Apples, and handed it down to Ariella grabbing another for himself. "I have a question for you Ari, you were Wutai when we met. How did you wind up out there?"
She took a bite of her apple; "We were hunting with our family out on the beach. A storm blew in; we were washed out to sea. I and my elder sister and younger brother survived, we floated for days on end before we found land again. After that we found a place to call home and moved in."
He nodded; Mideel and the southern chunk of Wutai were typical spots for hurricanes to form. He took a bite out of his apple as they walked through town; he stopped in front of a log with a puddle near it and sat down inviting Ariella to join him. "So tell me more about your pride."
"There is not much to tell other then that, we hunted, we slept, we passed on stories, we laughed, we cried. In some ways it was not much different then what humans do," she replied watching the water in the puddle eating her apple.
He looked up at the sky, "yeah it sounds like you were happy."
"Yes well, there were issues with the neighboring prides, not to mention sometimes our hunts would not be as successful as we would have wished. What was life like for you Angeal?" She asked curiously.
He thought for a moment, "it was pretty much the same as it was for you, though not so much with the hunting bit. But I want to take you somewhere, it's time for you to see how I grew up," he ruffled her hair. "Come on I'll race you!"
He stood up and took off running, Ariella smirked and ran after him he rounded a corner and saw a cart coming out in front of him. He leaped over laughing, Ariella matched his jump landing next to him, "hey welcome back Angeal!" Called the owner of the cart.
"Hi there," he waved over his shoulder before picking up the pace, Ariella blinked as they ran through town, it was so small compared to Midgar but in a way it had its own charm. Plus Angeal seemed to be happy to be here, and that alone put a small smile on Ariella's face.
They came to a house Angeal lunged for the knob but found Ariella touching it just before him. "Wow… you're fast." He panted putting his hands on his knees, "man… I bet you'd put Zack in his place…"
She smiled panting slightly, "You still held the lead though, faster then any Cockatrice."
"Yes but you were making me work for it," he ruffled her hair smiling. He hadn't had this much fun in ages. He stood up and wiped his face off before knocking on the door. He waited watching Ariella gazing at him curiously.
Finally the door opened, an elder lady with grey hair that matched Angeal's in style but was longer peeked through the door. Gillian Hewley opened the door all the way. "Yes?" She asked taking in Angeal, "Oh Angeal you're home!" She hugged him, "how are you?"
"Fine, how are you Mom?" Angeal asked as she pulled back and took a look at him.
"I've been just fine, and who's this?" She looked down at Ariella.
"We…er I'm Ariella, nice to meet you," Ariella seemed fixated on her feet shifting around uncomfortably.
Gillian smiled, "come on in dear, you can call me Auntie. You two must be tired."
She hurried them inside, "so are you two hungry? I have some peanut butter chocolate balls out drying. Or you'll probably be wanting dinner, what do you want?"
"You made peanut butter balls?" Angeal asked walking into the kitchen and picking up one of the chocolate covered treats.
Gillian nodded walking into the kitchen after him, "yes, but none until after dinner." She smacked his hand away from the treats.
Angeal sighed, "sorry. You know how much I love them…"
She laughed, "I know, it's good to have you home. Where's Ariella?"
They leaned around the doorframe of the kitchen seeing Ariella standing awkwardly on the doormat. Angeal sighed leaning back, "I'm sorry… she's so skittish, I think this is the first time she's ever been around a family. I'll send her off to play and then we can talk."
"Alright then," she sighed watching him.
"Ariella, why don't you go play outside for a little while?" Angeal asked.
She blinked looking around confused before nodding silently and trotting out the door to find something to do. Angeal looked back at his mother and they sat down at the table, "I'm sorry…"
"It's okay Angeal dear, now start at the beginning," she smiled at him. "So who's the mother?"
Angeal turned red, "Mom… it's not like that, she's not my real daughter. I've decided to adopt her." He sighed recounting his memories of the night twelve years ago when she was born to the events of the last few months, "so she's been staying with me at Shin-Ra, I keep wondering if she's happy, if she's not she's sure doing a good job of hiding it."
Gillian sighed, "You were a real handful too. Being a parent is hard, when your child cries you want to make them feel better but they don't, when you want them to smile but they won't, it's the worst feeling in the world. All you can do is try to do your best for her sake, now why don't you call Ariella in and we can get some dinner."
Angeal nodded standing up and hugging his mother before heading outside, the sky had become overcast and threatened to rain. "Ariella?" He called walking down the street looking for her. He felt something hit his nose; he gazed up at the graying sky as it began to rain. "Ariella?" He called again watching for her to come running over to him, finally he reached the playground he played at with Genesis when they were kids. Someone was standing by the entrance staring at the ground; he noticed the red stripe and realized it was Ariella.
He crossed the street and walked over to her, he saw she had a set of four almost claw marks on her face along with a nasty swelling bruise. He thought she might have even been crying but the rain made it hard to tell. He dropped to one knee and put his arms around her, she buried her face in his shoulder clutching at his shirt before sobbing. "Don't leave me."
