Wolf Pack Ch. 3
Not mine. The quadruplets from the seventh level of hell are, though.
Note: This chapter is more focusing on the interactions between the pups and their foster parents…. Jameson and his dumb ass are going to wait to the next one.
They hated them. It was a deep and abiding hatred that let it be known quite often. Every touch, every cooing word made their very skin crawl with disgust. Like slime across a plane of glass, it left an oozing path that is hard to get rid of. Kris snarled if Riku got too close. Ven gave Sora a migraine whenever the weakling even mentioned anything that displeased him. Hanna, with her doe-like eyes and false air of innocence, got Riku nearly arrested four times. And Nessa, their leader, the worst of all, commanded every action.
If asked, by someone they knew from Before, their reasoning would be simple.
How dare they.
How dare they assume that because their names are on that gods-forsaken piece of paper, that the four would forget? It is hard to forget when someone murders your entire family. It is even harder when that someone is called a hero for it.
Of course, Sora and Riku had no clue who they adopted. All they could fathom was that these four were pure and honest trouble.
Kris was the biggest headache, at least for a while in their dim and simple views. He kept getting sent home for 'fighting'. What the school had yet to realize is that with Kris, it's not fighting… it's a one-sided annihilation. The boy is a monster, through and through, and the only ones who can have a hope of muzzling him are his siblings, only one of whom go to his school. And she was the gentlest one, Sora's reluctant little baby girl.
It wasn't until the children hit their teens that the pair realized that it's not Kris.
It's Nessa.
Nessa was the leader in their little pack. She called every single shot. She made every infintesimal call.
And, the kicker was that she was never wrong, had never lost, not even to any authority that attempted to track them down. The girl is a brilliant mastermind of strategy and dominance. She got close though, and Riku once found himself crossing his fingers that she'd slip up. God knows they could do without her masterful chaos for a while. If she had been caught, tried, and impossibly found guilty of that particular crime, maybe Sora and he could have a hope in hell of fixing the other three.
They never understood that this kind of broken could never become whole again.
Every day began the same. Hanna would wake up first and gently rouse the others, even if Ven was notoriously not a morning person. They'd peacefully take turns using the bathroom, brushing their teeth all at the same time once everyone went through. This always creeped Sora out a little, since the first two hours in a house as filled as theirs should be chaos, right? But, no, it was almost perfectly silent until the four dutifully walked upstairs for breakfast, dressed for their respective school. Ven and Nessa always looked prim and perfect in their uniforms. Hanna unfailingly looked huggable in whatever she chose for the day and Kris looked surprisingly normal.
Sora would fuss over and mother Hanna, who hid her revulsion of his care under a cutely hesitant mask. In reality, she wanted to tear his face off for killing her Papa. She may be the runt and the darling of their litter, but damnit, it was blood for blood in her book on that one. All the better, no one ever expects the cute ones.
Riku would attempt to quiz Ven on one subject or another, but the pup never hesitated to just read his mind for the answer before he even said anything. He just wanted to get this over with and see Jameson again.
Who is Jameson, you ask? Why, Jameson was the utterly delicious, ridiculously loaded, gloriously male senior who had stolen Ven's little puppy heart. His was the only mind Ven respected and cherished enough not to poke around in.
Once seven rolled around, Riku would haul the very reluctant (with one secretly estatic) pups into his car and drop them off at their respective campuses.
At both schools, it is well known who they had been adopted by, but any and all petitions for anything having to do with the false heroes would be met with swift (and if one goes to the public school with Kris, painful) refusal.
During each class, they would miss an organization member even more.
Science brought unwanted memories of Vexen, especially for Ven.
PE gave Lexaeus and Xigbar moments of remembrance.
English, Zexion and his library.
Math, Luxord and his games of chance and probablity.
Any fire drills brought Axel close to mind.
Swim PE made Demyx come back, just a little.
Art and that innocent and beloved captive, Namine, came as one.
Hanna would always remember Larxene and would never need a reason or trigger. The woman was her version of 'mother'. Larxie, her baby-babble mangling of her name, played with her, taught her how to use her eyes, cuteness and guiles to tear and beguile. It was all thanks to Larxene.
Every day, after being reminded of the family they had stolen from them, their hate deepened, rose and stewed.
So, that night, after all homework was finished and dinner tolerated, when the scent of home wafted through the air, Kris scratched at the window with his nail-claws. His simple mind came to likewise simple conclusions.
I want to go home.
This place… isn't home.
Papa, I don't wanna be angry anymore.
I know one day I'll get so angry not even Nessa can stop me.
I don't wanna hurt my sisters.
I don't wanna hurt Ven. Ever since Jameson came, Divined Darkness went away.
I want Jameson to go away.
I want to go home.