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 Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 1:08 am
From the moment his mother handed the tiny, soft, murmuring bundle of blankets to him, and he'd looked into his newborn sister's eyes -so shockingly, electric blue-, Valeriu knew she was something special. Sydni, he felt sure, was destined for greatness.
Greatness their parents might never see, for one day they had simply vanished, leaving Valeriu and Sydni alone and lost in the world; barely ten years old, he took up jobs, as many as he could find, to keep them afloat out on those rough and stormy seas. He saw them through all the threats the City had to offer.
Through the monsters and ghosts that had wracked Middling. Through the rumors of strange children with strange powers breaking into fights in the streets, the newspaper plastered with photos almost weekly - the unexplainable and mysterious murder of a girl, the windows of a cafe smashed to bits by a pair of warring gene-modders.
Through the first time he had come home, only to find his sister had changed.
~*~*~*~*~
"S-Sydni?" He couldn't, wouldn't believe his eyes, the key to his front door clutched tightly in his white-knuckled grip, his backpack dropped to the floor in shock.
The teary-eyed girl sitting on his couch could not be his sister, his mind rebelled. His sister, who he carried around in his backpack because they couldn't afford a proper baby carrier, could not be this girl who, surely, was the same age as him, or even older.
Not this girl, with shimmering green feathers in her hair. Not this girl, with blue paint staining the palms of her hands, and a shadowed stripe of charcoal-smudged skin crossing her face from ear to ear. Not this girl, with his sister's electric blue eyes staring into his own in confusion and deep, unabiding terror.
He blinked, once, twice; took a step forward.
"Sydni-?" he tried again, voice springing weakly from his throat.
"V-Varu!" In a flash the girl had launched herself off the couch to latch onto his scrawny body, and he could only hold her as the waves of shock washed over them both.
It was the first time he heard his baby sister's first word, his own name, and she was no longer technically his baby sister.
~*~*~*~*~
Sydni had made friends, and Valeriu was not quite sure he approved. In fact, Valeriu was very sure that he disapproved.
"No," he said, firmly, putting his foot down. "I do not v'ant you associating v'ith boys."
"Varu," Sydni retorted in that tone of voice, attempting to lean around him in order to reach the doorknob. She now had a foot of height and five years of age on him, and he'd still managed to trap her in the house. "It's just Quinn and Fish. You know them."
"Da, I know them," he muttered, darkly.
"You like them, you told me you did, said they were cool and nice to you," she reminded him, patiently, as if he'd merely forgotten. It worked, a bit; the familiar expression of guilt and inner-conflict cropped up on his face, and she waited for him to work it out.
"Da, yes, I mean, yes, yes I d'eed - do," he stuttered, correcting himself, before leveling a solemn frown at her. "But not...not v'ith you. And them. Not v'ith my s'eester. I do not like ee't."
It took her a moment to realize his issue, and when she had, she couldn't help but muffle a laugh behind her palm. But the damage was done - Valeriu swelled up in affront, honey-brown eyes narrowing.
"V'hat ee's so funny?"
"Varu," she snuffled, muffling further chortles as she drew him into a hug. She could feel the tenseness lining his thin shoulders slowly evaporate, disappearing altogether by the time his arms snaked back around her waist. "Silly Varu," she chided, threading her fingers through his messy black hair. "It's okay, I promise. Seriously - you don't need to worry about them, at all. I guarantee that."
He snorted, disbelieving, and those wiry arms (so strong for a child his age, she knew, strong from all the work he'd done to care for them in their parents' absence, months of strain and dedication and care that she'd never be able to fully pay him back for) tightened further.
"Really?" he muttered, fingers plucking at the back of her shirt in worry. Worry that some unworthy man would come and sweep his baby sister off her feet and from under Valeriu's nose. His cheek pressed against her shoulder, and he stared hard at the blue inks that had jumped their way up his sister's arms since she'd grown again.
