Ring A Bell

Disclaimer: Yeah, no.

Summary: Side-story taken from Alternate. In which Estelle become thirteen year-old Yuri's legal guardian and realizes that she's taken on more than anyone could ever prepare her for.

AN: So here's (technically) the first part of Ring A Bell! I'm a little bit insecure about this in general but I'm also really liking it too so if you like it too, please leave a review and tell me what you think! I'd love to hear it.

"Yuri? What are you still doing awake?"

Yuri thinks about pretending to be asleep but he realizes that he's been caught out already. Peering at her from his bed, he meets the green eyes of Miss Estellise from where she stands in the threshold of the doorway and barely resists throwing the covers up over his head.

Yuri hasn't slept in two days.

It's way too weird to be here in this big house with a stranger with his own room, his own bed. Yuri doesn't like the quiet and the luxury doesn't mean safety to him anymore the way that it should. The trash cans and alleyways and park benches were dangerous but Yuri knows them the way he doesn't know this.

This is too good.

Yuri's not allowed to keep nice things for long, he knows that, and he knows that the second he accepts this place will be the day that it's taken away from him. When that happens, if he's too attached to it, how's he going to survive when it's gone?

Yuri can't let himself enjoy it, can't manage to sleep soundly and wears his shoes to bed and squirrels away food all over his room. Miss Estellise probably wouldn't hit him herself but maybe if he was bad enough she'd have her guards deal with him instead, and when that happened, Yuri would be prepared.

"Yuri?"

He blinks at her owlishly.

"I-I'm fine!"

Far from deterring her, Miss Estellise takes a step fully into the room to approach Yuri's bedside. Embarrassed now, Yuri does throw the covers over his head.

"What's wrong? It's late…" She conveniently ignores the fact that as a college student with class in the morning she ought to be in bed herself.

"Nothin', Miss Estellise," Yuri mumbles and feels a hand settle on his head over the comforter.

"You don't have to call me Miss Estellise, you know," the girl says suddenly and Yuri stiffens. "If it's what makes you comfortable you can but it's a little formal, don't you think? Everyone calls me that." Yuri knows that; that's why he's been calling her that too. "And you're not everyone. I'll be looking after you until you're eighteen so I'd say that makes us pretty close to family."

Yuri almost snaps at her; he had a family once and then they died and his life went to hell.

And then he remembers that Miss Estellise had a family too and then they died and she doesn't have any either. Not to mention that her dead family is the only reason why Yuri's allowed to be here instead of some overcrowded orphanage where the rest of the unwanted street brats end up or worse, picking out of the dumpsters like he had been before.

And then Yuri realizes that she's speaking like she's assuming that he'll be around to see eighteen, that she won't get sick of him like everyone else and hoist him off onto somebody else or send him away. That he won't do something stupid and make her hate him. That she'll want to keep him around.

It takes Yuri too long to realize that he's trembling a little.

"What can I do to help you feel better?" Miss Estellise asks when it's clear that she's not going to get an answer. Her hand shifts until she's stroking Yuri's scrawny, underfed shoulder.

Yuri hates this.

Why can't he just take advantage of it while it lasts? Why's this so hard? Why's he so scared?

Yuri's thirteen, he's not a baby. He's not afraid of the dark and he wasn't afraid when he was living in the alleyways, and he wasn't afraid of the things he had to do to get by. He didn't like them but he wasn't afraid.

Yuri jerks when there's a soft click and even through the blankets he can tell that the room's been flooded with the soft light from the lamp at his bedside and then there are hands tucking underneath the blankets to pull them gently away from his face. Yuri can barely look his guardian in the eyes.

"Whatever it is, I can try my best to get it."

Yuri's heart clenches. He tries so hard to not ever think about his parents; what's the point when they're never coming back? What the point of wishing things could be different when they're the way they are and he can't make them go back? But when he looks at the earnest expression on Miss Estellise's face, he knows that she would do anything if he said he needed it, and Yuri hurts. He doesn't want anyone to do anything for him. He doesn't want to be here. He doesn't want to be so bad that no one could stand to keep him for longer than a month at a time.

