Junko Natsumizaka
Just a demonic overlord studying Earth firsthand.
"Do it! Remove the damn weekend privileges." Crystal gave her enthusiastic reply. I'm not working extra at that store so that Leigh can use the time I'm freeing up for him to mess with Rosaleya! That's not _ fair, for me, or for Rosaleya. But Claudia told me that the winter holidays were very important for the plan! "But the Winter Holidays are a different story. The McCunnens are planning on monopolizing Rosaleya's time so that she doesn't have to see Mr. Fairbrook at all, and their plans sound like a lot of fun. They're wonderful people." She assured, meaning that they cared more about Rosaleya than Leigh did. They'll monopolize Rosaleya's time by making him sign that _ contract. I'm down for that! Claudia really pumped be up about their plan! "Even though Mr. Fairbrook is a total _ for arranging his daughter's marriage, the McCunnens actually have pure intentions. Anyway, Rosaleya's really looking forward to the Winter Holidays, because...her mother passed away when she was really young, so she needs a mother figure. I can't be that-" she gestured to herself with a 'for obvious reasons' expression "-but Claudia McCunnen is wonderful, and Rosaleya admires her. You've noticed that she's been happier lately, haven't you?"
"Yes. A noticeable different is that she's adding a few extra ingredients to her creations in Cooking with Magic, and a few times she's doubled portions to share with a friend of hers." Luna said.
"It's because she's been spending her weekends, besides today, with the McCunnens. I can't speak for 'her fiancee' because I don't know him well enough yet to judge him, but I've got a good feeling about Claudia." Crystal said, with a determined look in her eyes.
If it were possible to tell Mr. Fairbrook that Rosaleya's weekend and holiday privileges are being revoked, while in reality she is allowed to visit anywhere she likes, that would be excellent. Then she could spend all the time she likes with the McCunnens. They sound like what the Weasleys were to Harry Potter, from what Crystal has told me about them during out conversations. However, I must restrain my impulse, for deceit to Mr. Fairbrook would cause a problem if he discovered the truth. Hogwarts would lose credibility and the professional air that we've all been working so hard to maintain. Luna sighed quietly, so no one else noticed. "I will owl Mr. Fairbrook a notice alerting him that one of our staff, an anonymous eyewitness, reported his actions today. I liked your reason..." she addressed Elias "....The risk of accidentally violating the International Statute of Secrecy while inebriated. I will name that as the reason for the suspension of Mr. Fairbrook's weekend privileges."
"And that she'll still get to see the McCunnens during the Winter Holidays." Crystal added.
"Yes." Luna approved of Crystal's reasons for only banning the weekend visits. "The suspension will take effect on Monday. Professor Thorne will inform Rosaleya of the suspension, accompany her wherever she wishes on Sunday, and of course point out that this isn't a form of punishment for her, but protection from her father." She will have one last day to spend at her leisure on Sunday, with Crystal's protection.
Crystal and Luna both turned to Elias, waiting for him to give the final word of approval since he was the Headmaster.
"...and none of the staff will be able to find out." Rosaleya finished.
"Okay, but in return, you have to tell me, why." Nova folded his arms. "That guy is a mess. Like sticking your face in a full beehive with a piece of toast in your mouth, expecting to enjoy toast and honey for breakfast."
Rosaleya just barely resisted laughing at Nova's analogy. "Because I want to try again with him. I'll do everything perfect; I've got it planned out. But I can't give up on him, yet. I want him back so badly. You probably think I sound stupid, don't you?"
"Not at all. Just...too forgiving. I don't understand it. It's annoying."
"Annoying like-"
"-Annoying like I'm annoyed by things that I don't understand. Like when you were so happy to dress up as a maid that first time, and clean my entire home."
"Oh." Rosaleya nodded slowly, understanding. "Okay. Got it." I guess that must've been weird from his perspective. For me, I understand my reasons.
"Good morning, Dad." Rosaleya smiled cheerfully. She had come over as soon as Hogwarts curfew lifted, and planned to return in time to meet Crystal at the gates at eleven, like they had planned the night before. Crystal didn't know that she was here; she wouldn't have let her come. "I made your favorite 'Hangover Soup'." She brought it to him on a tray with water and salt in case he needed extra. No matter what she did, for Leigh, her meals always needed...
"Ugh, did you even put salt in this? It needs more salt." Leigh rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue as he unscrewed the salt jar. They didn't own normal salt and pepper shakers: just tiny jars that had come with a set of larger ones to hold large quantities of things like flour and sugar.
"Maybe because he has the taste-buds of a rhinoceros." Jade jested in a whisper.
Rosaleya watched the salt that Leigh pinched up fall like snow onto the soup's surface, and then melt into it, with slight disappointment. She imagined the way that Claudia might've added more salt if a meal that Rosaleya lovingly cooked for her had needed it. Claudia smiled one of her perfect, heart-warming smiles when Rosaleya brought the soup to her bedside. "You're spoiling me." She said, in lieu of a 'thank you', although Rosaleya could tell that she meant the latter. "For my taste...just a few shakes will do." Claudia used a salt shaker to add just a bit more salt. "I can taste your love in this soup, darling. It's delicious." If she had been drinking all night, or even if she wanted to drink in the morning, I would love to bring her 'Hangover Soup' if she was nice about it. She resisted frowning or flinching as Leigh threw the bowl of soup onto the bedroom floor; the bowl was plastic so it didn't break, it only cracked slightly, and the soup would've been annoying to clean off the wall, cheap drapes, and floor, if Jade hadn't kindly volunteered. "As soon as he leaves." He added.
"You made it all wrong." Leigh flailed his hands in the air as if Rosaleya couldn't possibly have made it worse. "The carrots are undercooked, the broth is bland as _, it's too thin, and you added too many mushrooms. I'll have to make it all over again to get any satisfaction from it. Help me out of bed, don't just watch me. Can't you tell when I need help? You know that my back hurts in my old age, you ungrateful _. You probably ruined the soup on purpose because I embarrassed you yesterday, didn't you?" He spat, although he managed to get out of bed himself. He smelled like stale vomit and sweat. The area of the sheets where he had been lying was slightly darker than the rest of the bed from perspiration, because he had turned the heat up too high during the night. The same heating that he never allowed Rosaleya to use because it was 'too expensive'. "Well let me tell you something, Ro-sa-le-ya," he pronounced every syllable with increased disdain, as if she was the most ungrateful child in the world "you embarrassed me yesterday, too."
"H-how?" Rosaleya asked. What did I do? Is there something I did that I shouldn't have done? The way I remember it, he was terrible yesterday, except-
"Except 'terrible' is too mild of a word." Jade snarled at Leigh.
Leigh didn't answer; he looked past Rosaleya to the spilt soup, and his expression changed abruptly like he had remembered why he had gotten out of bed in the first place. "Come." He turned away coldly, trudging toward the kitchen. "I'm _ hungry and your wasting my time right now."
"She's wasting your time?" Jade yelled. "She came all the way here to take care-"
"Come along! You can clean up that mess later, and I hope that it gets worse and harder for you to clean." Leigh snapped when he realized that Rosaleya hadn't immediately moved to follow him.
"Go. I've got it." Jade said.
Thanks. Rosaleya thought, running to meet Leigh in the kitchen.
"Don't run in the house. You're making me nervous." Leigh snapped. He had already put a pot of water on the stove, and sat down at the kitchen table. "One onion, six carrots, three potatoes, one bin of mushrooms-" he began quickly listing items for Rosaleya to take out and prepare, as if there was enough time for Rosaleya to remember everything or even write it down before Leigh moved on to the next item. When they 'cooked together', Rosaleya did most of the work, and Leigh just stirred the contents of the pots and pans a few times and then seasoned at the end....or sometimes he would make Rosaleya season it and then criticize it halfway through before taking over "-one head of celery, a bowl of parsley, short vermicelli noodles, two liters of chicken stock-"
"-we don't have any more fresh chicken stock." Rosaleya interjected, her voice sounding apologetic for a reason that even she didn't understand, but she quickly fixed it to sound as helpful as possible "I can make some more in five minutes because I learned a spell-"
"-I'm too hungry to wait for you to fix another one of your mistakes." Leigh sneered. "Just use the one from the store. It's in the carton, so make sure it hasn't expired, unless you want me to get food poisoning. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"Yes she wouuuuuld!" Jade called from the bedroom, imitating Jules from Pulp Fiction; they had enjoyed that film with three of the McCunnens yesterday. "Yes. She. Would."
"Of course I wouldn't." Rosaleya replied, trying to sound as genuine as possible but in her current position even she couldn't tell if she was lying or not. She didn't know if Jade counted as a good indicator of the truth in this particular situation. In circumstances like these, it felt as though she couldn't trust that part of herself. Something about Leigh made it difficult to. She assumed it was because he was her...'father'.
Then, Leigh listed off all of the spices that they used. "Argh, I'm so sick of treating you like a little girl. You've made this soup with me hundreds of times-"
"-you've gotten drunk hun-dreds of times!" Jade retorted.
"-so you should be able to prepare the vegetables and spices at least, without me listing them for you!" He flailed his arms again in exasperation. "Let me know when you're done with that, and don't you dare dilly-dally. I'm really not in the mood for that right now." He pulled himself out of his chair with a half grunt and half sigh, dragging his feet to the family room, and Rosaleya heard the cheap couch creak, as if complaining for the way that Leigh always fell onto it like a slob. She heard Leigh's favorite show as of late start a minute later as she began peeling the onions.
"I'm here! Super-Jade is here to save the day!" Jade jumped into the kitchen comically, his hair blowing behind him like Superman's cape even though there was no wind.
Rosaleya put a hand to her mouth to muffle her laughter.
"I wrote down everything that he listed, because I know that you only remembered 'onions, carrots and celery' right now." He used the paper to put the rest of the ingredients on the counter, and then started helping to prepare them.
Leigh loved all of the stupid songs and movies. Anything that was popular in the Americas at the moment, Leigh had either finished or was in the process of watching it. Terrible movies; romance movies were his favorite, and series; sit-coms were his favorite, and his second favorite were reality shows. He never watched anything that had subtitles for the main dialogue. "It's so much work! If I wanted to read, then I would read a damn book!" He complained. Sometimes he made Rosaleya watch "...at least one episode! It's not fair for you to judge it before you've even watched one. Don't be so judgemental!" It was during these long days, where he would make her sit through too many 'first episodes' or 'pilots', when Rosaleya could think Why can't he like Anime, if he loves these awful shows so much? Rosaleya sighed heavily after the preparations were finished. Leigh not only insisted on her washing and/or peeling and chopping everything, and getting all of the spices out, but also lying every utensil and pot or pan that he would require to make the meal, including the appropriate bowls and eating utensils for the end when he would serve the food, on the counters. Leigh made it as if retrieving an item from a pantry or the fridge required the same effort as painting every surface of the house a new color. If anything was missing or forgotten, or if she accidentally got out an 'incorrect item', it would be an entire conversation about 'children taking care of their parents' or something along the lines of 'if you really loved me, then you would remember these things'. Unspoken items were the most difficult: sometimes Leigh deliberately left out an item when he gave her a list of things to prepare, and he would expect Rosaleya to suggest it while they were cooking. Something like an extra spice that paired well with the meal, or a different kind of oil for the vegetables. Forgetting any of these items would also lead to a tiring lecture. "It's common sense, Rosaleya. I shouldn't have to tell you everything, all the time. I didn't raise an idiot, did I?"
Rosaleya pictured Claudia on the couch instead when she called "Everything's ready for you!"
"Don't yell at me!" Leigh retorted, pulling himself out of his chair with great effort and trudging back to the kitchen, dragging his feet noisily again.
