Chapter One: Family Found
(Rykers pov)
"I should break your little fingers for this you stupid brat!" The shop owner screamed, the veins in his neck and forehead bulging. His boot stomped onto my side, my ribs aching from the abuse.
"I'm sorry!" I cried, voice high pitched and broken, tears streaming down my face as I curled into as tight of a ball as possible.
The man kept kicking at me, all because I clutched a loaf of bread to my chest. I had stolen it, the days without food prior whittling down my will to not steal the food I needed to survive.
"You will be you stupid punk, you will be sorry when you get thrown in jail!" The man shouted, his fist reaching down and grabbing ahold of my hair. The pain of being lifted tore a nasty screech out of me, my voice echoing off the walls of the back alley we were in. Yet even as I screamed and pleaded nobody came to save me, they all just walked past the alley without a care.
This was life as an orphan in the slums of Atlas. I was born to a normal human family, we lived in the capital, till one day they just disappeared. The house I grew up in was empty and up for sale. My mom, dad, and older brother were gone. I tried to go to the cops, but they just wanted to put me in an orphanage in the slums that was meant to get children ready for military life. I might only be eight, but even I knew what a death sentence that orphanage would have been. That was only a few weeks ago, now I was struggling every night to find a place to sleep, and digging through trash to find half-eaten food and drink.
I hung limply in the man's massive hand, my skull burning from the pain of being lifted by my hair. My arms fell limp, dropping the loaf of bread to the rain-soaked ground as my vision became foggy, little black dots clouding my vision as everything began to look like a tunnel of inky black. I hardly register the feeling of being roughly dropped to the ground, as muffled shouting sounded out right above me.
I lay there on the stone floor, my face half submerged in a puddle of rainwater from the storms that had been happening every night for the past week. I let my eyes fall close, the cold lulling my body to sleep. I really wanted to sleep. Things would be ok if I did.
Just as I was about to slip into unconsciousness I felt searing warmth surrounding me. My body lifted up as someone cupped my head and carried me, both of their arms wrapped around me, every point of contact feeling like fire licking at my skin.
I tried to squirm, fear starting to creep into my mind about who was holding me, on where I was being taken. However, the moment I started to squirm a warm voice whispered in my ear.
"It's ok baby, I have you. You are safe with me."
I groan, my entire body aching and protesting as I try to sit up.
"Oh sweetie please stay down, you were in bad shape when I found you." The warm voice from before spoke. My eyes cracked open to try and see who was talking to me but winced from the blinding light of the room.
"Who are you?" I mumbled, my heart beating faster and faster as this stranger kept their hand on my chest, making sure that I wouldn't try and get up again. My eyes finally adjusted to the lights in the room, and the warm voice being revealed to belong to a woman.
A kind woman with platinum white hair done up in a bun, her ice blue eyes looking down at me fondly. As I scanned her face I noticed two white bear ears adorned the top of her head, the white circles poking out from her hair. They twitched slightly as I stared at her.
"My name is Maria. What's your name, little one?"
I hesitated, Maria was a stranger and I shouldn't talk to strangers unless they were cops or doctors, but she also helped me from that shopkeeper. "I'm…Ryker." I murmur, having a hard time looking her in the eye.
"That's a cool name, Ryker. Can you tell me who your parents are? Do you know your mom or dad's scroll number?"
I shake my head, the question tearing a sob out of me.
"Oh sweetie don't cry, I'm sure we can find them." She murmured, pulling me gently into a hug, her hand combing through my hair.
I struggled trying to push away from her, shaking my head even more as the tears kept spilling. "No, they are gone. They left me and moved away. I don't know where they went and the police want me to go to the military recu-recrui-re-re-" I babble, stumbling on the word I didn't know how to pronounce.
"The military recruitment center? Oh, sweetheart." Maria gasped.
I just nod, fat tears rolling down my cheeks pathetically as she pulls me back into another hug, this time using her stupid adult strength so I can't stop her. She held my head to her chest as I sobbed and heaved, letting me cry myself out. It was the first time I had cried since my family had left. I think I was in shock ever since, the weight of it all finally crashing down on me in my weakened and broken state. This kind lady offered me the first bit of kindness I'd had in weeks.
