Title: The Things We Do

Rating: Teen for themes of abuse (Nothing too graphic)

Canon or AU?: Slight AU, but it was touched on in the second movie

Pairings?: A little at the end... ;) Canon, don't worry.

Inspiration: The scene in the movie where Vexy asks Papa if Smurfette was going to be punished at all (Spanked etc.). Pricat and I have a theory that Gargamel abused her, thus her reasoning.

The title of this was very difficult to think of -.-' Eventually settled on this cruddy thing XP

It may be sad to say, but failure was something Vexy was used to.

From the day she was created she had known failure and disappointment. Having a father like Gargamel doesn't really leave space for encouragement or a sense of purpose. It was always her trying to impress him; trying to make him proud at the cost of her pride, dignity, feelings... Sometimes she was even injured badly enough to concern Azrael, something she thought both amusing and really, really concerning.

With all this happening, at first she thought she was just a mistake. Everything she did for him was wrong, whether it be fetching something from the hotel room or setting up one of his spells (that only happened once). No matter how hard she tried she would fail. He would be angry, absolutely livid. He would say he hated her. That she was a mistake. And he would punish her for it so, eventually, she started to believe she was a mistake. How could she fail so many times if she wasn't is what she figured. She had scars that argued the same thing.

At this point it might be good to point out why she always volunteered to do Father's dirty work. Hackus wasn't... Well, he wasn't like her. He loved Father, because he didn't know of the things Vexy did. He wasn't aware that there was a possibility that he could be a mistake just as much as she was. The thought terrified her; If Hackus ever found out such things... It would ruin him, and that would ruin her. She couldn't stand to see her brother unhappy, so, at the price of her own happiness, she shouldered the pain herself. Hackus had to be protected: And it was her job as his sister to do so.

So every time Father punished her she made sure Hackus knew nothing of it. And if he did find out she would assure him she deserved it, and it wasn't Father's doing. Every scar she had would be covered, and the incident never spoken of again... At least, until Father punished her again. He was, at this point, very good at magic. He had mastered it very well. Especially the darker parts, which he used on the female Naughty. Flame-less fire spells, pins-and-needles spells, or sometimes just a hard smack when he felt she was too stupid to waste anymore time on.

Useless, worthless, a failed experiment. The words clung to Vexy like water to cloth. No matter how hard she tried, they were always there, taunting her, hurting her, knocking her down until she was nothing. And then they would wait patiently for her to recover, for her to start hoping again, and then they would be back.

She often thought of Smurfette when she hit the bottom like that. Had Smurfette ever suffered like she did? Had Smurfette ever been knocked across the room in a fit of Father's rage? Had she been punished for doing something foolish? Did she have scars all over her body from her failures?! She didn't think so. Smurfette had betrayed Father early on, so it wasn't likely...

...Was Father treating her like this because of Smurfette's betrayal? She knew it was the Smurf essence that he wanted, that was the reason they were made, of course, but had Smurfette changed him when she ran off? Did she hurt a part of him that he hadn't even known he had? Was that why he frowned at the term 'Father'? Why it was her, the younger sister of Smurfette, that he hated from the start? He didn't want to lose anything else?

Did Father hate her? The more she thought about it, the more she knew it must be true. Father didn't love her-or her brother. They were just pawns in his little game. And when Smurfette was added to the mix Vexy finally knew it for certain.

She volunteered to get Smurfette for many reasons. One being she didn't want Hackus to fail. This mission was life or death: either come back with Smurfette or be blown to pieces. Another reason being she really did want to impress Father. But the main reason, was... She wanted to know. That is, she wanted to know what made Smurfette so much better than her. Yes she had the Smurf formula, but why would the Smurfs even help her in the first place? Did she give them something? Make a deal with them? No one was just nice for no reason, at least... she didn't think so. At first.

After meeting her sister, however, and spending time with her, Vexy realized there was more to the world than Gargamel. More to life than pain and failure.

Things like hugs, for example. Never had she felt so warm and fuzzy as when her sister gave her a hug. It was... Strange. She was actually feeling...

Loved.

Gargamel hated her. Always had. She had hoped so much for a family that she actually thought he was it... But he wasn't. The Smurfs were family. A very large, very strange, annoyingly happy family.

She had finally figured that part out, at least.

Now she just had to figure out the looks Grouchy kept giving her.

A/N: So, how was it? The end... Well, I was getting depressed, so I hac to add in a cute Grouchy moment.

So, yeah. A review would be great! See you next time!