" 'Don't yell at me'." Jade intentionally did a bad impression of Leigh's voice.
Thirty minutes later
"Hand me the salt." Leigh snapped.
"Here." Rosaleya handed it to him.
Despite it being easily accessible to Leigh if he only extended his arm, he insisted on having Rosaleya hand him each and every spice, one at a time, by his command, not sooner. Not only the spices, but any utensils or pots or pans that he wanted, despite the fact that having Rosaleya 'prepare everything' meant that everything was easily accessible to Leigh if he just extended an arm or took one step away from the stove.
Leigh handed Rosaleya the salt back. The timing had to be just right for when she took it back or else. "Pepper."
"Here." Rosaleya handed him the pepper.
Leigh handed it back a moment later. "Onion powder."
"White pepper." Rosaleya handed him the white pepper; it was one of the 'unspoken items' this time, since he always loved white pepper in his 'Hangover Soup'.
"I didn't ask you for that!" Leigh knocked it out of her hand. "Only give me what I've asked for! ONION POWDER."
Rosaleya continued to hand him the spices. Jade promised to clean the white pepper, which had mostly spilt onto the floor, as soon as Leigh left the kitchen. He imitated Leigh a few times to keep it easy to deal with, and once when Rosaleya almost dropped the dried parsley flakes, Jade caught it and pushed it into her hand discreetly to avoid another one of Leigh's outbursts. "You have one job! Honestly, Rosaleya, how can you manage to ruin something as simple as handing me spices?! Is it too much to ask of you? Or would you rather be doing something else so much to the point that your mind is elsewhere, instead of right here, where I need you to be? You're never there for me." But he usually says that as I'm standing there, literally there for him. Rosaleya watched him taste the soup for the fourth time.
"It needs white pepper." He snapped, as if he had already forgotten what had happened a minute earlier, or that the white pepper was still on the floor by his feet. He said it as it he was blaming Rosaleya for not having placed it with the other spices during the preparations. "Get some white pepper. You know that I love white pepper in this soup."
With the addition of the white pepper, the soup was complete. He ladled six ladles into a large bowl, and walked past Rosaleya coldly as if refusing to serve her some.
"Not like you want any, anyway." Jade said, moving to clean up the white pepper.
"Where's my spoon?!" Leigh demanded from the couch. "The only one that I like?"
"I couldn't find it." Rosaleya replied apologetically. "I triple-checked everywhere!"
"Find it. Look again."
"But I looked three times-"
"LOOK AGAIN. The soup is getting cold."
"Where else would you put a spoon besides-" Jade named off the places that they had looked while Rosaleya checked them again. "Oh, hang on! When he's lonely, he eats in bed!" Jade ran to check under Leigh's bed, under the bedside table, or between the bed and the wall, Rosaleya guessed. He returned ten seconds later. As he washed the spoon post haste, he groaned "It was lodged, somehow, under his dresser. I have no idea how it slid across the room from his bed to his dresser, but it's here now." He handed it to her after drying it thoroughly.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Leigh snapped, grabbing the spoon from her.
Rosaleya waited, watching him eat the first few bites of his soup.
"That's all, Rosaleya." Jade suggested for Leigh. "She can't move until you've dismissed her, remember, @$$#0↳3?" He bellowed. "There's nothing else that I need, thank you, Rosaleya!"
"Don't watch me eat. It's creepy." Leigh snapped, dropping his spoon into the soup; the handle fell in as well. "Look what you've made me do, you creeper. Wash it again."
"Sorry." Rosaleya said half-heartedly.
"Don't you talk to me with that attitude!"
Thirty seconds later
"Here." Rosaleya handed Leigh the re-washed spoon.
After one more bite, Leigh spoke with a full mouth. "Get me some coffee! I can barely enjoy this soup; I'm still half-asleep. Thanks to you, I haven't even had the opportunity to brush my teeth or wash my face yet with the trouble you've caused me...."
"So...while we were preparing everything, he could've done both of those things...even taken a full shower. Ten minutes is plenty of time." Jade said.
Leigh went on for a minute. "...Argh, so much stress! You're really a piece of work, you know that? Are you listening to me?!"
"Yes." Rosaleya replied.
"Then meet me eyes. I can't tell if you're even listening when you stare at the floor like that. My eyes are up here! It's so rude to not make eye-contact when someone is talking to you. Do you behave this way when you're at that damned school?"
"No."
"So just with me, huh? Coffee." He spat, although it fell on the couch. "Wipe this up first."
Ten seconds later
"Tell me that your angry. Admit it, out loud, or else I'm going to go and get some extra sleep." Jade said when they were back in the kitchen together.
"Don't do that! I can't do this without you! Hangover Days are the worst!" Rosaleya hugged Jade immediately, as if holding him would prevent him from leaving. She spoke quietly, but her voice quivered as she forced her eyes to hold back tears. She took in the pleasant scent of his robes again. "Yes, I'm very angry, okay? I would rather do these things for her-" she meant Claudia, still unable to call her 'mother' for some reason "-because, you know why."
"Good. You should be angry. This isn't acceptable." Then, he added in a Cockney accent "Now I'll clean while you make his bloody coffee."
Rosaleya smiled with just her mouth, then grabbed a tissue to dry the latent tears in the corners of her eyes.
Three minutes later
"What's taking so long with the coffee? It's instant, so you shouldn't be taking so long!"
"I had to use the bathroom!" Rosaleya replied. That's not a lie. I was suffering through it since he was seasoning the soup...but asking to be excused would lead to another problem. I felt like I had an overfilled water balloon in between my legs; it literally hurt.
"Couldn't you have gone after you brought me the coffee?!"
"You said that holding it in is bad for your liver!" Rosaleya replied. Was it liver or kidneys? Or was that alcohol for the liver?
"Kidneys!" Leigh corrected.
"It's actually both." Jade informed Rosaleya. "But it's worse for your kidneys. Liver is second-worst. Alcohol does worse for your liver. And of course smoking is bad for the lungs." He meant these last two remarks toward Leigh.
"And you can hold it for a few minutes!" Leigh added.
Rosaleya stirred the coffee one final time, making sure that the sugar was dissolved completely.
"Spit in his tea." Jade said in a tempting, sadistic voice. "Your mouth is clean; your saliva doesn't have a taste to it. If you stir the coffee, he won't notice, but it will make you feel better. Remember that one book that he made you read, back when he was only letting you read children's books and he bought you all of the Roald Dahl books? When that lady complained about the meal, and after 'fixing it' in the kitchen, each and every cook spit in it before they mixed it and served it to her? They must've felt very nice about that."
"I remember that." Rosaleya's voice was just above a whisper. "She wasn't even complaining about something legit. She was just being a _."
"Come on." Jade's eyes were radiating with the energy of all of Rosaleya's sadistic desires toward Leigh. "He won't even notice. You know that line, that barrier, between fantasizing about hurting Leigh and actually doing something? With this, you can cross that line. Just the tip of your toe." Jade gestured with his thumb and index finger to illustrate how little she would be 'crossing the line'. He put a hand to her heart. "I can feel your heartbeat has accelerated. You're excited about this idea. Just do it."
Rosaleya looked away from Jade's eyes which gave the illusion that they were glowing, to the swirling surface of the coffee. She used her tongue to assist as much saliva as possible to the front of her mouth, then allowed herself to cross that line. As she stirred the coffee again, thoroughly, she had an image in her mind's eye of a train crossing the tracks on a border that separated peaceful, grassy plains with bunnies and flowers, from rougher terrain with broken trees and cracked earth unsuitable for vegetation or livestock grazing, as if many, many storms and natural disasters had ruined everything in their path. She could hear the train's whistle blowing, and the unmistakable sound of the fast chug chug chug, as if she was standing in that place in her mind's eye. "Your coffee." Rosaleya smiled cheerfully, handing it to Leigh.
"You should always serve me with a smile that lovely." Leigh complained, moving as if he would snatch the cup away from her, but his hands slowed at the last minute as his mind registered the ribbons of steam. "When you're done cleaning the kitchen, come over here. I want to talk with you."
"Okay." Rosaleya smiled. When she returned to the kitchen she recognized the sound of rain drizzling outside. "Rose, have you ever walked in the rain before?" Soren asked with a look in his eyes that said he had a lovely idea. "Not without an umbrella." Rosaleya replied. "Take my hand, let me show you something new. I know you love new things." He took her hand; his was so warm and soft. "See, this isn't so bad, is it?" He asked once they were walking outside together. "I thought that it would feel weird." Rosaleya said. "And uncomfortable." Soren gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Nope. Nothing will ever feel weird or uncomfortable when we're together." He moved in to kiss her passionately. "I can't." Rosaleya pulled her hand away and put both hands up to shield her face. "I'm not...I can't kiss you, yet." "I'm sorry. Here." Soren gently kissed her on the top of her head. "May I ask why? Is it still too soon? It's been three years since the first love letter, and I just want to make certain that I'm not doing anything to make you dislike me." "You're not!" Rosaleya insisted, lowering her hands to make eye-contact. "You're absolutely perfect! It's just..." Rosaleya shook her head. If I told him why, he would dump me for sure. What kind of girl pushes the perfect guy away because he's not...She sighed. Sometimes I really feel like an idiot.
Out of curiosity, she tasted 'Leigh's' soup: it tasted almost identical to hers, except that Leigh's was over-salted. The other spices were completely off, too. It made Rosaleya cringe and immediately drink an entire glass of water. She poured a short glass of cranberry juice from the fridge to get that awful taste out.
Five minutes later
"You're done so quickly?" Leigh asked in surprise.
"Yes." Rosaleya sat down in the chair to his left. Sharing the couch with him would mean smelling him. Also, he usually 'wanted some space' during Hangover Days. She knew that Leigh preferred her to sit opposite him while they 'talked', but the chair opposite him had a spring loose, so sitting on it pained her after a few minutes, and left an indentation in her leg. So that left the chair to his left.
Before she even sat down, he said "Sit in front of me. Turning towards you will hurt my neck. Look at how my neck would be turning if you sat there!" He demonstrated, wearing an exaggerated expression of pain. "It would hurt me! I'm already in enough pain!"
"Vodka." Jade observed, pointing to the short glass near Leigh's water and coffee.
Rosaleya tried to exchange the comfortable chair for the one with the loose spring.
Leigh snapped again. "Don't be complicated! Just use a cushion for this chair! Hurry up, you're wasting my time!"
"Sorry." No cushions in the house because pillows off of our beds don't count. "Excuse me." Rosaleya retrieved a plushie from her room and used that instead.
"Getting creative now, huh?" Leigh rolled his eyes. "You're so complicated sometimes. Why do you even keep those things anyway? You're too old for them."
"They're cute." Rosaleya replied quietly.
"What's that? You really shouldn't mumble so often."
"I think that they're cute." Rosaleya said a bit louder.
"Well if cute things were useful, then we wouldn't have this problem." Leigh gestured to Rosaleya.
"Where is Chance?" Jade said, meaning that Leigh should've turned this comment toward Chance.
Rosaleya looked around the family room pointedly.
"Haha, very funny. Chance is asleep. I gave him some whiskey last night but he passed right out after only a little bit."
"So is this one going to die from alcohol poisoning as well?" Jade asked. "Or will you accidentally knock something over onto him and crack his skull? When will you learn?"
"So, I wanted to talk with you about yesterday." Leigh began.
"You're not going to apologize." Jade observed by Leigh's 'you've done something wrong' tone.
"You're face is so difficult to look at right now. You look so miserable. Smile." Leigh paused to take another sip of his coffee.
Rosaleya smiled, her eyes crinkling. This is very wrong, I'm sure...but my heart feels like it's singing Vivaldi's 'Presto'.
Jade was laughing hysterically. "He's halfway done with it! Drink it, pig." He said, looking down his nose at him with a sadistic expression.
