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forebodingprophet · 10 months

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Moirai || Clotho C3P4

Hikaze trudged back home, too shocked to really function past allowing his autopilot to guide him. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to lash out. Damn him, Hikaze may have been a 12-year-old child, but he had the memories and experience of a 78-year-old man. Sure, his brain was still immature, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t experienced enough to handle whatever Anastasios had to say. But Anastasios had left no room for argument. Celia had something akin to an apologetic look (he couldn’t be sure because he’d never seen that kind of expression on her before) but hadn’t made any move to stop him. She clearly had no intention of intervening. He walked back through the threshold of his house with a silence his family had never seen from him, and a sullen, sour scowl that left just as bitter a taste in the mouths of those who saw it as Hikaze’d had the entire way home.

“Oh no, dear, what’s wrong?” his mother asked, rushing over and lobbying obviously fake concern. Something twisted in him as he realized this was how she’d always handled him, like she was playing a role.

“It’s nothing mom,” he replied, gently brushing her hands off his face, refusing to look her in the eyes. Not only had Anastasios thrown him away, but he also had to face the reality that his parents were secretly involved in some pretty dangerous business by himself. What had the Seer thought he was doing? Did he think not telling him was going to protect him from the reality of it somehow? Just because he planned to bolt tomorrow morning didn’t mean that he didn’t have to spend one more night next to potential slave traders. The thought only made his scowl deepen, and his ragged finger nails dug into his palm.

“Nonsense now,” his mother replied. Her voice took on an irritated edge, like his attitude was an inconvenience that she had to appease. Her hands found their way to his face again, this time more forcefully, the tips of her fingers grasping the lines of his cheekbones and jaw as she forced him to look at her. What she got was not the face of the energetic and overly-emotional child she knew, but the cold, unwavering stare of an adult, and Hikaze saw her falter. “Young man, I don’t know what kind of day you had, but you can’t glare at your mother like that,” she said, feigning sternness. Hikaze almost rolled his eyes. Had he actually been a child with only twelve years of memories, he might have caved to the gaslighting and broke down sobbing, unloading everything that happened that day. But he wasn’t. He recognized manipulation- people had tried to manipulate Kazuya and Esaias countless times in their attempts to gain some degree of power from their popularity. Esaias had t it worse, but Kazuya had his fair share.

Are you even really my mother?

The words sat on the tip of his tongue, and he came so close to saying them, but bit his lip.

“Sorry,” he ground out. “I just had a fight with Stasi. That’s all. I’m not feeling good, so I’m going to-” He paused, the sound of his uncle’s footsteps stomping over stopping him, and his mother backing away. Within moments his cheek felt like it was burning, and his neck had been snapped to the side.

“I don’t care what happened, you go apologize right now,” his uncle growled.

Hikaze held his cheek in shock. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been struck before. On a couple of occasions where his rowdiness and crass behavior had gotten out of hand, his mother had slapped him, but never this hard. He tasted blood in his mouth. The impact must have scratched his cheek against a tooth. Was this because of how he’d spoken to his mother? But he had swallowed his pride and apologized even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, so why-

“You go back, and you apologize to that boy.”

Hikaze’s rage from earlier came back. Still holding his cheek, Hikaze snapped back.

“I ain’t apologizing to that asshole fer shit!” Hikaze yelled. “He’s the one being a sanctimonious douchebag, pretending he knows what’s good for everyone else just because he knows a little more than we do.” Another smack, this time stinging his other cheek. But, instead of backing down, Hikaze just continued to glare at his uncle. The look his uncle was giving him wasn’t exactly peaceful either though- rather than rage, the man had a calm, wide-eyed scowl that would have made a real 12 year-old run whimpering with their tail between their legs.

“The Ofthalmós are a powerful house. You have no idea how lucky you are to be able to be able to interact with one so regularly,” his uncle bellowed. “Do you have any idea what a friendship with the Ofthalmós could get us? It doesn’t matter who is wrong here, you will march back there and apologize to him. You must maintain a friendship with that Ofthalmós boy. Do you hear me?”

