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Jung jbhyq n yvivat orvat gnfgr yvxr?
He can’t stop himself from flinching at the thought, briefly pausing in their dinner preparations,
standing at the kitchen counter beside the sink with a cutting board under his claws.
It’s been a long day at Headquarters, from helping the scientists with testing the new technology they’ve developed,
to teaching the trainees about the history that led to the formation of the organisation and fielding their questions.
He hasn’t had much of a break in-between, it’s no wonder why his instincts are acting up now.
Water swirls as Altina busies herself with washing rice behind him, flexing her fingers and spreading them again and again as
she meticulously watches the waves she’s created. She might be washing them a bit too long, actually, too detailed for her own good.
They should really speed the process up. Rean already feels bad for forcing Crow and Altina to wait for him to return,
they must be hungry from how late he was, and any more delays won’t do their health any favours.
“Altina, don’t you think you’ve washed it long enough?” Rean asks, having been watching her with one eye since she started.
He continues to chop the vegetables and meat they need for their dishes to pair with rice with two limbs shaped into steel knives hacking at whatever he holds in place with one claw.
Crow blinks from his place by the stove,
leaving the heating pot of soup alone for the time being as he makes his way over to Altina.
“Ya still on your first wash?” he asks as peeks at the water.
Rean can tell how white it is from here.
“Yes. You did not specify how many minutes is needed to fully clean it,
thus I made sure the individual grains have been pushed through the flowing water at least ten times,”
Altina says as she retracts her hands, placing them aside on the counter so Crow can have a proper look.
Gurve syrfu jbhyq tvir bhg nf rnfvyl nf gur vaterqvragf haqre uvf xavirf.
Jung nobhg gurve obarf?
“... Well, in that case, two washes ‘s probably enough.” Crow shrugs with one shoulder.
With his approval, Altina moves to dump the water as he moves back to the stove.
From the popping bubbles and the rising steam, the pot of soup is starting to boil.
Rean extends a claw over to turn the flames down.
“Shoot, thanks Rean.”
Crow hurries back, patting Rean’s claw as he retracts back to him.
“Mhm,” Rean hums as he moves on to chopping the meat, picking out the fat and leftover coagulated blood
with the tip of his knives and throwing them into a waiting plastic bag sitting in the sink before he starts.
Jbhyq ur arrq gb cvpx bhg nalguvat sebz uvf grrgu nsgre uvf zrny?
Gurve unve, gurve pybgurf, be abar ng nyy nf ur fjnyybjf gurz jubyr?
The tap is turned on as Altina covers the once-washed rice in the plastic basin with more water for her second wash.
She carries the basin with no trouble as she returns to her previous spot, climbing onto the step stool to reach the counter.
She made them promise to let her handle her responsibility, no helping, so Rean leaves her to it.
Crow is busy as he adjusts the flavour of the soup, tipping in salt and pepper, stirring the pot and
taking a spoonful to taste as he adjusts it little by little.
The steam from the pot rising and escaping through the ajar window. It smells really nice even from—
Sharp pain stings from Rean’s claw, he pauses chopping as soon as the meat is stained with black, muddy liquid—
dripping from him.
It’s dripping everywhere, floating in the air as they gouge him out piece by piece with their sharp claws.
No matter how he tries to shift and escape, a new limb will shoot out and hold him in place.
They laugh.
And laugh.
And laugh at his struggling.
He’s always moved alone.
Of course he did, when they jeered at his eating habits.
If he stayed, he knows they would’ve forced a living creature down his throat eventually,
once they were done playing and got a hold of a new territory to invade and consume.
So he ran away, yet they seek him out.
“Jul qb lbh xrrc qralvat lbhe angher? Yvfgra gb vg!”
It hurts.
Their steel limb pierces through his eye,
coming out the other end.
“P’zba, lbh zhfg jnag gb svtug onpx. Svtug nyernql! Uheg hf yvxr jr’ir uheg lbh!”
Another rips a mouth wide open, tearing and extending the ends of it to
a length that should only be possible with two combined.
“Lbh’er bar bs hf...”
He won’t feel it in a while, he knows. He has to endure. As long as he endures, they’ll get bored eventually.
When they do, that’ll be his chance to escape. He needs to be patient, wait and watch.
Svtug onpx
But it
H
U
Evc gurz ncneg
R
T
Fyvpr gurz vagb cvrprf
S
As they pull him apart. As his body turns into liquid and into dust.
As he holds back.
As he closes his ears as he closes his eyes as he ignores the voices around him as he ignores the voices from within
Screaming, crying, wailing
Stop it stop it let him go—
“Rean!”
A young girl’s shout. Altina.
He blinks, hard. Altina is standing beside him, grasping onto the end of his sleeve with tight fists.
She’s frowning, worry in her eyes.
“Rean?” Crow asks as he approaches from his other side,
gently placing a hand on his shoulder.
He looks worried too, his red eyes as intense as the last time they had a serious talk. Why—
Rean’s arms have slash marks, deep ones that leak more and more of the black liquid that hides within.
Revealing more and more of his true form. His steel knife limbs dripping with it.
Guvf vf jung ur’yy qb gb gurz, vs ur vfa’g pnershy.
He startles and retracts the limbs back into his body, holding his arms out as his skin slowly regenerates and patches up the cuts by itself,
rebuilding his black main body before he shifts it to the correct skin tone.