"So yesterday..." Leigh paused to take a drink of his Vodka. "Oh, don't look at it like that! It's Vodka, it's different from beer. I'm just doing this-" he paused to down the remainder of the glass in one gulp "-to gently taper off. It helps with the hangover."
"8@$+@4d!" Jade yelled "THAT'S WHAT THE _ SOUP WAS FOR!"
Rosaleya listened to Leigh with a wide smile, which was genuine because he kept pausing his dialogue to sip more coffee. Leigh was apparently embarrassed by Rosaleya because, as his convenient memory had it, she had been the only one talking at the table, speaking only of her self and her day-to-day troubles. Also, her makeup [her lipstick] had smudged and she had looked like a clown.
The train kept progressing through the ruined lands at a moderate pace. Rosaleya watched it as she listened to Leigh.
Thirty minutes later
"And on top of all of that, you took an hour in the bathroom. People probably thought that you were avoiding your own father. Explain yourself!"
This is when I'm supposed to apologize...for 'everything that I've done'. Because, no matter what, he won't remember what we fought about in a week, or a few days at least, if I apologize and tell him that he's right. That's how our arguments just go away, disappearing from his memory. He only keeps the bad and fake memories in his mind, well, of me at least, because he just spent an hour bringing them all up. But I don't want to apologize anymore for something that I haven't done! Why should I have to? If, in his memory, I'm the one that wronged him yesterday, why? I'm so sick of apologizing to him for things that I haven't done while he understates every wrong that he did, or just outright erases them from his mind with his convenient memory. No, I'm going to tell him just how insufferable he was yesterday! First- "I was in the bathroom for-"
"-get me an ashtray and my cigarettes."
"You threw them out in August because you said that you were done with smoking."
"I don't remember that. Your memory must be wrong. Check the kitchen cabinet with the medicines in it. Go." He waved his hand at her as if he was swatting away a fly.
"The medicine cabinet now holds the cigarettes?" Jade snorted, then laughed when he saw Rosaleya open the cabinet. "It does!"
"So, you were explaining?" Leigh lit his cigarette with a Muggle lighter. It was as if even a simple fire spell, which he was capable of, was too much effort for him. He always kept the lighter on the family room table, as well as some tall votive candles, because he liked 'nice atmosphere and gentle lighting' while he watched television at night. That was how Rosaleya had mentally explained the lighter still being there; she assumed that Leigh's smoking yesterday had been an exception. "I started smoking again when you left. Did you know that?" Leigh said, nodding toward Rosaleya as if he was accusing her of being the cause for his misery.
"Shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup." Jade groaned. "Oh." He ran off to handle something apparently urgent.
"I only took ten minutes in the bathroom. You timed me, remember?"
"Your memory must be wrong. You were drunk, after all." Leigh rolled his eyes.
"You literally fell onto the floor! You were half awake!" Rosaleya said angrily. "I had to hold you up-" thank goodness that Jade was awake! "-and wait for almost half a frickin hour to catch a-"
"-Don't you dare raise your voice to me! Who do you think you are?!" Leigh slammed his fist on the table.
"-and if Soren hadn't helped-"
"There's another thing: where were you yesterday, instead of helping me? I woke up after you left me so coldly, and vomited in the bathroom. Then I had to make myself some food, and I had to drink a bit to avoid the headache. I could've used your help yesterday. I didn't even have the energy to read this letter from Hogwarts." He waved his hand in the general direction of his bedroom; the letter was lying somewhere, unopened, within it. "Where were you?"
"I was spending time with Soren and Cl-"
"Didn't I tell you to stay away from them?" Leigh asked in a dangerous tone.
"Oh fudge." Jade said.
Rosaleya's heartbeat accelerated.
"We didn't know-" Jade began.
"-You were drunk when you mumbled that! I thought that you were talking in your sleep or something!" Rosaleya grabbed a tissue and wiped the sweat from her face. "How could I have known-"
"-You're wrong. I said it to you while I was still sober. I even made a note to tell you before I started drinking. Stop lying."
The train progressed through the ruined lands at a slightly faster pace than before. The rain changed from a drizzle to a light shower. "I'm not-" It wasn't even on his notes!
"Shut up." Leigh slammed his coffee mug onto the table so harshly that Rosaleya was surprised that it wasn't broken. "How dare you ignore my orders? I'm your-"
"-stop it!" Rosaleya couldn't help the tears that accompanied her disgustingly meek voice "-I'm sorry, for not being what you want in a daughter. I love you. the real you, so much, I just want to be happy with you again! That's why I came here today, even when I wasn't supposed to! Read the Hogwarts letter! Just listen: I'll do whatever you want, but please just stop this! Please! I want the old you back! I'll say it as many times as you want, even if there's nothing that I've done wrong: I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Just please change back, that's all I ask! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm-" she said it faster and faster.
"Shut up!" Leigh rose and struck her across her face. "You're such a drama queen. Family means unconditional love." He seemed discontent when he realized that she was still standing and apologizing, so he backhanded her with his full force and she fell to the floor. "Stay down." He warned her against speaking further or considering a counter-attack. He flung the rest of his coffee on her; a half-cup of it, cold by now. "You're pathetic."
It's not hot. Rosaleya thought gratefully as she sobbed, still apologizing faster and faster.
Ignoring her words, Leigh let out the usual stream of cuss-words and derogatory names, bellowing about every way that Rosaleya had ever, and 'probably would' ever fail him.
Ninety-five percent of them were completely unrealistic, Rosaleya realized. Somewhere along the three-minute mark, his words had stopped feeling like sharpened swords piercing her heart; she had started to feel numb on the inside. The coffee was making her shiver now in the cold of the apartment.
Five minutes later
"...and that, that is why I'm so miserable. Why I escape into alcohol and tobacco and _. A child is a mirror, reflecting the virtues of the parents. I hate your guts. I wish that you would die and let me live my life peacefully."
Jade was busy cleaning up after the dog, who had woken up to vomit, urinate, and defecate in various areas of the house. Even if he hadn't been busy, he wouldn't have helped Rosaleya. What could he do, when she didn't allow him to harm Leigh, and there was no stopping him otherwise?
"I would summon a patronus right now to tell Claudia that I'm finished with her."
This stopped Rosaleya from uttering one more syllable.
Then Leigh told her that he had a 'bad feeling' about Claudia and Soren, and that she was never to see them again, no matter what. According to him, he had had this 'bad feeling' from the beginning, but Rosaleya's enthusiasm towards them had "...confused my instincts. Now get out of my sight. I'm so sick of you." Leigh's spit hit its target this time. "Go to your room. You're grounded. And you're not doing back to school tomorrow, screw whatever that letter says. I'm going to have you finish with your schooling here, and then you can take over the store. There: magical education, and a job that pays if you work hard. Your life is complete." He rubbed his hands together dramatically as if he was trying to rub dirt off of them. "Lots of people don't have that, but I suppose your ingratitude will continue, eh? Take off that ring. I noticed that you started wearing it after you met Soren. Did he give it to you?"
The timing is so far off, from when I started wearing it, to when he introduced me to Soren. He only sees what he wants to see. I don't want any of this anymore. Claudia doesn't have a 'bad mode'.
Leigh grabbed her hand and harshly pulled the ring off of her finger. "I'll be confiscating it until you can learn some proper gratitude. And this, too." He undid the clasp of her charm bracelet, then the clasp of her Yin and Yang necklace. "You made a few friends and you think that you can have this spoilt attitude like you're better than me?" He slammed the items on the coffee table. "Get out of my sight. Move it." He kicked her in her ribs. "Go." He kicked her again, in her stomach this time. "Tell Thorne that you didn't really like Hogwarts and that you miss me. Tell Soren that you don't love him. And screw Claudia. She was only using me for my money, probably. She couldn't really love me. No one really loves me; even you don't." What Leigh didn't realize was that his kicks knocked the wind out of Rosaleya, so he was preventing her from moving. "And Soren...pretty boys are a dime a dozen. Oh, don't be dramatic, I'm not even kicking you that hard!" He said in response to her labored breathing and her hands moving to her stomach and chest. "It you want, crawl there, but hurry." He finally turned away after one more kick; the hardest one yet, at her posterior. "Go!"
Jade helped Rosaleya there quickly before Leigh turned back around. That last one didn't hurt too bad. My figure is pear-shaped, so the fat cushioned his kick.
"Don't come out unless you need to eat!" Leigh yelled. "Actually, I don't event want to see you right now, so I'll bring you food later."
The train picked up a bit of speed.
Jade closed her bedroom door. Rosaleya started sobbing uncontrollably the moment that she could breathe again. Still, breathing hurt. It felt as though her ribs would crumble or collapse at any moment. Even if she was shivering, she couldn't take a warm shower and change her clothes because she needed to vent. Also, heating water was 'expensive', Leigh said. Luckily, Jade wasn't sleepy, so when she was done crying he could heat the water for her. For now, crying was the only way she could release her feelings. She couldn't disappear into an addiction like Leigh, and she couldn't throw things around like he sometimes did; Leigh would just get angrier. Rosaleya heard a crash; Leigh was throwing things around now. Heavy things. Maybe the coffee table? Hopefully not the television stand.
Jade locked Rosaleya's bedroom door.
"YOU'LL CLEAN THIS UP LATER!" Leigh yelled.
Rosaleya heard him stomp into the kitchen and start breaking plates and cups, throwing pans around, slamming the oven and cabinet doors a few times...it sounded like one of the cabinet doors fell off of the hinges.
Then, Leigh barged into her room; suddenly a spell to unlock her door was effortless for him. "Why won't you love me? You never do what I want without arguing. I've done so much for you! What more do I have to do to get you to love me, huh?" He held her up harshly by her shoulders to face him "WHY WON'T YOU JUST LOVE ME ALREADY?! DO YOU WANT ME TO TREAT YOU LIKE A CHILD? IS THAT WHAT CLAUDIA DOES?!...Come on, tell me why." He embraced Rosaleya. It felt more like a boa constrictor was squeezing her painfully while unhooking its jaws to devour her. "Please, tell me." He asked gently. "Don't just stay quiet. You're always so quiet. Please talk to me. Tell me what's wrong. What can I do differently?" When Rosaleya remained silent for a full half minute, he spoke softly into her ear "I can't summon my patronus because I don't have any happy memories. You won't let me make any with you." Then, when she was still silent, he threw her against the foot of her bed and left the room again, slamming her door shut. Luckily, her bed was just a mattress with sheets, so there had been no wooden or metal bed-frame for Rosaleya to injure herself on.
"What...are you doing?" Rosaleya asked in a choked voice, in response to Jade searching through her closet. Her emotions were a wreck again: it felt like her heart was in her throat and that her tongue was too heavy to speak properly. Her stomach was upset as if she had eaten something rotten. If he 'has no happy memories' then he doesn't remember anything that we used to do together when he was acting like 'himself' and being a great Dad. That means that everything I've endured was for nothing. Wait, maybe he was...exaggerating again?
"Take it." Jade displayed her baseball bat with a sadistic expression.
Rosaleya saw the train again, just like before, and heard it in her ears so vividly. "No." She covered her ears as if this would help block the shockingly realistic noise out, and continued sobbing. "It's getting louder."
"This will stop it."
Rosaleya heard Jade's words clearly as he put the bat to her chest. The train sounds didn't stop either, they were getting even louder; it was picking up speed, barreling through the ruined lands. "It's too loud!"
"You want it to end. End this." Jade's voice was certain. "The train will not go backwards."
"Nnn...nnnnn." Rosaleya dug her nails into her scalp. "No more noise!" The train's noises were at a deafening level, and it was barreling out of control. "Stooooop." She hissed at it. "Stoooop."