Hikaze’s frown took on a whole new meaning. His mother wasn’t trying to stop this at all. It was ridiculous, yet she just stood off to the side, holding her hands to her chest and frowning at him. There was no way he was going back to apologize. Even if he did, Anastasios wouldn’t be there. He’d probably already teleported back to the estate. There was nothing for him to do. But the look in his family’s eyes said it all: he wasn’t going to be permitted here until he did.

“And what’re you gonna do if I don’t, huh? Kick me out? Go ahead. I’ll be fine even without you. Fuck this, I don’t have to put up with this.” Hikaze turned back to the door and made to leave only to find himself scooped up like a sack of potatoes and thrown back to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. It felt like all the air had been forced out of his lungs, and he vaguely heard his mother gasp as he tried to work air back into them.

“Hey now, don’t you think you’re going a bit far?” his father asked. His uncle ignored them and dug his foot into Hikaze’s chest. Hikaze glanced off to the side and saw Itsu gearing up to take his uncle on, but Hikaze shook his head.

“Go get Stasi,” he choked out. Itsu froze. He was just supposed to leave? Run away and leave his human behind? With no protection? “Itsu- AH!” Hikaze got cut off when his uncle ground his heel against Hikaze’s sternum.

“Minoru, grab it. Make sure it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s still useful,” his uncle barked at his father.

“R-Right!”

Itsu panicked, looking back between Hikaze and the door before finally moving to escape, but it was too late. By the time he reached the threshold, a bucket of cold water that was normally kept aside for the stove had been dumped on him, nearly extinguishing his fire and sending him into a fit of shivers.

“ITSU!” Hikaze struggled with his uncle’s foot, wrapping both his tiny hands around the man’s ankle, but not getting anywhere no matter how much he twisted and tugged. “You leave Itsu alone!”

“You have bigger things to worry about right now, boy. We aren’t done talking.”

Hikaze had his tiny hands wrapped around his uncle’s tree trunk of an ankle in vain.

“Nothing… you say… is gonna… make me suck up to that asshole,” Hikaze hissed weakly.

“See Minoru?” his uncle hissed as his father grabbed Itsu up by the arm. “I told you this idea was useless. Of all the kids you had to pick, you picked this ungrateful brat. The least he could do for all that time you spent ‘raising’ him is get you that cash cow, but now, because of him, we can’t even get a lead. I bet this punk knew you were following him, and that’s how you kept losing him. Fucking useless, all of you. Can’t even tail two brats.” Hikaze’s uncle lifted his foot, Hikaze’s hands still attached, and shook him off, flinging him into a nearby chair. “Boy, you’re gonna go back there, apologize to that petulant brat, and bring him here to us, understand?” His uncle walked over and took a nice fistful of Hikaze’s black-brown hair in his hand and lifted up his groaning head.

Hikaze took several moments to respond as he worked to catch his breath, but, when he did, the man was met, once again, with a gaze that couldn’t possibly belong to a child.

“…Not a fucking chance.”

Théo sighed as he rapped his knuckles against the wooden door in front of him. He’d never seen Anastasios so depressed. When he’d returned the previous day, he’d been uncharacteristically emotional, which told Théo that something had to have happened with Hikaze. Hikaze was the only person he got that emotional for. Add to that, this morning, Anastasios had thrusted a satchel of coins in his face and struggled to command him to deliver them to Hikaze, saying it was payment for the week’s services. Last Théo had checked, Anastasios had been planning on financing Hikaze’s journey by bringing him along, so what had changed yesterday? Anastasios had also told him very clearly to be very careful of Hikaze’s family. Did it have something to do with that? But, whatever it was, Anastasios should have known this fact well in advance, yet he’d still hung out with Hikaze. Was this what all his waffling about had been for? Théo sighed again when no answer came and knocked again, harder this time. Just as he was pulling his hand away, the door flew open to reveal a rather irate man who looked nothing like Hikaze.