"I don't wanna go. Please don't make me go to the police. They will just make me go there."
She stayed quiet for a moment as I begged. I was finally able to push away from her hug and her eyes seemed lost. She didn't answer for a moment, her eyes locked on me as she became lost in thought. "I won't make you go sweetheart. Atlas is not kind to orphans like us."
She giggled at the look of disbelief that was on my face. "You're an orphan too? How, you're like, super old." I exclaim.
"Tchhh I'm thirty-four you little brat!" She snapped, making me flinch slightly. "I used to be a kid too, and when I was a kid I was a street rat. Look," Maria sighed, her face becoming conflicted. "I will let you stay with me, we will get you new documents and get you in school where you should be. I refuse to let you live here without you working towards getting your education."
My eyes widened, and before I could even realize what I was doing I was hugging her with all of my might. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" I repeated it over and over.
I felt Maria's arms lift, hesitating for a moment before they curled around me, her grip shaky but strong and all-encompassing.
"No problem, little one. No problem."
Life became somewhat normal when Maria adopted me, we got weird looks when we went out for groceries or when she had to run errands. She kept having to show the police her papers labeling me as hers. Every time was scary, the Atlas police always seemed to push her around far more than I had seen them handle others when I lived with my previous family. One time was really scary, the police had drawn their weapons and put her in handcuffs and it took hours before they released me back to her, the entire time they asked me where my family was and no matter how many times I told them Maria was my family they wouldn't believe me.
It was always scary and even a year later as I was now only a few months away from being ten we still had to deal with it every now and then. I grimaced as I saw another human whispering to her husband when she saw me walking through the market with my hand in Maria's.
"Mo-Maria?" I asked softly, my eyes still refusing to ever look people directly in the face as I scanned the various stalls and shops of the active market.
"Yes, little one?"
"Why do people always think we aren't family?"
Maria sighed, her hand squeezing mine, something she always did when she was trying to reassure me. "It's because I'm a faunus and you're a human Ryker."
"Why does that matter?"
"Because humans are racists and think faunus are dirty animals. They see me with you and two things cross their minds. Either I'm a servant of your actual family, or they think I have kidnapped you and am trying to get you somewhere alone to do who knows what."
I nod trying to take in what she had told me. However, it still didn't make a whole lot of sense. "What does racist mean?"
"Racist means to have bad thoughts about someone just because they are different from you. For humans, they all think that we are nothing but dirty animals, no different than a pet you would get at a store."
"I'm human, does that mean I'm racist?" I ask, my voice starting to raise in concern. "Cause I don't think you are a dirty animal. You're Maria! You are nice and smart, and you make the best food, and you always tuck me in at night, and read to me, and help me with my homework, and you are just super cool. You're the best mom anyone could ask for!" I practically shout.
I slam my mouth shut as I realize what I had just said. Maria had stopped walking, turning to face me, her mouth slightly agape as she stared down at me. I averted my eyes from her own, her staring starting to make me think I had said something stupid again. Before I could even start to spiral I felt Maria wrap me up in a hug, my feet leaving the ground as she hugged me tight.
"You called me mom." She hiccuped, my shoulder growing wet from her tears. "I love you, baby, I'm so happy to be your mom."
I squirm trying to push out of the hug, my face beet red from embarrassment as she kept telling me how much she loved me. I didn't understand why she was so excited. I thought it was obvious that she was my mom. She was way too old to be an older sister.
"Maria stop, people are looking!" I whined, pressing a hand against her face making her giggle.
"Let them look, it's just a mom showering her perfect little baby boy in affection." She responded before planting a kiss on my forehead.
"Grosssssssss stop it." my leg kicking out and hitting her in the ribs, she grunted dropping me.
"Ow, you little brat. Imma get you!" Mom laughed as I darted through the market, weaving past dozens of people with Mom right on my tail.