He wants to be back home with his parents in his house with his dog, playing with Flynn after school and on the weekends and getting punished by having to clean his room.

"Oh...oh gosh. Yuri, I'm sorry, it's okay, oh geez…"

It's only when Miss Estellise reaches out to touch his cheek that Yuri realizes that he's crying for the first time in five years, for the first time since he understood that his life was gone and he was never going to get it back. Yuri rolls over and hides his face in his pillow and tries to stifle the burn behind his eyes, smothers the unrecognizable animal noises coming from his throat.

The more he tries to stop the harder it is but Yuri keeps trying.

The mattress dips down and Miss Estellise is suddenly sitting next to him on the bed. She doesn't try and make him look at her or talk, just leans over and tugs him, blankets, snotty pillow, and all into her lap. Yuri resists at first and then goes until his face presses into her side and he can smell something sweet and papery, like she's been eating cookies while reading old books. The thought drowns Yuri until he can't stand it anymore and he chokes on tears.

Mama used to smell like that sometimes when she got home from the library.

Miss Estellise leans over him and holds very gently, and Yuri can hear her heartbeat pounding in his ears over the roar of his own and the cries of grief.

And then she begins to hum a melody and Yuri listens because he can't do anything else.

"Reaching up for no man's land, to take a breath, take a chance," she sings quietly, stumbling over the lyrics like it's been a long time since she's needed to remember them, "We walked a thousand nights to change the world." It's not a song that Yuri's ever heard before and he listens even when she forgets lyrics and fumbles the occasional note, humming when she doesn't remember the words. "Why were we there back to back? Why were we there face to face? I must be the light when you're in the dark..."

Yuri presses his face hard into her hip and feels small hands squeeze him tightly in response.

Miss Estellise sings until her voice scratches in her throat and Yuri doesn't have any tears left, until all he can do is bury his hands in the fabric at her thighs and hold on for dear life.

He can't do this anymore.

He can't go back on the streets and he doesn't know how to live here in this huge house that he originally broke into, with a too-nice girl and her long-suffering bodyguards who probably hated everything about Yuri but liked Miss Estellise too much to say anything. He can't do anything.

Yuri can't get attached to anything he can lose.

Miss Estellise doesn't move, just stays where she is even though Yuri's sure, later, that he's left marks where his fingers dug down into her skin through fabric.

If it were a movie, they'd have some sort of meaningful conversation that would mean that everything would be okay, that all that was left was ten minutes of wrap-up and then the credits would roll, and everyone would tear up before they walked out. Life's not a movie, though, and Yuri falls asleep before Miss Estellise can think of anything to say, pillowed on her legs and eyes red-rimmed.

She could leave. But she doesn't.

Instead, she shifts to lean against the headboard and bundles Yuri in all his skinny, coltish glory into her lap, covering them both with the blanket she'd tugged away from his face earlier. He's out like a light, she notes and takes in the smudges under his eyes and the thinness of his bones and the way he gravitates to warmth in his sleep the way he doesn't when he's awake.

Time is what's going to be most important, she thinks. Time, consistency, and some good food to put some weight on him.

Miss Estellise pats Yuri's foot gently under the blanket and startles when she realizes that he's wearing his sneakers. Green eyes shutter and she lets him keep the shoes on. That's a topic for another day and she thinks that time will help with that one too.

Everyone thinks that she's crazy. Leblanc's been giving her hell ever since she signed the paperwork-very polite, appropriately worded hell, but still hell. And Estellise gets it. She's young and barely knows what she's doing with her own life, much less enough to have someone depend on her. She has class and Yuri's going to need so many things, and she can certainly pay in money but is she going to be ready for the things he needs that she can't buy?

To be honest, Estellise isn't sure.

She doesn't have a clue.