In the family room, Leigh was cussing at the contents of the Hogwarts envelope.
"You have to stop it." Jade quietly opened her door and peeked outside. "He's got his back facing the door. Do it, Rose. Do it now."
Rosaleya took hold of the bat, and with the sound of the train causing her ears to sting and her head to pound, her body shivering uncontrollably with the cold. "I can't summon my patronus because I don't have any happy memories." She coughed a bit, and her grip tightened around the handle. She noticed that the rain was pouring heavily outside now.
Jade held the door wide open for her, bowing his head in deep respect, with a gesture towards the family room.
And Leigh's skull cracked easier than the coconuts that sunny day.
But Rosaleya couldn't stop there; the train's noises didn't stop.
"Again." Jade permitted her. "The train already crossed the line long ago. It's okay. By the way, he's not dead."
Rosaleya aimed for his arms and legs. She recalled an annoying villain from a television show, getting shot point-blank in the head and still living after surgery to take revenge on the shooter.
Chance ran toward her now, as if he suddenly decided to be 'loyal'. Jade summoned a perfect steak and threw it across the room, and the dog changed his course without hesitation. "Never walk again. Get that, too, so that he can never _ again." Jade gestured to the area below Leigh's abdomen.
Blow after blow. Rosaleya's teeth were bared like a wild dog's, her eyes had a wild look to them, and they still produced tears. But the train didn't stop. Blow after blow.
"This is how I felt, you 8@$+@4d!" Jade spoke for Rosaleya. He told Leigh all of the ways that he had failed her. Every way that he had embarrassed or disappointed or disgusted her. How she couldn't stand the sight of him. "I wanted to love you! I have given you so much time!" He summoned another steak for Chance; that disloyal cur kept eating as long as Jade conjured them.
Rosaleya dropped the bat, and it fell in the pool of blood beside Leigh. She stared through her tears at the results with wide, red, puffy eyes.
"Don't cry, Rose." Jade said gently in her ear, hugging her from behind and using a spell to make her warm and dry. "Don't cry, Rose." He repeated, using Claudia's voice. "I love you sooo much."
"The train..." Rosaleya said. "It won't stop! It hurts!" The whistle and the chugging and the wheels turning and screeching against the tracks. She hugged herself as she continued to shiver uncontrollably. She could no longer hear anything but the train and the rush of wind that accompanied it.
A hand that wasn't Jade's wrapped around Rosaleya's shoulders, and pulled her into an embrace. It was warm and strong and comforting. Suddenly, the train crashed with a noise louder than fireworks, and Rosaleya put her hands to her ears in pain. A gasp left her mouth; she had become so worried that the train would never stop, for it felt as if it had permanently consumed her mind.
"We're leaving." Soren said, summoning the items that Leigh had 'confiscated' and tucking them gently into his pocket. "Together." The look in his eyes told her that everything would be fixed, and that she would soon feel better.
If Rosaleya had to describe his attitude right now, it would be 'gallant', or 'princely'. But perhaps he had only seen her in tears? Perhaps he hadn't seen what she had done. Because it was too unrealistic for Soren to still love her after what she had just done. She had acted rashly, and broken the demonic law. She pushed him away quickly, and Jade helped her leave the building quickly. She didn't want him to see her like this, or to get him into trouble. The noise from the train's crash still resounded in her ears, and it felt as if the train's steam was clouding her mind and making it difficult to clearly see her thoughts. "Put me down." She said to Jade. She leaned up against a gap between two buildings, panting. Jade made no attempt to shield her from the pouring rain; whereas she had been shivering a minute ago, now she was overheated. The rain felt pleasant, and she closed her eyes. She was probably no match for the demon who would be prosecuting her, so why run? She was doomed either way.
Claudia lifted Leigh onto a stretcher, as if he could still be revived. Noticing that there was a pack of cigarettes, she lit one and stubbed it out on Leigh's forehead without changing her cheerful expression, before leaving with him. "St. Mungo's. I can't heal him if I don't give a damn about him. I'll _ kill him." She muttered to herself as she stepped over the threshold. "I knew something weird was going to happen today." Thanks, Nova. Lovely heads-up.
Soren approached Rosaleya gently, hugging her tightly and resting his head on her shoulder.
"You're...scared?" Rosaleya meant to say 'you're not scared of what I've done?', but her tongue was still too heavy, even if the other pains had left her body almost completely. In her current state of mind, she honestly couldn't tell if she had actually spoken her intended words.
"No." Soren said gently, kissing the top of her head. "I'm not scared of you. Never, Yin." He promised, gently running his fingers through her hair as he held her close. "Never, no matter what. Because I specified, in my wish to find you, that you would never do anything that I wouldn't do. I'm surprised that you didn't cut his heart out and keep it as a trophy." He jested, pulling away so that she could see his smile.
Somehow, she believed his words, and his gallantry. Rosaleya wrapped her arms around him and felt his warmth, so grateful for it. He felt like her Yang. Her perfectly sane, princely Yang, even if he jested like this. The warmth had nothing to do with his physical form; it came from somewhere else, but Rosaleya wasn't sure where. She just knew that his warmth seemed to grow every time he embraced her. Rosaleya lost track of how long they stayed there, embracing, but she was aware that at some point Jade conjured a large umbrella and magically dried and warmed them both.
"Let's get you back to Hogwarts." Claudia said. "You didn't kill Leigh, so everything's fine. He's at St. Mungo's, and the official story is that he was mugged in a Muggle area, sucks at magic so he didn't defend himself, and that you're very worried about him but you didn't visit because...why would you visit, he's unconscious. You can't comfort him or stuff if he's knocked out."
"Thank you." Rosaleya said to both of them.
"You'll be mine, soon. I already told you that." Claudia smiled. "So you don't have to thank me. I'm taking care of my child." 'I would do anything for my children, all parents should have that devotion' her expression said. "Soren, drive us back to Hogwarts; we have enough time to return her to make it look like she never left while still enjoying that ride." She turned back to Rosaleya. "I already cleaned up your apartment; don't you worry, dear, everything's as it should be. But in return, you have to sit in the back of Soren's car with me and let me hug you."
"I won't say no to that." Rosaleya embraced Claudia.
"His car also has a setting that makes the entire car see-through from the inside; it will be one Hell of a view."
"You really messed up this time, didn't you?" She laughed mirthlessly.
Leigh opened his eyes a sliver; enough to make out the shape of a very familiar, attractive woman that wasn't Claudia. He was barely conscious, and couldn't reply to her.
"It'll be my turn, soon, and by the looks of it, you've failed. You could've done so much better with the time you had." She gave him a look of contempt that would've been painful, if Leigh had still loved her. Hopefully Rosaleya wouldn't, either.
"We won't talk about shortening the contract's deadline just yet." Claudia said, embracing Rosaleya in the back seats while they enjoyed the view. "I'll have to put even more effort into that rat. Hell knows I would rather be spending that time with Easton. But it's still certain that he will sign. You're aware that he doesn't have any legal authority over you-"
Rosaleya nodded.
"-but the contract will remove his verbal authority. He won't be able to speak harshly to you, or give you orders or anything! For example, what he'll want to say would be 'Rosaleya, do the dishes this instant! You should've thought to do them already! Common sense!', but what the contract will allow him to say is "Rosaleya, I would love for you to please wash these dishes." That way, he can't scare you any more. Or when he wants to break something, his hands will stick to his sides like glue. Or something that can't be said politely, like 'You're grounded' will become 'Mmnggph!'" Claudia made noises like she was trying to talk through a gag, and Rosaleya's laughter filled her up with happiness. "Hell, you're so cute! Better than a pet! Oh, that reminds me, have you met Shiro, yet? He's so-"
"Mother, please not yet." Soren said.
"Why not?" Athena asked. She was sitting in the front passenger's seat.
"I guess he doesn't want to tell you, yet, then." Claudia shrugged. I like hugging Rosaleya. She's so cute. "I sent a letter to the Hogwarts Headmaster informing him that I would be visiting him this morning for something I viewed as important; I'll tell him about Leigh because I know that it might be hard for you to fake empathy right now." She giggled, playfully tightening her embrace for a moment.
Rosaleya momentarily compared this embrace to whatever Dad had done earlier under the guise of a 'hug'.
"Oh, and if you're wondering who's minding the shop since it's open right now and Crystal is eating breakfast, it's my neighbor from across the street. Soren, you've told her about her, right?"
"Yes. She's the one who doesn't like sweets."
"Oh, that one." Rosaleya said, as if this was her one defining character trait.
"Have you met her?" Claudia asked.
"No."
Claudia laughed. "Now that you're in a better mood, I would like to address your actions." She felt Rosaleya inhale uncomfortably, and hold her breath. "I don't disagree with what you've done. However, all actions must be...carried out from the appropriate mindset. For example, cooking a meal because you want to will make the meal taste lovely. If you are forced to make a meal under duress, the meal will taste terrible, regardless of whether the preparation is the same in both scenarios, because you will be putting the wrong energy into the latter meal. Tell me what was going through your mind."
Rosaleya told them about the train, and how her thoughts had gone from forgiving and apologetic to hateful and violent, although she couldn't remember when exactly the switch happened.
"When did you start seeing the train?"
"When I..." Rosaleya took a deep breath "...I spit in his coffee."
This new information caused Athena and Soren to laugh; the former applauded in approval.
Claudia cleared her throat, and they both stopped, but then she couldn't help giggling a bit before continuing. "Could you outline the morning for me?"
"Sure." Rosaleya didn't bother with the dialogue, just Leigh's actions and how they made her feel. She also didn't bother with telling them about the daydream about Soren walking in the rain with her; that was too personal, even for the McCunnens. "...and Jade suggested that that would help stop the train, so that's how it happened. And then...I couldn't stop..."
"Human pinata." Athena whispered to Soren. "That would've been fun to watch. Too bad we missed it."
"I would've stopped her; she wasn't in the right state of mind to take those actions." Soren replied.
When Rosaleya finished, she felt much better. By now, the train's resounding noise was only a painful memory. It had seemed to slowly disappear as she talked about the incident. "You took him to the hospital?"
"Yes, unfortunately, he's still alive, but I only helped him for you." Claudia meant the law against hurting other demons and wizards and witches. "I suggest that we visit him later today when he regains consciousness; we'll stop by a demonic theater and borrow two Communication Collars; he still won't be able to speak or even move anything more than his eyelids for a while." Here she couldn't help but giggle again. "If you don't like what he has to say, I will give you some options, and you can choose the appropriate action to take. Now, I'll say it one more time so that you don't forget: Illegality aside, your actions would've been fine if you had carried them out in the right state of mind. Tell me that you understand?" She gently tightened the embrace, just a bit.
"I understand."
"What does your extension have to say? I'm curious." Athena said. Whereas in the beginning she had viewed him as an inconvenience that prevented her from getting closer to Rosaleya, now she viewed him as an intensely interesting being. It's still hard, from the way that she talks about him, to remember that he's actually part of her. "Is he saying things like bull_! or fools!...?"
"No, he's asleep." Rosaleya replied. "He's in the corner, behind your chair, and he's drooling just a bit. Thanks so much, all of you...I didn't know what to do. I must be a real pain in the behind to-"
"Absolutely not!" Claudia interjected. “Don’t assume that you’re causing trouble for anyone. This is how parenting works. This is how a family works. Similarly, you'll have to help me with whatever problems I have...or Athena, or Soren...we all help each other. That is a family. We love and help each other."
"Ready to go?" Crystal asked, smiling when she saw Rosaleya waiting under a tree inside the Hogwarts grounds, near the gates.
"Yup."
"Where do you want to go first? Forget about my desires for today: we can get Chinese buffet food any time. Today is for you."