I laughed as she faked a swipe at me to try and grab me, her hand combing through my hair for a brief moment. As we ran I saw a corner coming up, my grin widening as I took it sharply, my entire body slamming hard into a solid object that sent me to the concrete floor.
"Ow, watch where you're going, you dirty human!" A man shouted, an angry feline tail flicking back and forth behind him irritably. He reached down, fisting my shirt and lifting me up into the air. "Stupid human, think that you can just run into people without any consequences?"
The man raised his other fist up as if he was gonna hit me. I yelped, closing my eyes and turning my head away, bracing for the punch.
"Put my kid down if you wanna be able to walk away." My mom's voice cut through the air, her normal happy cadence replaced with something that made it feel like I had ice water flowing through my veins.
I dropped to the ground, scrambling to hide behind Mom. The man looked at me with confusion before looking at my mom. "Mara?"
"Eston."
Eston shook his head, apparently in disbelief as he kept looking from me to Mom over and over. "What do you mean "my kid?""
Mom growled, her fist clenching. "I mean my kid, my child, my son."
"Does Damien know about this? Does he know you went off and are taking care of some little human maggot?"
"No, and he never will. I made it very clear that I was done. What I do now with my life is none of your or Damiens business."
They both stared at each other, anytime Estons gaze would shift towards me, a deep growl would pour out of Mom, her hackles raised. They seemed to be silently communicating, the whole situation causing panic to creep up. My heartbeat was pounding in my own ears.
"Did you leave for that little shit? Is that why you left us? We needed you and you just up and disappeared on us. We went to your place and you were gone, we didn't even know if you were still in the city."
"My reasons for leaving are my own. If you value your life you will forget you ever saw me and move on." Mom growled, her hand grabbing my own and pulling me away. "Come on sweetie, let's go get some lunch."
As she pulled us away, her pace urged me to hurry, trying to get me as far away from Eston as possible. I couldn't help but look back at him. He looked so angry, and he refused to look away from me, his fists clenched, mouth pulled into a deep snarl all the way till we turned the corner and he was out of my sight.
(Marias POV)
Life with Ryker was interesting. I had long given up on the idea of being a mother. My past being what it was I always thought that having a kid would be the wrong move. I was so young back then, the thought always being that I could have a kid later, and let my life calm down before bringing some poor kid into my mess. Then in my late twenties, I had taken a bullet, the doctors claimed it had to have come from some gang members, ignoring me telling them that it came from the gun of an Atlesian Military Police Officer who got trigger-happy during a peaceful protest that had turned sour. It shredded my insides, the bullets shattering and splintering within me like a belly full of razors.
It took from me something I could never get back. I had thought that it was the world telling me that being a mom was truly not in the cards for me.
Then I saw him.
A small, scared, and broken little boy, with pale skin, ashen white hair, and muddied hazel eyes, not even old enough to tie his shoe without reciting a song to remember how. When I saw that vile man holding him in the air, blood dripping down to the rain-soaked ground below. I moved without thinking.
By the end of that week, I had taken responsibility for a child. Had a friend forge papers for me, and then I packed everything up and we moved across the city. I left everything behind for him, and I have never once regretted it.
Now here we were, nearly four years later he was nearly thirteen. He was so smart, he had always done well in school, though he was socially behind the other peers his age. A few teachers had floated the idea to me that he might have been on the spectrum, but due to Atlas politics, our severe lack of medical insurance, and my struggle to hold down a job that would allow me to save up I couldn't get him tested, nor could I take him to a psychiatrist to see what they thought.
It made sense though. I had noticed that Ryker had a hard time keeping thoughts to himself, and also that he had an even harder time understanding facial expressions. I could be smiling and if my tone was slightly off he would think that I was absolutely livid, on the flip side he could see me actually upset and not even know it. Not to mention his aversion to noise. That boy hated being around anything louder than the silence of an empty room. His anxiety when in public or in crowds always showed if I didn't keep him distracted. He also seemed to lack the ability to focus on more than one thing at a time. When I had gotten him started on doing chores around the house he became a mess. It turned out it was much easier to tell him what I needed him to do one thing at a time. He eventually got it handled to where he did one chore a day so that every day of the week he knew what he needed to do and it was manageable for him.