“What do you want?” he growled.

“My name is Théodore Ofthalmós. I have come, at the behest of the young patriarch, to deliver payment for services rendered by a child of this house. Is Hikaze in?” Théo didn’t need to be a Seer to notice how the man’s demeanor quickly changed.

“Oh, one of the Ofthalmós- yes, now that I see, you do have some of their features,” the man said unusually loudly. Although Théo lacked the blond hair and golden eyes that poured with psychic energy, he still had beautiful features, olive-tanned skin, and the tapered ears that dominated his lineage. “Come in, come in. Let me get you something to drink.” The man opened the door wide and motioned for him to come inside, but, to Théo, the threshold looked like a gaping maw. He may not have been raised on quite the same curriculum as the gifted, but all Ofthalmós were raised to be cautious. Even the aníschyros were all highly intelligent and beautiful in their own ways. They weren’t worth as much, but they would still be worth something significant as slaves, not to mention there was always the high possibility of the gift skipping a generation.

“I’ll have to politely decline,” Théo replied. “My master is, unfortunately, rather busy at the moment, hence why he sent me.” A half-truth, Anastasios was busy, but that was not the reason Théo had been sent. Regardless, Anastasios would definitely permit the usage of himself as an excuse. “I need to hand these over to Hikaze right away and return so that I may aid my master in house affairs. Is Hikaze in?”

The man’s amicable mask faltered slightly. Something was going on. It didn’t take being one of the gifted to see that.

“Well… y’see, we heard about the trouble he caused yer boy yesterday, and he’s been grounded. Now he’s sulking and won’t come out of his room.”

“I see. Well, surely he’ll emerge if you inform him that his payment has arrived. The Young Master indicated that he was greatly looking forward to it.”

“I dunno…” the man drolled on. Was he stalling? Something about how he was talking didn’t seem right. “He must be going through some kind of rebellious phase, because he didn’t even come out for breakfast.”

“Then I will return when he is more amenable,” Théo replied curtly, trying to cut off the conversation.

“No, please, come in. You can just drop it off with us, and we can hold it for him, but I’d hate for you to come all this way and not at least offer you some tea,” the man insisted.

“Apologies, but my master insisted that I confirm that the money has been handed over properly. It was very impo-” The Espurr on his shoulder chirped loudly, and a sudden grunt behind him made Théo spin around. The Espurr had thrown someone to the ground and pinned them there with an attack. This man seemed to resemble Hikaze a bit more, but only in so much as they were the same ethnicity, a rare thing in this nation. Even still, Théo couldn’t see anything real of Hikaze in this man. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Damn, just a little more…” the unknown assailant grunted out.

“Skirí, Tele-” Before he could finish the command, something covered his mouth and he was pulled backwards towards the house. Skirí fell off Théo’s shoulder and bounced on the ground, stunned, her hold on the other man, also failing.

“Damnit, Minoru, you’re so useless!”

‘Minoru’ grunted as he stood up and cracked his sore joints.

“How the fuck was I supposed to know it’d do that? Their attention was supposed to be on you,” Minoru hissed, grabbing the Espurr and starting to drag her inside.

Shit. If he couldn’t get to Skirí, then there was no chance of escaping. Fortunately, his hands were still relatively free. He was physically fit. Théo didn’t do the same kind of martial arts training that Anastasios did, he still had some fight in him. He managed to jab his free elbow into his captor’s ribs. The man grunted and released him, and Théo put distance between them. He wanted to run properly, but there was no way he could leave Skirí. Not only would he not be able to make it back to the house without her, but she was his.

“Bastards… You’re behind Calypso’s disappearance too, aren’t you?” Théo spat.

“Like it even matters. Just give up. There’s no way you’re going to get away from us.”