"Arcade?"
"Sure!" Crystal took her hand.
Rosaleya smiled, as if her day would be perfect after spending it at the arcade.
"Do you want Soren to meet us there? I can-"
"-that would be perfect! Thank you." Rosaleya replied appreciatively. She thought that maybe Crystal hadn't wanted any extra students to chaperone, but since she had suggested it, she accepted.
"Good morning, Headmaster." Claudia greeted in a very professional tone, offering her hand to shake. "I don't need long, but I wished to communicate this with you in person instead of an owl. I've already told Rosaleya, but seeing as how Leigh is unconscious, she won't visit him yet. He's been hospitalized at St. Mungos-" and she explained the 'story' for him. Mugged because he sucks at magic, check. Muggle area with a gang, check. Formal tone, check. Mentioning that I'm his fiancee, check. Bothering with tears or unrealistic empathy, X. At the end of her mental checklist, she heard an abrupt buzzer sound for the X. "That is all I have to say. Have I forgotten any details?" What she clearly meant was 'Do you have any questions'. She came off as a warm person, sure, but when she spoke of Leigh, her eyes turned ice cold.
"Yes. A noticeable different is that she's adding a few extra ingredients to her creations in Cooking with Magic, and a few times she's doubled portions to share with a friend of hers." Luna said.
"It's because she's been spending her weekends, besides today, with the McCunnens. I can't speak for 'her fiancee' because I don't know him well enough yet to judge him, but I've got a good feeling about Claudia." Crystal said, with a determined look in her eyes.
If it were possible to tell Mr. Fairbrook that Rosaleya's weekend and holiday privileges are being revoked, while in reality she is allowed to visit anywhere she likes, that would be excellent. Then she could spend all the time she likes with the McCunnens. They sound like what the Weasleys were to Harry Potter, from what Crystal has told me about them during out conversations. However, I must restrain my impulse, for deceit to Mr. Fairbrook would cause a problem if he discovered the truth. Hogwarts would lose credibility and the professional air that we've all been working so hard to maintain. Luna sighed quietly, so no one else noticed. "I will owl Mr. Fairbrook a notice alerting him that one of our staff, an anonymous eyewitness, reported his actions today. I liked your reason..." she addressed Elias "....The risk of accidentally violating the International Statute of Secrecy while inebriated. I will name that as the reason for the suspension of Mr. Fairbrook's weekend privileges."
"And that she'll still get to see the McCunnens during the Winter Holidays." Crystal added.
"Yes." Luna approved of Crystal's reasons for only banning the weekend visits. "The suspension will take effect on Monday. Professor Thorne will inform Rosaleya of the suspension, accompany her wherever she wishes on Sunday, and of course point out that this isn't a form of punishment for her, but protection from her father." She will have one last day to spend at her leisure on Sunday, with Crystal's protection.
Crystal and Luna both turned to Elias, waiting for him to give the final word of approval since he was the Headmaster.
"...and none of the staff will be able to find out." Rosaleya finished.
"Okay, but in return, you have to tell me, why." Nova folded his arms. "That guy is a mess. Like sticking your face in a full beehive with a piece of toast in your mouth, expecting to enjoy toast and honey for breakfast."
Rosaleya just barely resisted laughing at Nova's analogy. "Because I want to try again with him. I'll do everything perfect; I've got it planned out. But I can't give up on him, yet. I want him back so badly. You probably think I sound stupid, don't you?"
"Not at all. Just...too forgiving. I don't understand it. It's annoying."
"Annoying like-"
"-Annoying like I'm annoyed by things that I don't understand. Like when you were so happy to dress up as a maid that first time, and clean my entire home."
"Oh." Rosaleya nodded slowly, understanding. "Okay. Got it." I guess that must've been weird from his perspective. For me, I understand my reasons.
"Good morning, Dad." Rosaleya smiled cheerfully. She had come over as soon as Hogwarts curfew lifted, and planned to return in time to meet Crystal at the gates at eleven, like they had planned the night before. Crystal didn't know that she was here; she wouldn't have let her come. "I made your favorite 'Hangover Soup'." She brought it to him on a tray with water and salt in case he needed extra. No matter what she did, for Leigh, her meals always needed...
"Ugh, did you even put salt in this? It needs more salt." Leigh rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue as he unscrewed the salt jar. They didn't own normal salt and pepper shakers: just tiny jars that had come with a set of larger ones to hold large quantities of things like flour and sugar.
"Maybe because he has the taste-buds of a rhinoceros." Jade jested in a whisper.
Rosaleya watched the salt that Leigh pinched up fall like snow onto the soup's surface, and then melt into it, with slight disappointment. She imagined the way that Claudia might've added more salt if a meal that Rosaleya lovingly cooked for her had needed it. Claudia smiled one of her perfect, heart-warming smiles when Rosaleya brought the soup to her bedside. "You're spoiling me." She said, in lieu of a 'thank you', although Rosaleya could tell that she meant the latter. "For my taste...just a few shakes will do." Claudia used a salt shaker to add just a bit more salt. "I can taste your love in this soup, darling. It's delicious." If she had been drinking all night, or even if she wanted to drink in the morning, I would love to bring her 'Hangover Soup' if she was nice about it. She resisted frowning or flinching as Leigh threw the bowl of soup onto the bedroom floor; the bowl was plastic so it didn't break, it only cracked slightly, and the soup would've been annoying to clean off the wall, cheap drapes, and floor, if Jade hadn't kindly volunteered. "As soon as he leaves." He added.
"You made it all wrong." Leigh flailed his hands in the air as if Rosaleya couldn't possibly have made it worse. "The carrots are undercooked, the broth is bland as _, it's too thin, and you added too many mushrooms. I'll have to make it all over again to get any satisfaction from it. Help me out of bed, don't just watch me. Can't you tell when I need help? You know that my back hurts in my old age, you ungrateful _. You probably ruined the soup on purpose because I embarrassed you yesterday, didn't you?" He spat, although he managed to get out of bed himself. He smelled like stale vomit and sweat. The area of the sheets where he had been lying was slightly darker than the rest of the bed from perspiration, because he had turned the heat up too high during the night. The same heating that he never allowed Rosaleya to use because it was 'too expensive'. "Well let me tell you something, Ro-sa-le-ya," he pronounced every syllable with increased disdain, as if she was the most ungrateful child in the world "you embarrassed me yesterday, too."
"H-how?" Rosaleya asked. What did I do? Is there something I did that I shouldn't have done? The way I remember it, he was terrible yesterday, except-
"Except 'terrible' is too mild of a word." Jade snarled at Leigh.
Leigh didn't answer; he looked past Rosaleya to the spilt soup, and his expression changed abruptly like he had remembered why he had gotten out of bed in the first place. "Come." He turned away coldly, trudging toward the kitchen. "I'm _ hungry and your wasting my time right now."
"She's wasting your time?" Jade yelled. "She came all the way here to take care-"
"Come along! You can clean up that mess later, and I hope that it gets worse and harder for you to clean." Leigh snapped when he realized that Rosaleya hadn't immediately moved to follow him.
"Go. I've got it." Jade said.
Thanks. Rosaleya thought, running to meet Leigh in the kitchen.
"Don't run in the house. You're making me nervous." Leigh snapped. He had already put a pot of water on the stove, and sat down at the kitchen table. "One onion, six carrots, three potatoes, one bin of mushrooms-" he began quickly listing items for Rosaleya to take out and prepare, as if there was enough time for Rosaleya to remember everything or even write it down before Leigh moved on to the next item. When they 'cooked together', Rosaleya did most of the work, and Leigh just stirred the contents of the pots and pans a few times and then seasoned at the end....or sometimes he would make Rosaleya season it and then criticize it halfway through before taking over "-one head of celery, a bowl of parsley, short vermicelli noodles, two liters of chicken stock-"
"-we don't have any more fresh chicken stock." Rosaleya interjected, her voice sounding apologetic for a reason that even she didn't understand, but she quickly fixed it to sound as helpful as possible "I can make some more in five minutes because I learned a spell-"
"-I'm too hungry to wait for you to fix another one of your mistakes." Leigh sneered. "Just use the one from the store. It's in the carton, so make sure it hasn't expired, unless you want me to get food poisoning. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"Yes she wouuuuuld!" Jade called from the bedroom, imitating Jules from Pulp Fiction; they had enjoyed that film with three of the McCunnens yesterday. "Yes. She. Would."
"Of course I wouldn't." Rosaleya replied, trying to sound as genuine as possible but in her current position even she couldn't tell if she was lying or not. She didn't know if Jade counted as a good indicator of the truth in this particular situation. In circumstances like these, it felt as though she couldn't trust that part of herself. Something about Leigh made it difficult to. She assumed it was because he was her...'father'.
Then, Leigh listed off all of the spices that they used. "Argh, I'm so sick of treating you like a little girl. You've made this soup with me hundreds of times-"
"-you've gotten drunk hun-dreds of times!" Jade retorted.
"-so you should be able to prepare the vegetables and spices at least, without me listing them for you!" He flailed his arms again in exasperation. "Let me know when you're done with that, and don't you dare dilly-dally. I'm really not in the mood for that right now." He pulled himself out of his chair with a half grunt and half sigh, dragging his feet to the family room, and Rosaleya heard the cheap couch creak, as if complaining for the way that Leigh always fell onto it like a slob. She heard Leigh's favorite show as of late start a minute later as she began peeling the onions.
"I'm here! Super-Jade is here to save the day!" Jade jumped into the kitchen comically, his hair blowing behind him like Superman's cape even though there was no wind.
Rosaleya put a hand to her mouth to muffle her laughter.
"I wrote down everything that he listed, because I know that you only remembered 'onions, carrots and celery' right now." He used the paper to put the rest of the ingredients on the counter, and then started helping to prepare them.
Leigh loved all of the stupid songs and movies. Anything that was popular in the Americas at the moment, Leigh had either finished or was in the process of watching it. Terrible movies; romance movies were his favorite, and series; sit-coms were his favorite, and his second favorite were reality shows. He never watched anything that had subtitles for the main dialogue. "It's so much work! If I wanted to read, then I would read a damn book!" He complained. Sometimes he made Rosaleya watch "...at least one episode! It's not fair for you to judge it before you've even watched one. Don't be so judgemental!" It was during these long days, where he would make her sit through too many 'first episodes' or 'pilots', when Rosaleya could think Why can't he like Anime, if he loves these awful shows so much? Rosaleya sighed heavily after the preparations were finished. Leigh not only insisted on her washing and/or peeling and chopping everything, and getting all of the spices out, but also lying every utensil and pot or pan that he would require to make the meal, including the appropriate bowls and eating utensils for the end when he would serve the food, on the counters. Leigh made it as if retrieving an item from a pantry or the fridge required the same effort as painting every surface of the house a new color. If anything was missing or forgotten, or if she accidentally got out an 'incorrect item', it would be an entire conversation about 'children taking care of their parents' or something along the lines of 'if you really loved me, then you would remember these things'. Unspoken items were the most difficult: sometimes Leigh deliberately left out an item when he gave her a list of things to prepare, and he would expect Rosaleya to suggest it while they were cooking. Something like an extra spice that paired well with the meal, or a different kind of oil for the vegetables. Forgetting any of these items would also lead to a tiring lecture. "It's common sense, Rosaleya. I shouldn't have to tell you everything, all the time. I didn't raise an idiot, did I?"
Rosaleya pictured Claudia on the couch instead when she called "Everything's ready for you!"
"Don't yell at me!" Leigh retorted, pulling himself out of his chair with great effort and trudging back to the kitchen, dragging his feet noisily again.
" 'Don't yell at me'." Jade intentionally did a bad impression of Leigh's voice.
Thirty minutes later
"Hand me the salt." Leigh snapped.