Yet, even with all of these small little problems, I loved him. He was my precious little boy. I'd kill for him.
A knock on the door tore me away from my thoughts. Who could that be? Ryker wouldn't be home for a few more hours, and I wasn't expecting any company.
I moved from my spot in the living room to the door, opening it expecting a mailman or maybe a neighbor. It wasn't.
"Hello Mara, or should I call you Maria now?" Damian spoke coldly, the silver glint of his gun just peeking out of his vest.
Damian was a spotted gecko faunus, patches of leathery green and brown skin dotted his entire body. He had always referred to himself as more of a Faunus than others due to the amount of body coverage his Faunus traits covered. I always thought he was a prick for it.
"I thought I made it clear to Eston that you were all to stay away. "
"You can't leave the Fang and expect to just be left to your happily ever after Mara. You had responsibilities and you abandoned them. I should kill you right now for what you did, but that's not why I'm here."
Why should I even bother listening to you?" I growl, one hand on the door, the other reaching for the shotgun I kept behind it, always loaded.
"Because, should I not call my agent in the next half hour, or if I were to suddenly disappear. They have orders to kill your little human. A single bullet through the window of his classroom. Nobody would ever see it coming." The threat made me freeze, my hand pulling away from the shotgun.
"Come inside,"
Damien smirked as he pushed past me. He seemed to be taking every bit of my apartment in, probably going over where he thought I would stash any weapons, dust, or money. I see his eyes crinkle as he spots a floorboard that is a little too scratched up compared to the rest. I'd have to move the emergency cash from that spot the moment he left.
"The Fang needs you, Mara. We need your skills."
"No, what you need is someone disposable because you have a job you don't want to give to someone loyal." I snarl.
"That too." He smirked.
"I thought disappearing overnight and never contacting you would let you know that I was done working for the White Fang."
"No faunus who joins the White Fang is ever truly done with the White Fang. The way I see it is you don't have a choice. You either take this job which mind you is a cakewalk, or I kill that little human you have attached yourself to."
"You. Leave. Him. ALONE!" I snarl, my aura flaring up as the entire room drops in temperature, our breaths now visible within the home.
"And I will, and all you have to do to ensure my end of the bargain is to apply for this job at the Schnee Dust Company. We will handle pulling the strings for you to get hired and then all you have to do is make sure the information we want is discretely sent to us during your paid tenure at the SDC."
My eyes widened. The Schnee Dust Company? What did they want from them? The White Fang had always painted the SDC with a very vivid target of 'Do Not Engage' but now they wanted me to work there?
"Why?"
"Because Mara, the old ways are not going to work anymore, no more picketing, no more diplomacy, no more trying to change the system from within. The Fang are moving in a new direction, and you will help us get there by giving us the information we need to hit the Schnees where it hurts."
"I won't do anything that will put my child's future at risk, me getting arrested for corporate espionage is a fast way to do that."
My words seemed to disgust Damien, his brow furrowed, and the lines in his face seemed to sharpen. "Mara, I don't understand why you are so attached to some little human, is this about your injury? Are you going all crazy because you can't pop out a cub of your own? Tons of faunus orphans need a home and yet you pick up a privileged disgusting human?"
"I found him in an alley being beaten to death by another human for stealing bread. His family abandoned him. He needs me!" I shout.
"AND WE NEEDED YOU!" Damien shouts back, his voice bouncing off the walls of the tiny rundown apartment.
Damien let out a sigh, running a hand through his greasy hair. He pushed past me opening the door so he could leave, apparently he was done with me for now. "You will take this job, Mara. If you disappear again we will look for you. If you refuse to do what you need to do, then we will kill your little pet. Don't be difficult and you will have a steady income and also help the Fang, your one true family."