Angeal gently put one arm behind her knees supporting her back with his other and picked her up carrying her back home. He sighed as Gillian watched them, silently she nodded to him, he nodded back and carried the crying Ariella upstairs to his room and sat down on the bed holding her. He sighed wondering what happened to make someone who could take a full dose of Zolom poison without flinching break down like that. The events of several hours earlier when Angeal and Gillian were talking and had sent her out happened to be the source of it.
Ariella was walking around the town somewhat bored, there were no rabbits to chase, no frogs, not even a dragonfly to snap at or pounce on. She was walking by the park when a ball rolled across the street to stop by her feet; curious she picked it up seeing someone else standing there. It was a young boy with black hair and bright blue eyes who otherwise could have been a mini Ariella or what she would have looked like at age six or so.
"Hi!" he greeted brightly.
"Um… hello," Ariella replied awkwardly.
"You wanna play with me?"
"Uh, sure," Ariella felt really confused by this request but accompanied the boy back across the street.
He smiled showing off his teeth, the front two were missing but it made him seem cute, "so what's your name?"
"Ariella," she replied returning the smile slightly.
"I'm Kai," he ran over to the play area, "I was playing with my new ball but I wanna play up here. Tag, you're it!" He dropped the ball in the sand and touched Ariella's arm.
She blinked watching him run off, she ran after him climbing up the pole before managing to get his ankle as he went by. She figured this must be the human version of play fighting; she slid down the pole before running away from Kai as he slid after her. They continued playing like that, Ariella keeping herself in check as far as strength and speed.
They'd been playing for about an hour before Kai stopped running looking down the path, "Kai sweetie it's time to go home!" Called a female voice.
"I gotta go, but you gotta meet my mom Ari, then you could come home for dinner," he declared grinning at Ariella.
They made their way down from the play structure and over to the woman, she had long black hair and deep brown eyes. Kai ran over to her, Ariella lingered for a moment, she could vaguely recall meeting this woman somewhere before. "Mama I want you to meet my new friend! This is Ariella!"
She looked away from her son and up at Ariella, her eyes went narrow while they widened, "Kai go on home." Kai waved to Ariella before running off. She walked over to Ariella, Ariella's natural instincts went on and rather then running she stood there, "don't come near my son you monster. I thought you were dead, you're dead, my daughter is dead, you killed her you monster." Ariella stood there dumbfounded silently watching the woman advance, she wanted to run, to do something other then stand there but her legs weren't working. "You damn monster, you're not my child, I hate you, die you little bitch!" She screeched swiping at Ariella's face, four thin red gashes showed up dripping blood while her cheek started to swell.
Ariella didn't block or move, she stood there as the woman grabbed her hair yanking it, suddenly out of nowhere a young man in red with auburn hair grabbed her and pulled her away from Ariella. "Leave her alone, go home." He ordered.
She staggered back, "y-your wrong, I don't regret anything. The only thing I regret is the day that monster… that thing came into this world." She leaned against the railing surrounding the park walking away.
Genesis turned around seeing Ariella standing there, eyes dead, she wasn't moving but kept staring at the same spot on the ground unfocused. Genesis put the stupid apple in his hand up to his lips and took a bite before swallowing, "'A painful tomorrow is all that waits for you. Even twirling winds will not stop their flow.' I can assure you Ariella Hewley that I am always on your side, for we are on the same side. Farewell for now." He unfurled his wing taking off as the storm clouds started rolling in, Ariella stood there in a daze until Angeal came.
Back in the present time Angeal was stroking the still crying Ariella's head, "don't hate me. I'm not a monster… I'm not a monster… I'm not a monster…"
"Shh… I know, you're no monster, you're my daughter," he muttered feeling her sobbing slowly come to a stop along with her tears.
She shivered clinging to the fabric of his shirt, "I'm sorry… today when I was wandering through town, and we met a boy who bears a resemblance to us. And he was nice, after we played for a while his mother came… she…she… he's my brother…" Ariella managed before breaking into hysterical sobs again.
Angeal sighed, Ariella's mother clearly was still distressed from that night, and he sat there quietly stroking her head reassuringly. Eventually the sobbing subsided once again and she dozed off, he gently untangled her hands from his shirt putting a pillow under head and a blanket over her. He reached over and grabbed a well-worn stuffed moogle doll and tucked it in with Ariella, "keep an eye on her Kupo."
He stood up and went downstairs closing the door to let her get some sleep, Gillian looked up at him. "How is she?"
"Apparently she met her mother while she was out in town today," Angeal slammed his fist into the wall putting his head against his hand. "I shouldn't have sent her out. I'm so stupid."
His mother gently put her hand on his shoulder, "don't take all the blame. As long as you'd stay here sooner or later she would have met Darcia. But something tells me that isn't the answer. I remember there was that earthquake a while ago didn't Darcia get mako poisoning?"
"Yeah but she recovered, besides, Ari has stagnant mako, so that can't be the source," Angeal commented.
"Hmm, wait I remember Genesis was dating Darcia before you left, she was about 18 at the time, but they broke up when you two left nine months before Ariella was born. She started going out with Jacob for a month or so when they got married." Gillian added.
Angeal stood upright, before putting a hand on his head, "so wait… all this time… she's really… oh geez…" and with that Angeal keeled over onto the floor out like a light from the shock that the whole time he'd been taking care of Genesis's daughter along with the tension of the day.