"Here." Rosaleya handed it to him.
Despite it being easily accessible to Leigh if he only extended his arm, he insisted on having Rosaleya hand him each and every spice, one at a time, by his command, not sooner. Not only the spices, but any utensils or pots or pans that he wanted, despite the fact that having Rosaleya 'prepare everything' meant that everything was easily accessible to Leigh if he just extended an arm or took one step away from the stove.
Leigh handed Rosaleya the salt back. The timing had to be just right for when she took it back or else. "Pepper."
"Here." Rosaleya handed him the pepper.
Leigh handed it back a moment later. "Onion powder."
"White pepper." Rosaleya handed him the white pepper; it was one of the 'unspoken items' this time, since he always loved white pepper in his 'Hangover Soup'.
"I didn't ask you for that!" Leigh knocked it out of her hand. "Only give me what I've asked for! ONION POWDER."
Rosaleya continued to hand him the spices. Jade promised to clean the white pepper, which had mostly spilt onto the floor, as soon as Leigh left the kitchen. He imitated Leigh a few times to keep it easy to deal with, and once when Rosaleya almost dropped the dried parsley flakes, Jade caught it and pushed it into her hand discreetly to avoid another one of Leigh's outbursts. "You have one job! Honestly, Rosaleya, how can you manage to ruin something as simple as handing me spices?! Is it too much to ask of you? Or would you rather be doing something else so much to the point that your mind is elsewhere, instead of right here, where I need you to be? You're never there for me." But he usually says that as I'm standing there, literally there for him. Rosaleya watched him taste the soup for the fourth time.
"It needs white pepper." He snapped, as if he had already forgotten what had happened a minute earlier, or that the white pepper was still on the floor by his feet. He said it as it he was blaming Rosaleya for not having placed it with the other spices during the preparations. "Get some white pepper. You know that I love white pepper in this soup."
With the addition of the white pepper, the soup was complete. He ladled six ladles into a large bowl, and walked past Rosaleya coldly as if refusing to serve her some.
"Not like you want any, anyway." Jade said, moving to clean up the white pepper.
"Where's my spoon?!" Leigh demanded from the couch. "The only one that I like?"
"I couldn't find it." Rosaleya replied apologetically. "I triple-checked everywhere!"
"Find it. Look again."
"But I looked three times-"
"LOOK AGAIN. The soup is getting cold."
"Where else would you put a spoon besides-" Jade named off the places that they had looked while Rosaleya checked them again. "Oh, hang on! When he's lonely, he eats in bed!" Jade ran to check under Leigh's bed, under the bedside table, or between the bed and the wall, Rosaleya guessed. He returned ten seconds later. As he washed the spoon post haste, he groaned "It was lodged, somehow, under his dresser. I have no idea how it slid across the room from his bed to his dresser, but it's here now." He handed it to her after drying it thoroughly.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Leigh snapped, grabbing the spoon from her.
Rosaleya waited, watching him eat the first few bites of his soup.
"That's all, Rosaleya." Jade suggested for Leigh. "She can't move until you've dismissed her, remember, @$$#0↳3?" He bellowed. "There's nothing else that I need, thank you, Rosaleya!"
"Don't watch me eat. It's creepy." Leigh snapped, dropping his spoon into the soup; the handle fell in as well. "Look what you've made me do, you creeper. Wash it again."
"Sorry." Rosaleya said half-heartedly.
"Don't you talk to me with that attitude!"
Thirty seconds later
"Here." Rosaleya handed Leigh the re-washed spoon.
After one more bite, Leigh spoke with a full mouth. "Get me some coffee! I can barely enjoy this soup; I'm still half-asleep. Thanks to you, I haven't even had the opportunity to brush my teeth or wash my face yet with the trouble you've caused me...."
"So...while we were preparing everything, he could've done both of those things...even taken a full shower. Ten minutes is plenty of time." Jade said.
Leigh went on for a minute. "...Argh, so much stress! You're really a piece of work, you know that? Are you listening to me?!"
"Yes." Rosaleya replied.
"Then meet me eyes. I can't tell if you're even listening when you stare at the floor like that. My eyes are up here! It's so rude to not make eye-contact when someone is talking to you. Do you behave this way when you're at that damned school?"
"No."
"So just with me, huh? Coffee." He spat, although it fell on the couch. "Wipe this up first."
Ten seconds later
"Tell me that your angry. Admit it, out loud, or else I'm going to go and get some extra sleep." Jade said when they were back in the kitchen together.
"Don't do that! I can't do this without you! Hangover Days are the worst!" Rosaleya hugged Jade immediately, as if holding him would prevent him from leaving. She spoke quietly, but her voice quivered as she forced her eyes to hold back tears. She took in the pleasant scent of his robes again. "Yes, I'm very angry, okay? I would rather do these things for her-" she meant Claudia, still unable to call her 'mother' for some reason "-because, you know why."
"Good. You should be angry. This isn't acceptable." Then, he added in a Cockney accent "Now I'll clean while you make his bloody coffee."
Rosaleya smiled with just her mouth, then grabbed a tissue to dry the latent tears in the corners of her eyes.
Three minutes later
"What's taking so long with the coffee? It's instant, so you shouldn't be taking so long!"
"I had to use the bathroom!" Rosaleya replied. That's not a lie. I was suffering through it since he was seasoning the soup...but asking to be excused would lead to another problem. I felt like I had an overfilled water balloon in between my legs; it literally hurt.
"Couldn't you have gone after you brought me the coffee?!"
"You said that holding it in is bad for your liver!" Rosaleya replied. Was it liver or kidneys? Or was that alcohol for the liver?
"Kidneys!" Leigh corrected.
"It's actually both." Jade informed Rosaleya. "But it's worse for your kidneys. Liver is second-worst. Alcohol does worse for your liver. And of course smoking is bad for the lungs." He meant these last two remarks toward Leigh.
"And you can hold it for a few minutes!" Leigh added.
Rosaleya stirred the coffee one final time, making sure that the sugar was dissolved completely.
"Spit in his tea." Jade said in a tempting, sadistic voice. "Your mouth is clean; your saliva doesn't have a taste to it. If you stir the coffee, he won't notice, but it will make you feel better. Remember that one book that he made you read, back when he was only letting you read children's books and he bought you all of the Roald Dahl books? When that lady complained about the meal, and after 'fixing it' in the kitchen, each and every cook spit in it before they mixed it and served it to her? They must've felt very nice about that."
"I remember that." Rosaleya's voice was just above a whisper. "She wasn't even complaining about something legit. She was just being a _."
"Come on." Jade's eyes were radiating with the energy of all of Rosaleya's sadistic desires toward Leigh. "He won't even notice. You know that line, that barrier, between fantasizing about hurting Leigh and actually doing something? With this, you can cross that line. Just the tip of your toe." Jade gestured with his thumb and index finger to illustrate how little she would be 'crossing the line'. He put a hand to her heart. "I can feel your heartbeat has accelerated. You're excited about this idea. Just do it."
Rosaleya looked away from Jade's eyes which gave the illusion that they were glowing, to the swirling surface of the coffee. She used her tongue to assist as much saliva as possible to the front of her mouth, then allowed herself to cross that line. As she stirred the coffee again, thoroughly, she had an image in her mind's eye of a train crossing the tracks on a border that separated peaceful, grassy plains with bunnies and flowers, from rougher terrain with broken trees and cracked earth unsuitable for vegetation or livestock grazing, as if many, many storms and natural disasters had ruined everything in their path. She could hear the train's whistle blowing, and the unmistakable sound of the fast chug chug chug, as if she was standing in that place in her mind's eye. "Your coffee." Rosaleya smiled cheerfully, handing it to Leigh.
"You should always serve me with a smile that lovely." Leigh complained, moving as if he would snatch the cup away from her, but his hands slowed at the last minute as his mind registered the ribbons of steam. "When you're done cleaning the kitchen, come over here. I want to talk with you."
"Okay." Rosaleya smiled. When she returned to the kitchen she recognized the sound of rain drizzling outside. "Rose, have you ever walked in the rain before?" Soren asked with a look in his eyes that said he had a lovely idea. "Not without an umbrella." Rosaleya replied. "Take my hand, let me show you something new. I know you love new things." He took her hand; his was so warm and soft. "See, this isn't so bad, is it?" He asked once they were walking outside together. "I thought that it would feel weird." Rosaleya said. "And uncomfortable." Soren gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Nope. Nothing will ever feel weird or uncomfortable when we're together." He moved in to kiss her passionately. "I can't." Rosaleya pulled her hand away and put both hands up to shield her face. "I'm not...I can't kiss you, yet." "I'm sorry. Here." Soren gently kissed her on the top of her head. "May I ask why? Is it still too soon? It's been three years since the first love letter, and I just want to make certain that I'm not doing anything to make you dislike me." "You're not!" Rosaleya insisted, lowering her hands to make eye-contact. "You're absolutely perfect! It's just..." Rosaleya shook her head. If I told him why, he would dump me for sure. What kind of girl pushes the perfect guy away because he's not...She sighed. Sometimes I really feel like an idiot.
Out of curiosity, she tasted 'Leigh's' soup: it tasted almost identical to hers, except that Leigh's was over-salted. The other spices were completely off, too. It made Rosaleya cringe and immediately drink an entire glass of water. She poured a short glass of cranberry juice from the fridge to get that awful taste out.
Five minutes later
"You're done so quickly?" Leigh asked in surprise.
"Yes." Rosaleya sat down in the chair to his left. Sharing the couch with him would mean smelling him. Also, he usually 'wanted some space' during Hangover Days. She knew that Leigh preferred her to sit opposite him while they 'talked', but the chair opposite him had a spring loose, so sitting on it pained her after a few minutes, and left an indentation in her leg. So that left the chair to his left.
Before she even sat down, he said "Sit in front of me. Turning towards you will hurt my neck. Look at how my neck would be turning if you sat there!" He demonstrated, wearing an exaggerated expression of pain. "It would hurt me! I'm already in enough pain!"
"Vodka." Jade observed, pointing to the short glass near Leigh's water and coffee.
Rosaleya tried to exchange the comfortable chair for the one with the loose spring.
Leigh snapped again. "Don't be complicated! Just use a cushion for this chair! Hurry up, you're wasting my time!"
"Sorry." No cushions in the house because pillows off of our beds don't count. "Excuse me." Rosaleya retrieved a plushie from her room and used that instead.
"Getting creative now, huh?" Leigh rolled his eyes. "You're so complicated sometimes. Why do you even keep those things anyway? You're too old for them."
"They're cute." Rosaleya replied quietly.
"What's that? You really shouldn't mumble so often."
"I think that they're cute." Rosaleya said a bit louder.
"Well if cute things were useful, then we wouldn't have this problem." Leigh gestured to Rosaleya.
"Where is Chance?" Jade said, meaning that Leigh should've turned this comment toward Chance.
Rosaleya looked around the family room pointedly.
"Haha, very funny. Chance is asleep. I gave him some whiskey last night but he passed right out after only a little bit."
"So is this one going to die from alcohol poisoning as well?" Jade asked. "Or will you accidentally knock something over onto him and crack his skull? When will you learn?"
"So, I wanted to talk with you about yesterday." Leigh began.
"You're not going to apologize." Jade observed by Leigh's 'you've done something wrong' tone.
"You're face is so difficult to look at right now. You look so miserable. Smile." Leigh paused to take another sip of his coffee.
Rosaleya smiled, her eyes crinkling. This is very wrong, I'm sure...but my heart feels like it's singing Vivaldi's 'Presto'.
Jade was laughing hysterically. "He's halfway done with it! Drink it, pig." He said, looking down his nose at him with a sadistic expression.