"I have a true family, and it starts with and ends with my son. You aren't my family, and neither is the White Fang." I bite out defiantly, though I already knew that I would need to do what he told me for now.
"I'll contact you when it's time to start your new job, goodbye Mara." With those final words, he left. The door clicked shut as Damien left me to my thoughts.
I couldn't contain the scream of anger that ripped out of me once I knew he was truly gone.
(Rykers POV)
My cheek throbbed, my ears ringing as I felt another punch land flush across my cheek. I cover my face as the asshole keeps swinging on me, hit after hit till I finally crumble to the floor.
"Stupid animal fucker. Next time mind your own business." He hissed.
"Todd we gotta go!" One of his friends urged pulling him away. Todd gave one last withering look as he turned and ran off with his friends.
"Are you ok?" A timid voice asked, grabbing my attention. A rat faunus standing a few feet away from me, her ears pulled back in concern and fear.
"I'm fine, couldn't let them just bully you, my mom would kill me."
I slowly climbed to my feet, feeling blood dripping out of my nose. She seemed to flinch when she saw how bad my face looked, her eyes refusing to meet mine. A stampede of feet grabbed our attention. Four other Faunus ran up to the rat girl, pushing me out of the way. Some kind of dog faunus wrapping her up in a hug, checking her over for any injuries.
"Amy, are you ok? We came as soon as we heard that Todd was messing with you." The dog faunus spoke.
"Yeah I'm fine, he didn't do anything to me," Amy murmured, her eyes glancing over to me. The dog faunus follows her gaze and locks eyes with me. He glared, his face contorting into some semblance of disgust and contempt that even I could read.
"Was he part of it?" He sneered.
Amy shook her head, grabbing onto the dog Faunus when he tried to pull away and come towards me. "No, he wasn't. He-" She cut off for a moment, looking as if she was trying to find the right words. Her eyes looked at her fellow faunus who seemed to be looking at her as to what to do. "He's nobody…He is just another person that Todd bullied."
My heart broke, the pieces sinking into the pit of my stomach as the dog Faunus seemed satisfied with Amy's answer, finally ignoring me as he pulled Amy away, the group leaving me alone in the hallways of the high school.
I tilted my head back, keeping my bloody nose from making any more of a mess. High school had been hell, mom insisted that I go to a public mixed school. A place with an equal amount of humans and faunus. She thought that it would give me the opportunity to make friends with both other humans and faunus alike. She was so wrong.
I didn't fit in anywhere. The humans would always distance themselves from me the moment they found out that I didn't have negative views of faunus, and the Faunus stayed away from me on the principle of me just being human. it was hell, I was in a place of two warring factions, the humans versus the faunus and I belonged to no side.
I groaned, shaking my head a bit, the bleeding finally stopped as I grabbed my backpack from where I had thrown it down. The school day was almost over and I frankly didn't wanna go to class looking the way I currently did. So skipping the rest of school was my only option.
Sneaking out a side exit was always the easiest way to skip without alerting any of the faculty that's what I was doing. slipping into a back alley and making my way into downtown proper, the school I went to was slotted in the heart of the city, with plenty of buildings surrounding us making sneaking away easy.
I didn't have any spare cash so my only options were to go bum around downtown or head home and probably get into a fight with Mom about skipping my final few classes. However, if any cop had figured out that I was ditching and caught me, my mom would be even more furious than she would have been if I had just gone straight home. It was a pretty easy decision when I really thought about it.
The walk home only took me twenty minutes. the sprawl of the city slowly thinning out to a bunch of apartment complexes. Unlocking the door and slipping inside I threw my backpack at the spot in the corner that I always left it in.
"Mom!" I called out, hearing her messing around in the kitchen, her voice aggressively talking to someone before stopping in response to my voice.
"Ryker?" She called back questioningly.
I walked into the kitchen and saw Mom and some guy. Oh god was she dating? She never mentioned that she had a boyfriend. They look about the same age. The man was a Faunus, his patchy green and brown skin proof of that. He looked at me with a confused face. it was hard, and he looked angry but also like he knew me.
