Chapter Text
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CHAPTER 1
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Seven thirty, and the kids weren't up yet. You finished Ash’s lunch and put it next to Trent's before heading down the hall and peeking into their room. They had half an hour to get up, get ready and get breakfast before the bus came. Not an impossible task for a five and seven-year-old. Both of whom were sprawled out over their beds and still lost to this world.
You let out a sigh and glance down the hall, their father's door was still shut and he was hopefully not going to stir until noon, no matter what noise you made.
Not that you would try, on the off chance that it did wake up the hungover bastard, better to deal with THAT after the kids went to school.
Stepping into their room you turned on their light, causing Ash to burrow their head under their pillow and groan. You couldn’t hold back a quiet chuckle as you moved forward to shake them lightly, by the time you had convinced them to join the land of the living Trent was already sitting up in bed.
“What's for breakfast…” They grumbled rubbing their eyes before looking at you.
Sure that Ash was not in danger of returning to sleep you turned towards him. Your first two fingers of each hand held out, the rest folded down you held them up before you moved them downward in a short sweeping motion away from each other before splaying your fingers and cupping your hands over each other, moving them in a short stirring motion.
*Scrambled eggs*
“Eggs are gross,” Ash whined slipping from the bed and out of the door towards the bathroom. You and Trent shared a knowing look, to a grumpy five-year-old everything was gross.
You looked at Trent a moment longers, they were smart, they would puzzle out what you wanted if you waited long enough.
“Yeah yeah, I’ll help Ash get ready.” They groaned, picking out their outfit for the day.
You shot him a grin and signed finger guns at him before pulling them back like they were a trigger and jerking your wrists upward.
*Quickly *
This earned you a loud raspberry as they stuck their tongue out at you and threw their sweater. You laughed quietly before heading back to the kitchen, dodging Ash on the way out of the bathroom.
Mornings were your favorite. It was quiet and you tried to infect the kids with your love of learning and excitement for school. It was one of the few times you could pretend everything was alright.
You plate up the kid's' eggs and put down two slices of toast in the toaster. Ash was the first to stumble into the kitchen, dropping her bag by their chair and sitting at the table just as you added a fresh piece of toast to their plate.
“You're not going to eat with us?” They muttered with a mouth full of eggs before cramming their toast slice into their mouth. You shook your head as Trent came in.
“Did you already eat?” they watched your face, Ash was still young but Trent was learning how to read you, It was getting near impossible to lie to him.
So smiled and shook your head, the truth, before you slowly started to sign.
*I’ll eat after you go to school.* It was a half-truth, you would eat, probably something for lunch, if not that then you would eat dinner at least.
Trent looked at your face a moment longer before they started to tuck into his eggs and toast as well. You let out a breath you didn’t realize you had been holding before turning your attention to the dishes. It nearly killed you to lie to them, you hated it really but they were so young they didn’t need to know how bad things were, you had to protect them.
If that meant skipping breakfast so that there would be enough to have french toast tomorrow then so be it.
Not that you had ever been very big on breakfast, when you were still in school, still studying, you would usually get by till lunch on coffee and maybe a piece of toast.
Speaking of coffee you should start that before heading down to the bus stop, Jerry, their father was always a bit better if a fresh pot was waiting for him.
A good five or so minutes to spare before the bus even on your street the kids were rushing out the front of the building. They both froze for a moment and you looked up seeing what caught their eye.
A… goat woman was waiting at the stop, she was near seven feet tall and wearing a pretty flowered dress. With her was a kid, maybe a bit older than Ash, but younger looking than Trent. Their hair was in a bob and they wore an oversized striped sweater.
They made quite the adorable pair. The monsters had come out from under the mountain a little over a year ago, there was still a lot of hate and racism towards them but things were slowly starting to move in the right direction and it was becoming far more common to see monsters out and about.
Finished with their initial shock Trent and Ash took off towards them, leaving you stammering and rushing behind them hoping they didn’t do anything too terrible.
“You're new!”
“You're so tall!”
You caught up, giving the tall goat monster an apologetic look before tugging Trent and Ash around to face you. you quickly held your hands flat, moving them from side to side, before resting one on your chest and moving it in a short circular motion.
*Behave, Please.*
Trent shot you an insulted look, to which you repeat yourself. Finally, you were snapped out of your scolding to the giggles of the goat woman.
“Oh dear, it's quite alright, It's normal for young ones to be so curious.” Her voice was kind and soft and filled you with warmth. You gave her another apologetic smile before Trent stepped forward.