"So yesterday..." Leigh paused to take a drink of his Vodka. "Oh, don't look at it like that! It's Vodka, it's different from beer. I'm just doing this-" he paused to down the remainder of the glass in one gulp "-to gently taper off. It helps with the hangover."
"8@$+@4d!" Jade yelled "THAT'S WHAT THE _ SOUP WAS FOR!"
Rosaleya listened to Leigh with a wide smile, which was genuine because he kept pausing his dialogue to sip more coffee. Leigh was apparently embarrassed by Rosaleya because, as his convenient memory had it, she had been the only one talking at the table, speaking only of her self and her day-to-day troubles. Also, her makeup [her lipstick] had smudged and she had looked like a clown.
The train kept progressing through the ruined lands at a moderate pace. Rosaleya watched it as she listened to Leigh.
Thirty minutes later
"And on top of all of that, you took an hour in the bathroom. People probably thought that you were avoiding your own father. Explain yourself!"
This is when I'm supposed to apologize...for 'everything that I've done'. Because, no matter what, he won't remember what we fought about in a week, or a few days at least, if I apologize and tell him that he's right. That's how our arguments just go away, disappearing from his memory. He only keeps the bad and fake memories in his mind, well, of me at least, because he just spent an hour bringing them all up. But I don't want to apologize anymore for something that I haven't done! Why should I have to? If, in his memory, I'm the one that wronged him yesterday, why? I'm so sick of apologizing to him for things that I haven't done while he understates every wrong that he did, or just outright erases them from his mind with his convenient memory. No, I'm going to tell him just how insufferable he was yesterday! First- "I was in the bathroom for-"
"-get me an ashtray and my cigarettes."
"You threw them out in August because you said that you were done with smoking."
"I don't remember that. Your memory must be wrong. Check the kitchen cabinet with the medicines in it. Go." He waved his hand at her as if he was swatting away a fly.
"The medicine cabinet now holds the cigarettes?" Jade snorted, then laughed when he saw Rosaleya open the cabinet. "It does!"
"So, you were explaining?" Leigh lit his cigarette with a Muggle lighter. It was as if even a simple fire spell, which he was capable of, was too much effort for him. He always kept the lighter on the family room table, as well as some tall votive candles, because he liked 'nice atmosphere and gentle lighting' while he watched television at night. That was how Rosaleya had mentally explained the lighter still being there; she assumed that Leigh's smoking yesterday had been an exception. "I started smoking again when you left. Did you know that?" Leigh said, nodding toward Rosaleya as if he was accusing her of being the cause for his misery.
"Shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup." Jade groaned. "Oh." He ran off to handle something apparently urgent.
"I only took ten minutes in the bathroom. You timed me, remember?"
"Your memory must be wrong. You were drunk, after all." Leigh rolled his eyes.
"You literally fell onto the floor! You were half awake!" Rosaleya said angrily. "I had to hold you up-" thank goodness that Jade was awake! "-and wait for almost half a frickin hour to catch a-"
"-Don't you dare raise your voice to me! Who do you think you are?!" Leigh slammed his fist on the table.
"-and if Soren hadn't helped-"
"There's another thing: where were you yesterday, instead of helping me? I woke up after you left me so coldly, and vomited in the bathroom. Then I had to make myself some food, and I had to drink a bit to avoid the headache. I could've used your help yesterday. I didn't even have the energy to read this letter from Hogwarts." He waved his hand in the general direction of his bedroom; the letter was lying somewhere, unopened, within it. "Where were you?"
"I was spending time with Soren and Cl-"
"Didn't I tell you to stay away from them?" Leigh asked in a dangerous tone.
"Oh fudge." Jade said.
Rosaleya's heartbeat accelerated.
"We didn't know-" Jade began.
"-You were drunk when you mumbled that! I thought that you were talking in your sleep or something!" Rosaleya grabbed a tissue and wiped the sweat from her face. "How could I have known-"
"-You're wrong. I said it to you while I was still sober. I even made a note to tell you before I started drinking. Stop lying."
The train progressed through the ruined lands at a slightly faster pace than before. The rain changed from a drizzle to a light shower. "I'm not-" It wasn't even on his notes!
"Shut up." Leigh slammed his coffee mug onto the table so harshly that Rosaleya was surprised that it wasn't broken. "How dare you ignore my orders? I'm your-"
"-stop it!" Rosaleya couldn't help the tears that accompanied her disgustingly meek voice "-I'm sorry, for not being what you want in a daughter. I love you. the real you, so much, I just want to be happy with you again! That's why I came here today, even when I wasn't supposed to! Read the Hogwarts letter! Just listen: I'll do whatever you want, but please just stop this! Please! I want the old you back! I'll say it as many times as you want, even if there's nothing that I've done wrong: I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Just please change back, that's all I ask! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm-" she said it faster and faster.
"Shut up!" Leigh rose and struck her across her face. "You're such a drama queen. Family means unconditional love." He seemed discontent when he realized that she was still standing and apologizing, so he backhanded her with his full force and she fell to the floor. "Stay down." He warned her against speaking further or considering a counter-attack. He flung the rest of his coffee on her; a half-cup of it, cold by now. "You're pathetic."
It's not hot. Rosaleya thought gratefully as she sobbed, still apologizing faster and faster.
Ignoring her words, Leigh let out the usual stream of cuss-words and derogatory names, bellowing about every way that Rosaleya had ever, and 'probably would' ever fail him.
Ninety-five percent of them were completely unrealistic, Rosaleya realized. Somewhere along the three-minute mark, his words had stopped feeling like sharpened swords piercing her heart; she had started to feel numb on the inside. The coffee was making her shiver now in the cold of the apartment.
Five minutes later
"...and that, that is why I'm so miserable. Why I escape into alcohol and tobacco and _. A child is a mirror, reflecting the virtues of the parents. I hate your guts. I wish that you would die and let me live my life peacefully."
Jade was busy cleaning up after the dog, who had woken up to vomit, urinate, and defecate in various areas of the house. Even if he hadn't been busy, he wouldn't have helped Rosaleya. What could he do, when she didn't allow him to harm Leigh, and there was no stopping him otherwise?
"I would summon a patronus right now to tell Claudia that I'm finished with her."
This stopped Rosaleya from uttering one more syllable.
Then Leigh told her that he had a 'bad feeling' about Claudia and Soren, and that she was never to see them again, no matter what. According to him, he had had this 'bad feeling' from the beginning, but Rosaleya's enthusiasm towards them had "...confused my instincts. Now get out of my sight. I'm so sick of you." Leigh's spit hit its target this time. "Go to your room. You're grounded. And you're not doing back to school tomorrow, screw whatever that letter says. I'm going to have you finish with your schooling here, and then you can take over the store. There: magical education, and a job that pays if you work hard. Your life is complete." He rubbed his hands together dramatically as if he was trying to rub dirt off of them. "Lots of people don't have that, but I suppose your ingratitude will continue, eh? Take off that ring. I noticed that you started wearing it after you met Soren. Did he give it to you?"
The timing is so far off, from when I started wearing it, to when he introduced me to Soren. He only sees what he wants to see. I don't want any of this anymore. Claudia doesn't have a 'bad mode'.
Leigh grabbed her hand and harshly pulled the ring off of her finger. "I'll be confiscating it until you can learn some proper gratitude. And this, too." He undid the clasp of her charm bracelet, then the clasp of her Yin and Yang necklace. "You made a few friends and you think that you can have this spoilt attitude like you're better than me?" He slammed the items on the coffee table. "Get out of my sight. Move it." He kicked her in her ribs. "Go." He kicked her again, in her stomach this time. "Tell Thorne that you didn't really like Hogwarts and that you miss me. Tell Soren that you don't love him. And screw Claudia. She was only using me for my money, probably. She couldn't really love me. No one really loves me; even you don't." What Leigh didn't realize was that his kicks knocked the wind out of Rosaleya, so he was preventing her from moving. "And Soren...pretty boys are a dime a dozen. Oh, don't be dramatic, I'm not even kicking you that hard!" He said in response to her labored breathing and her hands moving to her stomach and chest. "It you want, crawl there, but hurry." He finally turned away after one more kick; the hardest one yet, at her posterior. "Go!"
Jade helped Rosaleya there quickly before Leigh turned back around. That last one didn't hurt too bad. My figure is pear-shaped, so the fat cushioned his kick.
"Don't come out unless you need to eat!" Leigh yelled. "Actually, I don't event want to see you right now, so I'll bring you food later."
The train picked up a bit of speed.
Jade closed her bedroom door. Rosaleya started sobbing uncontrollably the moment that she could breathe again. Still, breathing hurt. It felt as though her ribs would crumble or collapse at any moment. Even if she was shivering, she couldn't take a warm shower and change her clothes because she needed to vent. Also, heating water was 'expensive', Leigh said. Luckily, Jade wasn't sleepy, so when she was done crying he could heat the water for her. For now, crying was the only way she could release her feelings. She couldn't disappear into an addiction like Leigh, and she couldn't throw things around like he sometimes did; Leigh would just get angrier. Rosaleya heard a crash; Leigh was throwing things around now. Heavy things. Maybe the coffee table? Hopefully not the television stand.
Jade locked Rosaleya's bedroom door.
"YOU'LL CLEAN THIS UP LATER!" Leigh yelled.
Rosaleya heard him stomp into the kitchen and start breaking plates and cups, throwing pans around, slamming the oven and cabinet doors a few times...it sounded like one of the cabinet doors fell off of the hinges.
Then, Leigh barged into her room; suddenly a spell to unlock her door was effortless for him. "Why won't you love me? You never do what I want without arguing. I've done so much for you! What more do I have to do to get you to love me, huh?" He held her up harshly by her shoulders to face him "WHY WON'T YOU JUST LOVE ME ALREADY?! DO YOU WANT ME TO TREAT YOU LIKE A CHILD? IS THAT WHAT CLAUDIA DOES?!...Come on, tell me why." He embraced Rosaleya. It felt more like a boa constrictor was squeezing her painfully while unhooking its jaws to devour her. "Please, tell me." He asked gently. "Don't just stay quiet. You're always so quiet. Please talk to me. Tell me what's wrong. What can I do differently?" When Rosaleya remained silent for a full half minute, he spoke softly into her ear "I can't summon my patronus because I don't have any happy memories. You won't let me make any with you." Then, when she was still silent, he threw her against the foot of her bed and left the room again, slamming her door shut. Luckily, her bed was just a mattress with sheets, so there had been no wooden or metal bed-frame for Rosaleya to injure herself on.
"What...are you doing?" Rosaleya asked in a choked voice, in response to Jade searching through her closet. Her emotions were a wreck again: it felt like her heart was in her throat and that her tongue was too heavy to speak properly. Her stomach was upset as if she had eaten something rotten. If he 'has no happy memories' then he doesn't remember anything that we used to do together when he was acting like 'himself' and being a great Dad. That means that everything I've endured was for nothing. Wait, maybe he was...exaggerating again?
"Take it." Jade displayed her baseball bat with a sadistic expression.
Rosaleya saw the train again, just like before, and heard it in her ears so vividly. "No." She covered her ears as if this would help block the shockingly realistic noise out, and continued sobbing. "It's getting louder."
"This will stop it."
Rosaleya heard Jade's words clearly as he put the bat to her chest. The train sounds didn't stop either, they were getting even louder; it was picking up speed, barreling through the ruined lands. "It's too loud!"
"You want it to end. End this." Jade's voice was certain. "The train will not go backwards."
"Nnn...nnnnn." Rosaleya dug her nails into her scalp. "No more noise!" The train's noises were at a deafening level, and it was barreling out of control. "Stooooop." She hissed at it. "Stoooop."
In the family room, Leigh was cussing at the contents of the Hogwarts envelope.