Théo could feel his chest quivering. He was scared. Although he’d always hated how oppressive the house had been, now he understood why they were that way. He’d rather be under their thumb than be these people’s captive. He had to get Skirí away so he could give the teleport command. Théo glanced around. Although not on a main street, people had started to gather because of the yelling. Doors were opening, heads were peeking out of windows. If he could cause enough of a scene, then they’d have no choice but to let him go. He took the brief moment he had while his opponents tried to figure out their next move to gather his breath and think of what he could say that would get peoples’ attention. Should he call them thieves? Should he alert them to the real situation? No, all of that relied far too heavily on sympathy- for someone else to be a hero. Théo knew there were few as willing as his master to do such a thing.

“If you think House Ofthalmós will let you poison the well, you have another thing coming!” That seemed to work. The crowd behind him was swept with waves of murmurs. Poisoning a well was a serious offense. It would make the town unlivable. Even House Ofthalmós would struggle to mitigate that kind of damage. That kind of accusation from someone who claimed to be from House Ofthalmós no less, was an all but certain stigma. Loud shouts and yells started to come from the people behind him, and Théo’s opponents scowled as they tried to determine their next move.

“What now Raoul?” the man called ‘Minoru’ asked Hikaze’s ‘uncle’. “This is bad…” Being accused of trying to poison a water supply wasn’t something they could just come back from.

‘Raoul’ spat disdain for Minoru’s perceived incompetence back at him alongside some truly vile slurs. “Since we couldn’t get our hands on the golden goose, we absolutely have to get this one,” Raoul snapped once his tirade was over. But now the tides were against them- menfolk from the crowd had started stepping forward, yelling and shouting, convinced by the man from House Ofthalmós’ accusations and eager to prevent calamity from befalling their families. Théo started trying to weave a lie to get them more riled up, only for Raoul to slam a hand over his mouth before he could make the situation any worse for them. House Ofthalmós were known protectors of the towns around their land, and it behooved all parties involved not to let any harm come to the people from it. The pounding in Théo’s chest began to subside as the other townspeople stepped forward to ‘help’, but he couldn’t help the distinct feeling that something was wrong. As much as he needed Skirí back, they should have taken off running as soon as it became clear that they were outnumbered. But they hadn’t, which told Théo that they still had something else that made them believe that they could get something out of this. As the crowd approached, Théo watched as Raoul reached into a pocket and pulled out something. Whatever it was, it seemed to fill his entire hand as his fingers curled around it. Théo didn’t need The Eyes to See to know that thing was trouble.

“Minoru, cover ‘em!” Minoru threw down Skirí, who landed on her side with a loud squeak, and shielded his eyes. Raoul also covered his eyes as he crushed the orb. It shattered like glass in his hand, spraying invisible shards that glinted iridescent as they flew through the air around him and releasing something that was nearly the size of an adult human. Had it been a Pokeball of some kind? But those didn’t exist anymore, not to mention it’d shattered, rendering it unusable. There was so much to unpack, but Théo’s newest concern was that what’d it’d released was now looming over them. The creature resembled a Pokemon he’d only seen before in books, but the color and plumage were completely different. It screamed loudly over the rooftops as it glared down at them. A few people turned to run but then froze in their tracks staring up at it, unable to look away. Théo too found himself unable to move as crippling fear was poured through his whole body. This must be its ability. The weaker-willed were the first to faint, but they were lucky. They couldn’t feel the fuzziness that started to creep into their minds. The fear was still there, ever-present, but now other things were starting to slip away. Why was he here? Hadn’t he come here to do something? It was definitely something important. His master had sent him explicitly- Wait… who was his master again? Théo caught a glimpse of Skirí trying to reach towards him on the ground. He needed to go now, before he forgot that he needed to go… but Skirí couldn’t reach him before he’d forget again. “Skirí, teleport…” A sad chirp left the Espurr’s mouth as she obeyed, leaving without her master. Théo barely registered her disappearance as the last of his consciousness faded out.

#swearing tw #Hikaze #Théodore #Return of the Progenitor || Sun!Verse #Moirai || Clotho #Clotho || Chapter 3 #violence tw

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