"Really," she affirmed, gently releasing the hug and nudging him back.
"Okay," he relented, although it looked like it frustrated him to say so. "You may go. But back before night falls, da?"
"Da," she chimed, playfully mussing his hair. His nose scrunched, but he made no move to shove her off. She swept a kiss against his forehead, dancing around him to pick up her bag and open the door.
"Be good, Varu. Maybe go give Ciro a visit?" A mischievous glint sparked her eyes, a smile pulling at her lips as she slipped out the door. "I'll give Writ your regards, too!"
"V'hat--!" But his cry outrage was readily dampened by the door shutting.
~*~*~*~*~
"We need to go, Varu."
His sister was another few years older by now, and as far from normal as he'd ever imagined. Her eyes - the only constant thing about her - were unusually darkened with grief. He paused in his stirring, the stove-top meal losing his attention. He stared at her figure in the doorway, unsure.
"V'hy? Ee's - ee's something v'rong?"
His sister wavered, before sliding to the floor, crying into her hands, and dinner was all but forgotten as he rushed to her side. He curled his arms around her bowed head, soothing her anxiously.
"Nani, nani, puiul mamii," he hummed in a half-song, biting his lip and brushing his hands across the tears, thumb rubbing at the black bar across her face as if to wipe a smudge away. "Ee't ee's okay, ee't v'ill be okay," he chanted, reassuringly, and he willed her to believe it.
~*~*~*~*~
They were on a boat. Valeriu would've normally thought this quite exciting (he'd never ridden on a boat before), were it not for the fact that he was in the company of strange strangers traveling far from their home city that, by now, was gone.
Sydni had tried to explain to him, earlier, but he'd been too overwhelmed to process more than gods and blessed. The rest had gone over his head, much like when she'd tried to explain something about birds and bees and something about swing-dancing or baseball teams after he'd badgered her about hanging out with Quinn so much, who he was not enthralled with having over at their house nearly 24/7.
The guy said weird, weird things that made Valeriu doubt his own grasp of the English language. He spoke too fast, too, and was ridiculously over-the-top in everything he did. Such a bad, bad influence on Sydni.
But that was neither here nor there. Here was a boat full of people like Sydni, people with gods who could do things like his sister could, huddled together with their own families.
He recognized Quinn and Writ, who Sydni was currently talking with, and there were the Carnegies (those pair of devils from his construction job), though he was keeping an eye out for Fish and Ciro. Sydni said they might be on another boat.
Then again, she had still been crying when she said that. A lot of the people here were crying, too. He watched them, curiously and silently, before his gaze slid over another girl - younger than his sister, but older than him - sitting by herself.
Maybe it was her similar markings (the black band over her eyes, the ink along her arms), maybe it was because she, too, was looking so very lonely, and she had no one with her, but he, hesitantly, slid over to sit next to her, leaning against the rail and feeling the foggy chill of the unearthly river wafting up against his back.
"Hello," he greeted, very politely. "My name ee's Valeriu. V'hat ee's yours?"
For half a beat she stared at him, surprised. He dutifully noted that she had very strange eyes - a reddish, muddy lavender with hints of washed out blue.
"Te...Tepin," she said, then repeated it, as if to re-affirm the fact. "My name's Tepin."
Valeriu thought they were off to a great start. Evidently, he was wrong, however - as her murky-red eyes soon welled up with tears, and he jolted, startled.
"Ah! Do not cry," he pleaded, using his the sleeve of his sweatshirt to dab at her face in concern, tutting under his breath. "Pretty girls should not cry, da?"
"Look," he reasoned, pulling his backpack over and retrieving a fully stocked lunchbox out of it. "You must be hungry, yes? I v'ill share v'ith you. Ee'f," he stressed, "ee'f you can give me a smile. Deal?"
He was beyond pleased to find her sniffling gradually ceased. She met his serious and solemn frown with a wavering smile - but it was a smile nonetheless.