“Are you the ones who just moved in on the third floor? We live on the fourth floor with our dad, I’m Trent, and this is Ash.” After a pause and a small tap on the shoulder from you, Trent also introduced you.
“It's a pleasure to meet someone so full of energy so early in the morning. My name is Toriel and This is Frisk.” Your gaze fell down to the child again, They looked up at you and gave a shy smile before slowly signing.
*Hello, My name is Frisk.*
Then after a pause, they added.
*You sign?*
You grin and gave them a quick nod before kneeling down to be on their level as you signed your introduction over again.
* It's nice to meet you, Frisk, are you excited for school?*
Before they could answer, though they looked a little nervous about it, Trent let out a whoop. “You can sign? Good, cause it's EXHAUSTING translating all the time.” They let out an exaggerated sigh and you stuck your tongue out at them.
They returned your immature gesture and Frisk let out a quiet giggle. You gave them a smile before standing up once more, your knees could only take so much of kneeling on the sidewalk.
Besides, the bus just turned the corner.
You ruffle Trent and Ash’s hair and give Frisk what you hope is a reassuring smile after Toriel releases them from a hug. As they climb up the steps you pretend not to notice that Toriel is a little bit teary-eyed. You watch the bus go down the street together once it's out of view you both head back inside.
“It was a pleasure to meet you my child, and it's good to know that Frisk will have some neighbors and classmates that will understand them.” You nodded in agreement You had never been a very vocal child and you stopped talking all together sometime before middle school. Communication was hard for a while.
You catch her eye before slowly signing, unsure of the monsters proficiency.
*It was good to meet you too, We will look out for Frisk. Trent and Ash will be excited for someone to play with.*
You both step into the elevator and press the buttons for your respective floors.
“You and your siblings are welcome to visit anytime, Frisk and I are to the left of the elevator, some friends are going to be renting out the room to the right, They’ll be moving in by the end of the week.” The floor dinged opening up to her floor. You smile and nod your understanding as she steps off. After a moment of thought, you stop the doors from closing and reach out to catch her sleeve.
Once she has turned towards you your hands start to move.
*I can help with the moving if they need it, I’m here all day.*
She grins and nods. “I’m sure they will appreciate that it will be good for us all to be friends, here let me give you my phone number so we can get a hold of each other.”
Ignoring the angry beeping of the elevator wanting to close its doors you exchange phones and add each other as contacts. Finished you give her a short wave before the doors closed.
As you step out of the elevator there is a small pep to your step and a genuine smile on your face, this has been one of the nicest mornings you’ve had in a long time. Toriel seems like a genuinely sweet lady and Frisk is adorable. You pause at your door, taking in happy events of the morning you steel yourself, take a deep breath, and open the door.
“Whats with the stupid smile? Where have you been?” Jerry’s deep voice all but growled. It wasn’t a yell, more like an angry whisper.
He was still hung over.
And wearing the clothes he passed out in. Lovely.
“Well?” You gave him a shrug, you didn’t bother trying to sign, he only knew the basics and rarely used that knowledge. The signing would just make him angrier.
He glared at you a moment as you counted the tiles on the kitchen floor before he let out a sigh and turned his gaze back to his coffee.
“You get up and get the kids to school, but you can’t even brew a half decent cup of coffee.” He dumped his cup, and the remaining half a pot down the sink, no coffee for you then. “Your ma could make coffee, honestly I don’t know why I bother letting you stay here.” He shoved you as he passed, you hit the door jam hard but you didn’t let out a sound. You waited until you heard his door slam shut before rubbing your shoulder.
Your father had been a good man, ex-military turned cop. You and your mother had loved him so much and he had been the one to teach you to sign, never made you feel like you were less of a person for not using your voice.
He died when you were in middle school and you and your mother had taken it hard. You buried yourself in school work and study, and your mother had buried herself in drugs and men.
Taking care of your younger siblings and her current husband is almost easy compared to taking care of your mother those first few years. You always counted it as lucky if she made it all the way home to pass out, after the first time one of her ‘boyfriends’ came into your room as a ‘mistake’ you invested in locks.
By the time you were graduating high school, you had the police and the ER on speed dial and your mother had calmed down to some degree, keeping a boy for a few months instead of her previous revolving door lifestyle.
Through all of this, you had managed to win yourself a scholarship. You were smart. Sure you were quiet and didn’t speak, you didn’t have a lot of close friends, so you buried yourself in knowledge. Books didn’t judge your home life the same way other high school students would.
