-RONALD-
The black and orange haired child slams the controller down on the couch.
"YEAH! VICTORY!"
He's all smiles as he takes a look at the winning title screen. It's taken him nearly a year to beat this video game.
He looks up as his mother walks in the room and smiles warmly at him, giving him a kiss on the forehead.
"How did it go?" Ronald asks expectantly of his mother.
"It's a boy." She says happily. "You'll have a little brother, Ronnie."
"What's 'is name gonna be?" He asks.
"Well, we've decided to leave that up to you." She sits down on the couch beside him. "You can name him for us."
Ronald thinks for a while, looking between the bump on his mother's stomach and the screen.
"Hmm... why not Robbie? Like, Robert." Like the main character of his game.
"I think that's a great idea." His father says, having just entered the room. "What do you think, Lacy?"
"I think it's a wonderful name." Ronald's mother happily ruffles his hair, and stands up. "Dinner'll be ready in a few, okay?"
"'kay." He mumbles, staring at the screen. He's excited to have a sibling but he's a bit worried too. What if this new sibling is gonna make his parents stop loving him? Where do siblings even come from anyway?
He pauses as the negative thoughts give way to something else. He'd been called a 'halfie' today. He's not sure what that even is, but it sounded offensive.
He wanders back into the kitchen, where his mother is sitting at the table looking over a letter. Upon sensing her son's presence, she immediately folds up the letter and puts it away.
"Something the matter, Ronnie?"
"Mam, what's a 'halfie'?"
His mother pauses. "Did some kids call you that today?"
"Yeah."
"Well, in our world we have different kinds of shinigami. There are purebloods, half-bloods, human trans, and third bloods." She explains. "Purebloods are those who don't have any other blood in them. 'Halfie' is slang for half-blood. I used to be human, you know that. When a pureblood and a human trans shinigami get together, we make a half-blood. So that's you."
Ronald nods, a little confused.
"It's nothing offensive." His mother reassures him.
He nods again. "Okay."
His mother glances at the letter. "Ronnie..." She gets down on her knees in front of him carefully, putting her hands on her son's shoulders. "I don't want you playing with Vivian anymore."
The little boy's face falls. "W..why not?"
"She's dangerous, Ronnie, you know that."
"She doesn't mean any harm!"
"We can't risk it, I'm sorry. I got a letter today from the spells department, they're very worried about her condition." She says quietly. "I know she's your friend and I know you like her but it's too dangerous."
Ronald pauses, staring at the floor. "...okay."
His mother ruffles his hair affectionately, pulling him in for a hug. "It'll be fine, Ronnie."