Dean.
Tagnius, he's- he's different from Percy. Tagnius hates how it's been seven years but at night he still lies awake and thinks about Percy. He hates how it's not constant. How he can go days without thinking about Percy. About all the bad memories and the war that still plagues him at night. But then he's left alone with his thoughts too long and his breath just stops and the world zeroes in, tight, dark, empty almost.
He lives on this constant half and half bridge. Who is he, Tagnius or Percy? A coward who ran away from his family or a loving father who ran away for his family? It's too much and on those nights he lays awake, wishing the blankets could swallow him whole.
To add to the mess of his life, is Dean Brown. Some months into Dean's friendship with his daughters, he accepts that Dean is now a member of the Prewett-Smyth household, so much so that he has a mattress and his own Thomas the tank engine sheets and pillowcase. Likewise his daughters always had a spare bag packed, filled with three days worth of clothes, really just two days and an extra pair just in case with spare toiletries, put on the coat hanger in their room. Tagnius folds the clothes and organises these bags meticulously every Thursday, prepared for the questions they will ask on Friday afternoon. Most Sunday's these bags come back with the clothes stuffed inside, sometimes with toothpaste smeared against the clothes from sloppily capped toothpaste. On the nicer days the clothes have been washed, dried and ironed by Dean's mothers.
He takes these bags filled with clothes almost every other Monday morning, washes them and soaks them when the toothpaste sticks to the clothes too stubbornly. He bleaches the dirt and learns more about caring for clothes in the months this friendship happens then he has in the years he'd raised them, because though they were messy children with Dean they were messier by tenfold. He learned to knit and how to stitch patches and he learnt the absolute fear of caring for someone else's kid.
There were these imaginary boundaries that separated him from investing himself into Dean's life.
He knew what to do with the girls. They were his girls. His daughters and love had bonded the two to him the moment his wife had told him about being pregnant. But Dean was a choice. He could choose whether or not he cared for Dean. It was rude and cynical but it was a comfort of his because choosing meant that he had a degree of control. That if he managed to screw this all up, like he'd done so often in his life, the consequences laid not with him but with Dean's family.
However, no matter the walls he built or the forced nonchalance, Dean manages to imprint himself unto the life Tagnius lived.
He gets Dean a Christmas present in the names of his children, a few Thomas the tank engine videos that cost him a pretty euro or ten. The girls make the card he sends.
Tagnius buys clothes during the winter to protect against the cold and during summer for swimming, pays for his food when he is over, takes him to the movies and the zoo. Helps him learn how to ride a bike and later teaches him and his children the importance of safety near water. It's not a one-sided thing, he's aware. Lav and Vati do the same for his daughters. Joy and Celia come home with nice dresses and small perfumes from time to time. Tell him why having a strong woman in movies were better than princesses. That Dean's mums love Raven and Starfire too, eyes gleaming with unabashed pride. They spoiled his kids as much he did Dean.
(You'd think after two years he'd learnt their proper names, but he usually gets away with just referring to them as Dean's parents or you or them. Anything bar their real names if he's being honest.)
However Tagnius doesn't plan to care for Dean. Doesn't plan to ever care for anyone other than his daughters again. But Dean smiles like the moon. Soft and bright in equal parts, with the twinkling mischief of the stars in his eyes. Dean invites him personally to things like school plays and his birthday or weekend barbecues, even though he knows that Ceelia and Joy will tell him. Dean cares for his daughters in the only way he knows how, all ranging, unstoppable force.
Dean is this bright-eyed little kid who smiled and shouted and cried in front of Tagnius. Who threw tantrums yet never let an argument stop him from caring about his friends. Dean punches kids when they do him wrong, though thanks to his parents and Tagnius he's learnt to not just punch if he's angry. He's learnt to talk and when Dean's eight, after two years of pretending he doesn't care, Tagnius takes a risk and decides to care for this tiger cub who loved his daughters in a way only children were capable of loving.
That night, when he says goodnight to his daughters with a kiss on their temples he doesn't stop by Dean's mattress to whisper his customary 'night Dean.' Doesn't adjust the blanket and make awkward touches to his hands that hint at affection. That night he smooths Dean's hair and whispers night, before placing a quick peak on Dean's temple as well. Dean accepts the kiss with a mental shrug, because if he could have a dad, he'd want one like Mr. Tagnius. The thought is fleeting and oddly, fitting.