He didn’t mean to do that in front of them, where they can see.
“S-sorry. It’s okay, they’re already healing, so it’s okay...” Rean says, forcing his voice to
sound softer and calmer than the way his insides sink with the strength of a falling meteor.
Leaving his injured arms to heal, he pulls out two more limbs to take the stained meat towards the sink,
turning the tap on and cleaning the ugly liquid off of it.
Crow’s grip on his shoulder tightens.
Altina’s does too.
Gurl zhfg or qvfnccbvagrq va uvz.
He avoids looking at their faces.
This is his problem, an old one too. He should be over what happened, especially when it was such a long time ago and doesn’t matter now.
Now, he has such a big family. From the Schwarzers to Crow and Altina, he’s surrounded by good beings.
He shouldn’t feel lonely, he shouldn’t feel the same as how he did before the organisation saved him.
Luckily, the liquid comes right off and the meat is salvageable.
He closes his lilac eyes as he finishes cleaning the chopping board and places the meat back onto it.
Like nothing happened.
“Rean.” Altina does not sound impressed.
“We ain’t goin’ to let it go unless you explain yourself,” Crow says, leaving no room for argument.
He loosens his grip, and moves to caress his back instead.
Altina nods twice, letting go of his sleeve to pat his back too,
in mimicry of Crow.
Rean inhales, and lets out a loud sigh. He doesn’t bother trying to deny or fight it.
When they team up like this, he’s doomed to do exactly as they command. It’s a weakness shared by all three of them.
He steps away from the counter, letting Crow and Altina guide him to sit down at the dining table instead.
Crow goes back momentarily to the stove to turn off the fire and put a lid on it while also covering up the chopping board.
On the way, he throws the washed rice into the cooker and lets it run.
Altina sits across Rean, he extends an open claw on the table for her to hold as comfort.
She grasps onto it with more strength than he expects out of her.
Crow comes back, and sits down beside him, putting an arm around his waist.
For himself or for Rean, he doesn’t know.
Rean keeps quiet, lets them calm down as he chooses his words.
How does he explain it in a way they can understand? As far as he remembered, the scientists described it as...
“Out-group aggression, the behaviour of attacking anyone that does not fit with them.”
Rean focused his gazes on the surface of the table, the floor, the chairs, and a point on a wall behind him.
When he feels the confusion from Crow’s direction and the slight horror from Altina, he continues,
“I never fit in with my... species, for several reasons, so they would hurt me for it.
I didn’t want to fight back, and I ran whenever I could, but they would catch up and...”
He nods instead of going into detail of what they did.
Altina might’ve seen worse from where she came from,
but he doesn’t want to give her the violent details for her imagination.
Crow might not be able to stomach it in the first place.
Crow takes back his arm and holds Rean’s other claw instead,
squeezing it.
“I guess seeing my fluids leaking out made the memories come back, haha.
But it’s okay, it’s in the past and–”
Altina stands up, her chair skidding backwards.
Rean cuts himself off and watches her instead.
She makes her way over and stops beside him. He does not flinch, he tenses up.
She launches herself onto him,
wrapping her arms around his waist in a hug as she buries her face into his lap.
Crow uses his free hand to gently pat his head as he smiles.
Their touch is warm against the surface of his cold and hot, fake skin made to look like he fits in,
like how his black main body blends in with the infinite black of the sky beyond what they can see from Zemuria.
“It is okay to not be okay, even when you are supposed to be safe.”
Altina’s words are slightly muffled by his pants as she shakes her head.
“Millium said that, when we were first taken into the organisation.”
“What the li’l lady said. Don’t force yourself to be okay when you ain’t.”
Crow pets his hair, and brings up Rean’s claw to plant a kiss on the back, right on top of his knuckles.
“We’re here for ya, y’know? Just like how you’re always here for us.”
Rean blinks once, twice, as the last of their colourful words fade from the air.
Ur qbrfa’g qrfreir nal bs guvf.
Na nobzvangvba yvxr uvz.
“We’re not doing this because we’re being paid for it. We’re doing this because we want to, because we’re family.”
Teo, Father had said once with confidence, when Rean had asked
why they went out of their way to make sure he was comfortable in the Schwarzer’s home,
why they didn’t leave him alone like his first fosterer.
He didn’t understand it then, had quietly accepted it since they seemed upset he asked in the first place.
He sort of understands it now.
Two—No, three limbs extend out pick her up, seating her comfortably on his lap before returning her hug with controlled force.
Her smile is small, but her eyes are shining like green stars as she continues hugging him.
One glance tells him Crow isn’t close enough, so he extends two more to drag him over, to complete the family hug.
Crow yelps at the sudden pull, chuckling as he hugs Rean back, sneaking in a quick kiss onto the side of his neck,
light as the debris that float about the atmosphere.
Rean giggles, hugging them a little tighter without squeezing them too much.
It won’t do to accidentally squeeze the life out of them.
“Thank you.”
Guvf jba’g ynfg. Gurve yvsrgvzrf ner abguvat pbzcnerq gb uvf.
Even so, he wants to make the most of it while he still can, for their sake.
They deserve it, and much more than he can give them.
Doesn’t mean he won’t try, so they won’t regret choosing him at the end of their days.