"Who's this?" I ask, finger lazily pointing at the man. Making sure to keep my now swollen eye turned away from my mom, I didn't want her freaking out just yet.
Mom seemed to take a second, her face a weird mix of emotions, the only one I could really pick out was concern. "This is my friend… my friend-"
"Damien. It's nice to meet you. Your name is Ryden right?" The man said getting up from his chair and offering me his hand to shake.
"Ummm it's Ryker, sir." I said softly, taking his hand. When I did I heard my mom's breath hitch as Damien proceeded to grip me strongly. I hissed in slight pain before he let me go, an unapologetic smile on his face.
"Right sorry kid, sometimes I forget how weak you humans can be." He teased, though his eyes showed anything but playfulness.
I frown at the comment but bite my lip. I had been around Faunus long enough to understand that most of the time they said things like that simply because I was the first human that they had ever met that didn't despise them and they simply weren't used to it. Being negative about humans comes naturally to them. To be fair I hated humans too, I just had to deal with the fact that I was one on top of it.
"Ryker, why are you home? School isn't supposed to be out for another two hours." The tone in my mom's voice told me that more than anything she was upset that I had come home to whatever this exactly was.
I turned my face towards her finally, the moment she saw my swollen left eye she gasped and came out from behind the kitchen counter, her hands automatically reaching up to cup the air around my face, her hands shaking and scared to actually touch the budding black eye.
"Some asshole human was harassing a faunus girl and I told him to stop. So instead of picking on her, he picked on me."
Damien whistled as he looked me up and down. "You stood up for a faunus? While the sentiment is great, how were you going to do anything? You're like what, five feet of nothing, and maybe a hundred-twenty pounds soaking wet?" He mocked earning a nasty look from my mom who was already using her ice semblance to cool down my cheek.
"I am five-two and three quarters thank you very much!" I growl though it turns into a yelp as suddenly my mom's hand is pressing on the bruise a lot harder than before. I smack at her hand, leaning away from the evil woman and her icy mitts, giving her an annoyed glare that she returned in kind. "Besides, it doesn't matter how much bigger or stronger the other person is, I saw someone in need and I acted. wasn't much to think about."
"Those sound like the words of a huntsman in the making," Damien grunted.
"I wish, this little brat wants to be some sort of big shot lawyer," Mom grumbled, my cheeks flushing at her dour look.
It had been a point of contention since I turned thirteen. Mom had begged me to sign up for a combat school anywhere but Atlas. She told me over and over how she was stuck here but she didn't want me to be. that if I became a huntsman I would be able to travel the world and make decent money while doing it. I refused on the sole basis of her wanting to leave Atlas and go somewhere else like Vale. I wasn't going to leave her, my place was in Atlas with her.
"Not a lawyer, I want to be a Faunus civil rights advocate. I want to work directly with Faunus and help them gain equal treatment and equal opportunity. some restitution would probably go a long way too." I groan, feeling like I was repeating myself. Oh wait I was, we had had this talk twice this week.
"Those are some righteous and selfless goals kid. What do you get out of that? What's the reason a little human like you gives two shits about us Faunus?"
I snort, side-eyeing the man who more and more I was suspecting was anything but my mom's new boyfriend. He was too much of a jerk for her to date him.
"Why do I have to get anything out of it? Why can't I just do it because it's right?"
"Because nobody is that selfless. So spill it. Is what you want admiration? to be perceived as a paragon of virtue? Or maybe you have preferences for us faunus? The girl of your dreams happens to have a tail, maybe some ears, and because you have a little hard-on for her, do you think that means you need to help her? Be her savior? A little white knight that will get the girl?"
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I bark, fists clenched as I take a step towards the man.
"My problem is you, you little shit!" Damien snarled, taking a step towards me in turn.
"Enough!" My mother roared, stepping between us, her gaze entirely on Damien, though she had a palm firmly on my chest pushing me back, keeping me from rushing the man. "You will not come into my home and insult my child." She snarled to Damien who looked absolutely murderous. "Ryker go to your room. Now!"