Chin up.
Discrimination was something he'd never really grasped. As a concept he knew it happened, had heard more than he'd seen people commit discriminatory acts. Casual uses of the word mudblood, unfair scores during test, slurs dropped into conversations as if they were simple 'hello's' and 'goodbye's'. But still he never understood it, understood why others were viewed differently and Percy. Poor naive Percy had believed he was never like those people.
Percy believed he'd never shamed anyone for their blood or race and therefore, he had seen himself as someone who wasn't racist.
It took some six minutes for Tagnius to realise how stupidly naive Percy had been.
Percy may not have ever used the word 'mudblood' or docked points from Slytherin's because he wasn't fond of them, but Percy never stopped that behaviour either. Percy let people call his friends racist slurs and stereotyped views with a shrug of his shoulders. Percy had labelled people under 'suspicious' with no reason to do so except for how they looked and where they were from. Percy was just as much as a racist as someone like Lucius Malfoy was, the only difference was Percy was never brave enough to express it. Sure he never cursed anyone strictly because of their blood-status, but he'd readily avoided Slytherins, did nothing to stop the blatant racism so many of his classmates and housemates spouted, if only because he believed them to be jokes most of the time and Tagnius really hated that.
Especially now that he was on the receiving end of that nonchalant attitude. People milled around him, his daughters and Dean, all with their heads ducked and their hands stuffed in their pockets. Tagnius really hated that, really hated Percy.
"Well, wot you waitin' fer an invitation!? Told you we ain't sellin' to no clumsy niggers," the shop-keeper screamed, red-faced.
It was funny, not even two minutes ago she'd been smiling up a storm, happy to sell to Tagnius. Her face had been open and polite, not genuinely happy but not so furious. However as soon as the kids had come in, she'd tensed abruptly. Confused with the sudden change, Tagnius had tried to swiftly talk with her about buying some meat, they were a relatively new butcher and the one he usually went to had closed for the day. It had taken all of Cecelia accidentally knocking down a jar of marmalade for her to show him exactly why he shouldn't buy from there. She'd shouted a racist slurs upon slurs at his baby girl, face exploding into a dark beetroot red. Talk about true colours shining through.
For the first time ever, racism and discrimination had hit Tagnius' life full force and he felt so angry. How could this grown woman, someone who was so polite to him scream at a nine-year-old!? In what state of mind did you have to be, for that to make sense? Worst of all Cecelia already held tears in the corners of her eyes, they slipped slowly and though the meaning of the words she couldn't comprehend, the resentful tone and spitting words were a loss to no one. All three children had cowered behind Tagnius, seeking protection in his shadow, whimpering softly. Around them people still moved and Tagnius' rage bubbled until he couldn't contain it.
"You do not speak to my children that way! You do not use those racist comments, you do not demean my children, you do not say a single words against my children you absolute toe rag! I don't care if this is your shop, I don't care who you are, you have no right to condemn anyone for their skin-colour, let alone children! I have no idea who raised you, but I'm so thankful that if there's one thing I know for sure, it's that my children will never become as horrible as you!"
Then, glancing to his awe-struck trio holding onto his pant legs, he brought them forward so all three children stood in front of him, arms around the trio as if daring anyone to touch his kids.
"Cecelia, Joy, Dean I want you all to raise your chins and know, if anyone ever says anything like what this nasty woman has said to you, you will not take it. You hear me? You are better than that and you will always walk away with your chins up."
And, because they're children they follow him, not quite comprehending what he meant, but old enough not to just forget about it either, chins high and a baffled shop-owner cursing behind them.
Random time-skip, again. You'll find they'll happen a lot. Tagnius is a wreck but he doesn't actually believe he's one and he's kinda too busy caring about his children to ever be consciously aware of that. I've glazed completely over his financial situation, which is stupid and unrealistic but it's real boring and I think he'd kinda got his hands full with being a full time dad to work just yet? Idk. Most of what I write is idk
Also Dean's just this little ball of sunshine and fire that I love but also have no idea on what I'm using him for?
And the bit about not learning peoples name even after knowing them for so long and getting away with the you/them/you two thing is so what I do.
And I've had no idea on what to write when suddenly I got real heated about racism thus that random thing up thurr ^^^^ . The Dean thing was just me loving that chaotic yet gentle soul. (wen u dnt kno how 2 character) So, thanks for reading guys.