Your mother was heartbroken that you left, but by that time you were done, done with her neglect and her semi-abusive boyfriends, done taking care of her. She forced you to grow up faster than you should have had to and now it was your time to spread your wings and find something you loved.
The day you left for college she screamed at you that you had better not expect any help from her. You found it almost funny, you hadn’t really expected much help from her in the last five years.
You floated between several majors starting out in physics before chickening out. You had spent a year working towards mechanical engineering, and a summer flirting with earth sciences, and a semester you try not to think about where you played with a liberal arts degree.
Your scholarship had long run out but you made due with your work as a tutor and teacher's assistant. In the end, you returned to your first love, physics and had spent almost six years in college.
You were so SOOOO close to having your Master's degree, a few years after that you would have had a doctorate before you hit thirty. The teachers in the science department were talking about how you would go on to become one of the great minds of this century. You had been talking to your mother again who had cleaned up her act and grown close to your two younger siblings, Ash had just turned two. You had even grown close to a fellow student, neither of you wanted to call it dating, you were both too busy for that, but it was more than just a few heated nights in science lab 3.
Then everything came crashing down around you and you had to let your future slip through your fingers.
“Hey dumbshit, stop staring at the wall if I have to repeat myself again you and the brats will be out on the street.” This time Jerry did yell, and it snapped you out of your thoughts in time to duck the book he had thrown at you. One of your books.
“I want dinner ready at 6, and stop feeding those kids so damn much do I LOOK like I’m made of money?” Your mother had married this man. Honestly, he had not seemed so bad at the time but he turned into a different person when he got to drinking.
After your mother ran away it was rare that he wasn’t drinking.
You nod your understanding. He growls and moves towards you, you back up until he has you pinned with your back to the fridge and he's grabbed the front of your baggy shirt to give you a shake.
“Your bitch of a mother ditched me with these two brats and I took you in out of the goodness of my heart. You owe me.” Jerry pushes you away and you stumble, catching yourself on the counter before you fell fully to the floor. “All I ask is that you keep this place spotless, Make me dinner, take care of those two mistakes. But you're too stupid to even get that right.”
You freeze your mind reeling trying to figure out what you had forgotten, you are always so careful, and the kids know to be tidy. Frantically your eyes dart around the kitchen before they land on the plates in the sink.
There hadn’t been time to do them before taking the kids down and he had been up by the time you got back.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Slowly you inch towards the sink, keeping your eyes on him, well, on his chest, he didn’t like it if you made eye contact.
Now, you have no idea what your mom had seen in him. Once he might have been attractive. His hair was dark and wavy, he hadn’t lost any of it with age but now he barely bothered to shave, to you it just made him look crueler.
Especially when he sneered the way he was doing now.
“Looks like you're not as stupid as you pretend to be.” You glance up and offer him an apologetic smile before turning towards the sink.
This was a mistake, you didn’t see the hit coming.
It was a slap, but the back of his wedding ring cut into your cheek and you nearly fell to the floor on the left side of your face felt like it was on fire.
Something hot ran down your face and the bastard was cackling as he walked out of the kitchen. You steadied yourself on the sink, watching your blood drip into the dishwater until you heard the front door slam shut.
You waited, it wouldn’t be the first time he decided he ‘forgot’ something.
Once you were sure he was gone you let a sob rake through your body, sinking to the floor and wrapping your arms around yourself.
It had been such a good morning, you had been the closest to happy you had been in a long time. But Jerry had to come and rip it all away. You scooted until your back was pressed into a corner and buried your face against your knees and let everything out while nobody could see you.
Now your mind was playing through the happy events of the day and the sick voice inside of you was laughing, taunting you with them before going back to the times before all of this, remember what you had lost and what you had given up just so you could sit and rot in this pit. Be this mans punching bag so he wouldn’t touch Trent or Ash.
You don’t know how long you sat there your mind festering in your own self-loathing before the buzzing of your phone pulled you out of it. Scrubbing your eyes with your sleeve you looked at your phone.
It was Toriel.
*Hello Dear, I was wondering if you would like to come down for a slice of pie and some tea?
You read it in her warm voice and your lips twitched into the semblance of a smile.
Steeling yourself you pulled yourself up off the kitchen floor and moved to the corner of the living room that housed your things. Today started out as a good day, and you were going to fight to keep it one.
Picking out a clean sweater and pair of leggings you finally texted Toriel back.
*I’d love to, I’ll be down in half an hour.
That would give you time for a hot shower and to tend to the cut on your cheek. Then you were going to have your good day.