What she does know is that the instant she saw that little boy sitting curled up in a jail cell, she'd never be able to stand by and leave him be. Maybe she's not the best but Estellise is determined to make things better for him, somehow. To prove that the world isn't all bad, that there are good things out be better than what the world has given him so far. She never wants him to have to break into someone's home to get out of the cold.

She doesn't want him to feel like he needs to wear his shoes to bed, or hide food, or tiptoe around her like she's going to turn around and hit him.

But even though Estellise knows these things, she also knows that Yuri doesn't, and she knows that it'll be some time before he does and that's okay.

It's with those thoughts that Estellise' eyes begin to get heavy, and she feels like she's going to explode with something painful like sympathy, and she doesn't think twice about dipping her head and dropping a kiss to Yuri's temple. It's a promise, she decides more firmly than she's decided anything in her life. She won't care about what anyone says about her, she's made her choice.

She'll make Yuri's world safe for him no matter what it costs her, no matter what anyone thinks.

The most important family is the family you choose. That was what Dad always said before he kissed her goodnight, and Estellise chose Yuri the moment she laid eyes on him.

It's a promise.

Yuri wakes up with a jerk.

He's curled around something soft and it's with no small amount of horror that he realizes that his pillow is actually Miss Estellise, who looks utterly comfortable with the situation, one hand stroking idly through Yuri's hair and the other holding one of her school books.

"Oh, good morning!"

...Yuri doesn't remember anything after crying his eyes out, doesn't remember Miss Estellise getting up and leaving or doing anything other than putting her hands on him. It's been a really long time since anyone's touched him gently. Yuri's had more hugs in the last two days than he has in three years and he hates how much he likes it.

It was embarrassing when Mom and Dad hugged him all the time, in that way that eight year old boys didn't want love and cuddles from their parents. Now Yuri's skin fizzes and sparks and he wants more of it. He wants to lean in to that warmth and never back away from it.

He skitters backwards and tries to ignore the heat in his cheeks.

"D-don't you have class?" he asks, and Miss Estellise shakes her head.

"It's a lecture," she replies, "Attendance is optional."

Miss Estellise always goes to class even when it's optional. It's clear enough on Yuri's face because the girl laughs sheepishly and shrugs.

"I also may have overslept."

"...oh."

Yuri settles down slightly and blinks slowly at her. Did she not leave this whole time? That's the same book she came in with last night. Has she been sitting here this whole time even though he was sleeping?

Oh god.

He slept on her. Oh god.

Yuri panics and nearly falls off the bed and instantly, Miss Estellise is there with her hands on his shoulders.

"It's okay," she tells him hurriedly, "It's fine, Yuri, it's okay." It takes Yuri way too long to realize that he's stuttering apologies and he silences immediately. "Listen," she says when it's clear he's going to be quiet, "I need to tell you something."

Crap.

Yuri swallows hard.

"I know it's not going to be easy. I know it's going to take some time, and that's okay. I just want you to know that I'm going to do my best for you, okay? This is your home now and there's nothing bad you can do that's going to change that. We'll come up with a list of rules but I can tell you now that I won't ever punish you by locking you up or taking food away, and if anyone even looks like they're going to lay a hand on you, I'll rip them to pieces. And maybe you don't believe me right now, but it's the truth and I'll prove it to you."

Yuri stares.

Miss Estellise shifts a little.

"I just wanted to tell you that." She scratches the back of her head. "I'll, uh, go on and let you get dressed." Before she goes, she ducks down and kisses Yuri on the head.

Yuri watches her leave and feels like he's been shaken upside down and tossed around a little bit.

She stayed here all night for him. She missed class for him. She said she wouldn't let anyone hit him, even if she was mad.

Yuri doesn't understand at all.

Still, there's a funny warmth in his belly when he goes downstairs later and it's worth that split-second spike of fear when he hollers, "Estelle!" from the hallway when he sees the blindingly bright smile on her face.

AN2: Thank you so much for reading! As always, I love getting feedback and hearing what y'all think so if you liked this, hated this, want to beat me upside the head with a salmon, tell me, okay?