Coco walked into the kitchen with her mother. "So," her mother started, "what did my idiot brother teach you today?" While Coco thought of how to explain her conversation with her uncle her mother made her some sandwiches as a late dinner, the sun just starting to touch the horizon when they arrived in town. "I noticed the bandages on his hand, he showed you how he fights at close quarters today, huh?" Her mother asked as she placed the plate with 3 of Coco's favorite kind of sandwich, peanut butter, banana, and tabasco sauce.
Coco waited until she had eaten one of the sandwiches before she answered, "Yeah, he showed me his hand to hand combat skills," she answered sadly looking at the table, then a look of irritation crossed her face, "before that he said I was a lousy shot and too reliant on other people." Coco looked up at her mother who was trying to suppress a smile, not very well but she was trying. "What?" Coco snapped in irritation.
"It's just that, he's not wrong, you're much too reliant on others," she told her daughter with a kind smile, "but when it comes to your aim, what can he expect when he has you train with his rifle, it was made especially for him." Seeing Coco halfway done with her last sandwich she stood to take her plate to the sink. "I think he might just want to send it with you to Beacon when you go next week, but I think you need a weapon that suits you."
Coco looked at her mother and wondered, 'if uncle Argo is only 6 years older than mom, why does she look like she's in her twenties and he look like he's in his fifties,' was the life of a hunter really that exhausting or was it how he grew up? Suddenly she remembered something, "Hey mom, what's uncle Argo's semblance? I asked him earlier but he never answered me." Coco looked at her mother and was surprised when she was met with a look of disbelief. "What?" She asked.
Shaking her head her mother asked her, "You really haven't figured it out after all these years?" A slightly mocking smile on her face she told Coco, "He disappears in a blink of an eye, he covers any distance in less than a second, and appears from nowhere without a warning or even a sound. You've seen his limp please tell me you can figure it out with what I've told you, if not then you take after him in more than just your stubbornness."
A look of realization shot across Coco's face and she felt so stupid that it took her mother explaining it for her to understand.
"HE CAN TELEPORT!?" she yelled in shock, making her mother jump in surprise.
"Sorry," she said sheepishly, "wait that means every time I tripped when I was younger he could've caught me and kept me from getting hurt." Coco crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. Watching her mother laugh at her expression made a thought suddenly return to the front of her mind. "Hey mom," she started trying to say it wrong and make her mother angry, "uncle Argo is only a couple of years older than you right, so why does he looks so old?" Once the words left her mouth Coco felt a cold chill run down her spine and looked at her mother, who was given her an evil look and waiting for her to reconsider what might be her last words. "What I meant was," Coco started in a panic, "was you look like you could be my older sister instead of my mother, but he looks like he could be my grandfather. I was just wonder why that was."
Having been calmed by the quick explanation Coco's mother sat back down and started an explanation of her own, "Well I told you about how he lost his eye and how that made him want to become a hunter but I never told you why we were outside the night the grim attacked the village." Coco was suddenly interested all her life her mother had avoided this subject and now she was going to tell her. "Well I guess I should start at the beginning, when I was born our mother got very sick and ended up dying a few weeks later, it lead our father into a deep depression, and a bottle of whiskey. Even with a nearly daily hangover our father still took care of us the best he could but there was only so much one person can do. He never stopped working and trying to keep us safe, your uncle is a lot like him in that way, but it eventually caught up with him. When I was 7 he collapsed from exhaustion at work, his body just couldn't take it anymore, he died a few hours later, we didn't find out until after school, suddenly we were orphans with nowhere to go. We didn't have any family that we knew of and ended up homeless, but your uncle took it upon himself to raise me, he learned how to forage for food and make a shelter in the alleys in town, it wasn't enough though so he started stealing to keep me fed. He'd go days without food just to make sure I had enough, at night he would keep watch to make sure nothing happened while I slept wrapped in blankets to keep me warm. We lived like that for 4 years, Argo had stopped showing emotion to anyone but me, then one day the shopkeeper caught him trying to steal some food, he had been caught a few times before a given warnings each time, but this time he was fed up with your uncle. He beat Argo until he could barely stand and left him in the alley next to the store."
Coco's eyes were wide she had long since started crying having never heard any of this before, she couldn't believe it her uncle had all but raised his younger sister himself and never asked for anything in return even after all these years. "Is that how he got the limp, from the beating?" she asked her mother, gasping in shock when she shook her head.
"I found him there a few hours later barely conscious and bleeding badly. When I tried to help him he just sat up and smiled, 'I'm fine,' he said, 'I'm just sad I couldn't get you any food today.' That night we stayed there in that alley, in the early hours of the morning we woke up to the sound of screaming, grim had attacked the village while we were sleeping. Argo slowly stood up and offered me his hand telling me we had to run, before I could grab his hand a ursa grabbed him by his head and through him against the store, the claws dug deep into his head and destroyed his eye, I thought he was dead. Unfortunately so did the ursa because it threw him away like a broken toy and turned toward me, as it got closer I screamed in fear. I saw it raise its claw to attack and closed my eyes as it swung, but I never felt any pain. It was at that time your uncle discovered his semblance, instead of pain I felt something warm drip onto me. I opened my eyes to see Argo braced around me, the ursa's claws deep in his left leg. His eyes were blank and lifeless as the ursa continued to attack taking chunks from his back, arms and legs, but he never faltered he stayed there taking hit after hit but never falling, like the wall of a castle against catapults. The entire time he kept muttering 'not her, you can't have her,' when the hunters finally showed up he was barely alive. When he recovered he decided he wanted to become a hunter so he could help people, and that was the start to a life filled with nothing but pain and fighting." Coco sat there finally realizing just how much her uncle had sacrificed to protect his sister and wonder how he was still alive, and if he was even sane anymore. "Then," her mother said breaking her train of thought, "something happened that gave him a reason to come back and protect the village again." Coco looked at her mother wondering what could possibly make a man return to the town that nearly killed him time and time again. "You were born," her mother said smiling. "When you were born and your father left, Argo came back to town to help me raise you, he felt he was finally needed again." Coco's mother had a sad smile on her face as she look of into the distance of a memory. "Now it's late Coco, time for you to go to bed so you can be ready for your birthday party tomorrow." With that her mother left to get ready for bed, and Coco was left with her thoughts.
AN:Well this took forever to write I hope you enjoy this story and if you guys have any requests for stories let me know and I'll try and make one you like, but right now I need to sleep, so back to the coffin I go.