I open my mouth to argue, to say how it should be Damien who should be the one being sent away. He started the fight, he was the one who talked down to me the entire time.
"Now Ryker," Mom growled, her blue eyes shining from her aur that was now crawling under her skin. I was so dead. I would be lucky if I didn't end up grounded till I finished my senior year.
My mouth snapped shut, my anger turning into tears that spilled down my face. My throat was hot, and I was barely keeping down the shame of crying in front of this douchebag. I hated this, this always happened when I got angry.
I turned away and power walked to my room, forcing myself to not run, to not make myself look any worse. I slammed my door, not caring how loud it was. I practically collapse into my bed, burying my face into my pillow.
My emotions bubbled over as I finally let the first silent sob travel through my body, my voice completely lost to me. It always happened like this. My emotions became too large and I became incapable of holding it back. I lost pieces of myself in the maelstrom of emotion and feelings that made little to no sense to me. It had been like this since I was little. I would get overwhelmed by something, and I would lose my voice. if the situation was bad enough I would cry uncontrollably, silent the entire time, with my mind unable to stop the loop of emotions. my head going over the scenario that had caused the outburst in the first place continuously with no way of stopping it.
Something that someone normal would get over in a few minutes or hours took me entire days. The littlest bit of negative feelings dominated my mind for hours and hours after.
I hated it, I wished I was normal and could handle my own shit.
So I sobbed into my pillow, unaware of how long it had been, not bothering to even look at the clock on my nightstand to try and see. Eventually, I cried myself out, my body utterly exhausted, my eyes lidded and barely able to stay open as I felt everything become numb, another side effect of being me. Once the storm of emotions had passed, I became numb to everything for a while. like my body was a machine that processes emotions and after churning out emotion after emotion during my fits, the factory shuts down and processes nothing.
The sound of my door slowly opening and shutting had me turning my head to see my mom standing there. She saw my face and immediately knew what had happened.
"Oh, sweetheart." She sighed coming to my side, her hand tapped my side, my body already shifting to give her room to sit on the bed. "I'm sorry about Damien, he won't be coming around anymore. If he needs me he can text or call. He's no longer welcome in our home."
I roll over onto my side, on hand drifting up as I shakily sign out to her. "Sorry."
She sighed, pulling her hand up to sign back to me. My learning sign language was one of the things mom had randomly brought up, she wanted to make my life a little easier for me driving her to get me taught Universal Sign Language. Learning USL was hard but it gave me another tool to communicate when I had lost my voice. A way to talk without having to talk.
"I'm sorry that you met him," She signed back, a sad smile on her lips. "but you cannot go trying to fight anyone who makes you mad. that's how you get hurt, or worse killed."
"I wasn't gonna fight him, I just wanted him to stop treating me like trash," I argue.
"You absolutely wanted to fight him. I know you, you wanted to swing."
I rolled my eyes sighing, it wasn't like she was wrong. I might want to say that I just wanted Damien to stop, I really did want to fight him. The way he spoke about humans, about me, about my wants for my future. They all screamed that he thought I was less than.
I was used to being seen as weak or weird. The odd short human kid who cared about faunus but had no friends to speak of. However, that was usually by my peers, not full-grown adults who showed the same contempt a high school bully showed.
"Fine. I won't fight your boyfriend." I smirk teasing, Mom's face looking like she swallowed a lemon
"Gross I would never date someone like Damien." Mom spoke, breaking the silence that had been brought on by our signing back and forth.
I laugh, small bits of sound escaping my mouth as I begin to relax. Mom pulled me into a hug as she scooted further into the bed, pulling out her scroll.
"Want to catch up on the latest episodes of Grimm Battles? I hear the next episode is a family of Nevermores vs two Alpha Beowolves." Mom teased, shaking her scroll to try and entice me. I, the sucker I am for simulated death battles, immediately nodded as we settled in and pulled up the episode.
In moments like this, it made me wish that life didn't have to move forward and that things could stay the same. I just wish I had more time.