"Deal."
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Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 4:50 am
Their apartment - their new home here in Central - was small.
Easier to keep clean, he told himself.
The walls were painted off-white.
No ugly floral v'all paper.
It was a single-storied abode.
No stairs to trip on.
It was empty of anything but the basic furnishings.
No crooked book shelf. No giant stacks of old books and photo albums. No v'obbly v'riting desk, or beat up couch, or old-time radio. No closet full of clothes I never v'ear.
He clutched the lone, thick photo album to his chest, surveying his new, empty room wearily. Just him, Sydni, and the sparsely packed bags they'd brought with them.
No Mamă. No Tată.
The line of his mouth thinned, teeth worrying his lower lip. Valeriu shifted on his feet, looking at all corners of the room as if, somewhere, there was an answer to be found, but there wasn't. His hands shook, shoulders hunching, and he held the album in his arms all the more tightly, throat suddenly feeling too constricted - tight and thick and painful.
They'd left everything, everything behind in Southern.
~*~*~*~*~
It was interesting, having all the rest of the strangers on the boats in the nearby apartments. Tepin, the girl he had met, ended up being their next-door neighbor.
Ciro, on the other hand, when he eventually showed up from the path less taken, ended up being their room-mate. Quinn had already had a go at conniving his way into their flat, but Valeriu had just enough force in his lithe and gangly body to kick the idiot to the curb. Ciro, however, was immutable as stone and altogether impossible to shove out the door. Worse yet, Valeriu was sure he and Sydni were involved somehow, and that was not okay.
He was also unbelievably lazy.
"You are unbelievably lazy," he hissed, picking up shirts and pants and socks and the more common empty bottles of alcohol that lined the couch in concentric rings of disarray. Ciro did not budge an inch from his lounge on the couch, except for the self-satisfied smirk that stretched all the wider.
"What's for lunch?"
"I am not your slave." He pushed the clothing into the laundry basket, throwing the bottles into the recycling bin. To think, he'd once liked this man! Poor, stupid, younger Valeriu, he scolded himself. Ciro was a good-for-nothing, so unlike his initial impressions. If only he'd known the truth!
"Of course not," the horned Godling drawled, moving only to cross his ankles. After a minute, however, he grudgingly sat up. "Hey, kid." He patted the spot on the couch next to him.
Valeriu frowned at him, warily. "V'hat?"
"C'mere."
The boy gave it a moment's thought, before hesitantly taking the offered seat, crossing his arms and frown not leaving his face.
"V'hat is it?"
He couldn't help but perk up, however. Was Ciro about to say something? Something important? Sincere? An apology, a word of thanks? Was this to be Valeriu's first guy talk? Where he'd finally, finally be treated as an adult and equal by the man he'd looked up to since the moment they'd met at the construction site?
Valeriu's hopes and dreams were literally crushed as, swiftly and without mercy, Ciro's bulk came slamming down on him as the Godling lay back down, crossing his arms behind his head leisurely, completely and willfully ignorant to the boy's suffocation and desperate scrambling for freedom.
"Ggrrk--!" He was pinned into a tiny, crumpled ball between back muscle and couch seat, one arm swiping furiously in the air and free leg kicking uselessly. It was a slow death. This was murder!
"Hey, Ciro, have you seen Varu--" His sister's voice entered the room, only to break down into what sounded, suspiciously, like smothered giggling.
"Hey, Syd." The man's voice was too casual, considering he was committing homicide at the moment. "Nope, can't say I've seen him."
He tried to yell for help. He tried to signal S.O.S. in Morse code with his fist.
"Weird. Wonder where he's gotten to?" She sounded so delighted. So innocently puzzled, so amused.
He realized they were in on it, together.
"Check the kitchen," Ciro suggested, as if it was only logical that if Valeriu wasn't cleaning, he was in the kitchen. Her laughter disappeared into the next room. The older Godling gave a hum of appreciation. "That a**."
Valeriu's yell of rage may have been diminished by the couch, but his fist finally managed, nonetheless, to slam into Ciro's face.
~*~*~*~*~
Valeriu didn't like it when Tepin was around other boys. This, however, was different than how he felt about Sydni being around other boys.
Very different.
It was the difference between protectiveness and jealousy - between don't look at them and only look at me. And, today, it seemed so much worse. His heart burned unpleasantly in frustration.
Tepin had started out just a bit younger than him, he'd heard, though he'd met her after she'd first grown. On the boat, she had been only a few years away. In the months that followed, they'd grown close; he'd shyly grasped her hand in his, enjoyed treating her to his cooking and exploring the city with her, had even asked for permission, in his serious and responsible way, to kiss her chastely upon the cheek, which he had been granted. He'd even received a kiss on the cheek in return. It was his first, and he'd been absolutely elated for days.
Now? Now?
His hands were suddenly much, much too small. He was too skinny, too unformed. His voice was rough, but still pitched too high. He didn't have a single hair on his chin. He was tall for his age, but nowhere near as tall as a man.
He was nothing like Writ, or Ciro, or Fish or Quinn or Seth. He wasn't charming or masculine like the Carnegies.
He was a kid. Only twelve years old. And Tepin? Tepin was a Godling. A Cultist, now. She was suddenly far beyond him in a way he hadn't realized, even after what he'd gone through with Sydni. This was it. This was when she would pull him aside, and explain to him in that tone, the one you used when talking to children, that she was a bit too old for him, and that there were some very cute girls in his grade, and why didn't he ask one of them out?
"Varu?"
He stiffened, fingers curling anxiously over the step, staring hard out across the neighborhood's street in lieu of looking at her and seeing that expression on her face. Her older face. She'd only gotten even prettier, and all of this wasn't fair. In all the months that he'd spent struggling in society, Valeriu had never hated his youth as much as he did now.
"Da?" he muttered, scuffling his heel across the cement distractedly.
"Varu." He felt his resistance crumbling. "Look at me?" The wavering edge to her voice was what broke him - that unsure, hesitant tone that dragged his eyes from the stairs to the girl - woman - sitting next to him. She looked about to cry.
Here it comes, he thought, grimly. He braced himself.
"You don't like me anymore, d-do you?"
"V'ha-" He blinked in shock, uncomprehending. That was not what he expected her to say. "V'ait, v'ait, v'ait - v'hat?"
"Because...because I'm too old, right?"
"No...no!" He shook his head, emphatically. "Ee't ee's not that, not at all - I, I thought--" He searched, stricken dumb, for the words, frowning as he stumbled through. "That, that you, you v'ould not, v'ith me--I know, I am - I am not a man, not yet."
His hand inched toward hers, taking her fingers up and holding them as tightly as he dared allow himself. The flustered blush burned across his cheeks, but hope flared in his chest.
"You v'ould v'ait for me?" he asked, uncertainly. It was the question he'd been too scared to voice. "Until then?"
"Of course I would," she broke in, smiling so happily in that way that made his head spin, and he couldn't hold back his own, breathless, relieved grin.
"I v'ill become a man you v'ill be proud of," he vowed, seriously, and there was nothing shy when he met her eyes this time. "One who can protect you, and care for you, and provide for you. Just...just keep v'aiting for me. Don't look at any other boys, okay?" he added, sternly.
"Okay." A similar blush painted her cheeks, and he was pleased to see it.
"Until I am eighteen, then," he affirmed, as if it was a promise. "V'e v'ill marry, and I v'ill buy us a house, and maybe someday the garden cabbages v'ill bless us v'ith a child of our own."
Tepin blanched - something like amusement and desperation spasmed across her face, though he couldn't figure out why.
"Or maybe ee't v'ill be the stork!"
"Varu, I think you and Ciro need to have a talk."
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