"You have to stop it." Jade quietly opened her door and peeked outside. "He's got his back facing the door. Do it, Rose. Do it now."
Rosaleya took hold of the bat, and with the sound of the train causing her ears to sting and her head to pound, her body shivering uncontrollably with the cold. "I can't summon my patronus because I don't have any happy memories." She coughed a bit, and her grip tightened around the handle. She noticed that the rain was pouring heavily outside now.
Jade held the door wide open for her, bowing his head in deep respect, with a gesture towards the family room.
And Leigh's skull cracked easier than the coconuts that sunny day.
But Rosaleya couldn't stop there; the train's noises didn't stop.
"Again." Jade permitted her. "The train already crossed the line long ago. It's okay. By the way, he's not dead."
Rosaleya aimed for his arms and legs. She recalled an annoying villain from a television show, getting shot point-blank in the head and still living after surgery to take revenge on the shooter.
Chance ran toward her now, as if he suddenly decided to be 'loyal'. Jade summoned a perfect steak and threw it across the room, and the dog changed his course without hesitation. "Never walk again. Get that, too, so that he can never _ again." Jade gestured to the area below Leigh's abdomen.
Blow after blow. Rosaleya's teeth were bared like a wild dog's, her eyes had a wild look to them, and they still produced tears. But the train didn't stop. Blow after blow.
"This is how I felt, you 8@$+@4d!" Jade spoke for Rosaleya. He told Leigh all of the ways that he had failed her. Every way that he had embarrassed or disappointed or disgusted her. How she couldn't stand the sight of him. "I wanted to love you! I have given you so much time!" He summoned another steak for Chance; that disloyal cur kept eating as long as Jade conjured them.
Rosaleya dropped the bat, and it fell in the pool of blood beside Leigh. She stared through her tears at the results with wide, red, puffy eyes.
"Don't cry, Rose." Jade said gently in her ear, hugging her from behind and using a spell to make her warm and dry. "Don't cry, Rose." He repeated, using Claudia's voice. "I love you sooo much."
"The train..." Rosaleya said. "It won't stop! It hurts!" The whistle and the chugging and the wheels turning and screeching against the tracks. She hugged herself as she continued to shiver uncontrollably. She could no longer hear anything but the train and the rush of wind that accompanied it.
A hand that wasn't Jade's wrapped around Rosaleya's shoulders, and pulled her into an embrace. It was warm and strong and comforting. Suddenly, the train crashed with a noise louder than fireworks, and Rosaleya put her hands to her ears in pain. A gasp left her mouth; she had become so worried that the train would never stop, for it felt as if it had permanently consumed her mind.
"We're leaving." Soren said, summoning the items that Leigh had 'confiscated' and tucking them gently into his pocket. "Together." The look in his eyes told her that everything would be fixed, and that she would soon feel better.
If Rosaleya had to describe his attitude right now, it would be 'gallant', or 'princely'. But perhaps he had only seen her in tears? Perhaps he hadn't seen what she had done. Because it was too unrealistic for Soren to still love her after what she had just done. She had acted rashly, and broken the demonic law. She pushed him away quickly, and Jade helped her leave the building quickly. She didn't want him to see her like this, or to get him into trouble. The noise from the train's crash still resounded in her ears, and it felt as if the train's steam was clouding her mind and making it difficult to clearly see her thoughts. "Put me down." She said to Jade. She leaned up against a gap between two buildings, panting. Jade made no attempt to shield her from the pouring rain; whereas she had been shivering a minute ago, now she was overheated. The rain felt pleasant, and she closed her eyes. She was probably no match for the demon who would be prosecuting her, so why run? She was doomed either way.
Claudia lifted Leigh onto a stretcher, as if he could still be revived. Noticing that there was a pack of cigarettes, she lit one and stubbed it out on Leigh's forehead without changing her cheerful expression, before leaving with him. "St. Mungo's. I can't heal him if I don't give a damn about him. I'll _ kill him." She muttered to herself as she stepped over the threshold. "I knew something weird was going to happen today." Thanks, Nova. Lovely heads-up.
Soren approached Rosaleya gently, hugging her tightly and resting his head on her shoulder.
"You're...scared?" Rosaleya meant to say 'you're not scared of what I've done?', but her tongue was still too heavy, even if the other pains had left her body almost completely. In her current state of mind, she honestly couldn't tell if she had actually spoken her intended words.
"No." Soren said gently, kissing the top of her head. "I'm not scared of you. Never, Yin." He promised, gently running his fingers through her hair as he held her close. "Never, no matter what. Because I specified, in my wish to find you, that you would never do anything that I wouldn't do. I'm surprised that you didn't cut his heart out and keep it as a trophy." He jested, pulling away so that she could see his smile.
Somehow, she believed his words, and his gallantry. Rosaleya wrapped her arms around him and felt his warmth, so grateful for it. He felt like her Yang. Her perfectly sane, princely Yang, even if he jested like this. The warmth had nothing to do with his physical form; it came from somewhere else, but Rosaleya wasn't sure where. She just knew that his warmth seemed to grow every time he embraced her. Rosaleya lost track of how long they stayed there, embracing, but she was aware that at some point Jade conjured a large umbrella and magically dried and warmed them both.
"Let's get you back to Hogwarts." Claudia said. "You didn't kill Leigh, so everything's fine. He's at St. Mungo's, and the official story is that he was mugged in a Muggle area, sucks at magic so he didn't defend himself, and that you're very worried about him but you didn't visit because...why would you visit, he's unconscious. You can't comfort him or stuff if he's knocked out."
"Thank you." Rosaleya said to both of them.
"You'll be mine, soon. I already told you that." Claudia smiled. "So you don't have to thank me. I'm taking care of my child." 'I would do anything for my children, all parents should have that devotion' her expression said. "Soren, drive us back to Hogwarts; we have enough time to return her to make it look like she never left while still enjoying that ride." She turned back to Rosaleya. "I already cleaned up your apartment; don't you worry, dear, everything's as it should be. But in return, you have to sit in the back of Soren's car with me and let me hug you."
"I won't say no to that." Rosaleya embraced Claudia.
"His car also has a setting that makes the entire car see-through from the inside; it will be one Hell of a view."
"You really messed up this time, didn't you?" She laughed mirthlessly.
Leigh opened his eyes a sliver; enough to make out the shape of a very familiar, attractive woman that wasn't Claudia. He was barely conscious, and couldn't reply to her.
"It'll be my turn, soon, and by the looks of it, you've failed. You could've done so much better with the time you had." She gave him a look of contempt that would've been painful, if Leigh had still loved her. Hopefully Rosaleya wouldn't, either.
"We won't talk about shortening the contract's deadline just yet." Claudia said, embracing Rosaleya in the back seats while they enjoyed the view. "I'll have to put even more effort into that rat. Hell knows I would rather be spending that time with Easton. But it's still certain that he will sign. You're aware that he doesn't have any legal authority over you-"
Rosaleya nodded.
"-but the contract will remove his verbal authority. He won't be able to speak harshly to you, or give you orders or anything! For example, what he'll want to say would be 'Rosaleya, do the dishes this instant! You should've thought to do them already! Common sense!', but what the contract will allow him to say is "Rosaleya, I would love for you to please wash these dishes." That way, he can't scare you any more. Or when he wants to break something, his hands will stick to his sides like glue. Or something that can't be said politely, like 'You're grounded' will become 'Mmnggph!'" Claudia made noises like she was trying to talk through a gag, and Rosaleya's laughter filled her up with happiness. "Hell, you're so cute! Better than a pet! Oh, that reminds me, have you met Shiro, yet? He's so-"
"Mother, please not yet." Soren said.
"Why not?" Athena asked. She was sitting in the front passenger's seat.
"I guess he doesn't want to tell you, yet, then." Claudia shrugged. I like hugging Rosaleya. She's so cute. "I sent a letter to the Hogwarts Headmaster informing him that I would be visiting him this morning for something I viewed as important; I'll tell him about Leigh because I know that it might be hard for you to fake empathy right now." She giggled, playfully tightening her embrace for a moment.
Rosaleya momentarily compared this embrace to whatever Dad had done earlier under the guise of a 'hug'.
"Oh, and if you're wondering who's minding the shop since it's open right now and Crystal is eating breakfast, it's my neighbor from across the street. Soren, you've told her about her, right?"
"Yes. She's the one who doesn't like sweets."
"Oh, that one." Rosaleya said, as if this was her one defining character trait.
"Have you met her?" Claudia asked.
"No."
Claudia laughed. "Now that you're in a better mood, I would like to address your actions." She felt Rosaleya inhale uncomfortably, and hold her breath. "I don't disagree with what you've done. However, all actions must be...carried out from the appropriate mindset. For example, cooking a meal because you want to will make the meal taste lovely. If you are forced to make a meal under duress, the meal will taste terrible, regardless of whether the preparation is the same in both scenarios, because you will be putting the wrong energy into the latter meal. Tell me what was going through your mind."
Rosaleya told them about the train, and how her thoughts had gone from forgiving and apologetic to hateful and violent, although she couldn't remember when exactly the switch happened.
"When did you start seeing the train?"
"When I..." Rosaleya took a deep breath "...I spit in his coffee."
This new information caused Athena and Soren to laugh; the former applauded in approval.
Claudia cleared her throat, and they both stopped, but then she couldn't help giggling a bit before continuing. "Could you outline the morning for me?"
"Sure." Rosaleya didn't bother with the dialogue, just Leigh's actions and how they made her feel. She also didn't bother with telling them about the daydream about Soren walking in the rain with her; that was too personal, even for the McCunnens. "...and Jade suggested that that would help stop the train, so that's how it happened. And then...I couldn't stop..."
"Human pinata." Athena whispered to Soren. "That would've been fun to watch. Too bad we missed it."
"I would've stopped her; she wasn't in the right state of mind to take those actions." Soren replied.
When Rosaleya finished, she felt much better. By now, the train's resounding noise was only a painful memory. It had seemed to slowly disappear as she talked about the incident. "You took him to the hospital?"
"Yes, unfortunately, he's still alive, but I only helped him for you." Claudia meant the law against hurting other demons and wizards and witches. "I suggest that we visit him later today when he regains consciousness; we'll stop by a demonic theater and borrow two Communication Collars; he still won't be able to speak or even move anything more than his eyelids for a while." Here she couldn't help but giggle again. "If you don't like what he has to say, I will give you some options, and you can choose the appropriate action to take. Now, I'll say it one more time so that you don't forget: Illegality aside, your actions would've been fine if you had carried them out in the right state of mind. Tell me that you understand?" She gently tightened the embrace, just a bit.
"I understand."
"What does your extension have to say? I'm curious." Athena said. Whereas in the beginning she had viewed him as an inconvenience that prevented her from getting closer to Rosaleya, now she viewed him as an intensely interesting being. It's still hard, from the way that she talks about him, to remember that he's actually part of her. "Is he saying things like bull_! or fools!...?"
"No, he's asleep." Rosaleya replied. "He's in the corner, behind your chair, and he's drooling just a bit. Thanks so much, all of you...I didn't know what to do. I must be a real pain in the behind to-"
"Absolutely not!" Claudia interjected. “Don’t assume that you’re causing trouble for anyone. This is how parenting works. This is how a family works. Similarly, you'll have to help me with whatever problems I have...or Athena, or Soren...we all help each other. That is a family. We love and help each other."
"Ready to go?" Crystal asked, smiling when she saw Rosaleya waiting under a tree inside the Hogwarts grounds, near the gates.
"Yup."
"Where do you want to go first? Forget about my desires for today: we can get Chinese buffet food any time. Today is for you."
"Arcade?"
"Sure!" Crystal took her hand.
Rosaleya smiled, as if her day would be perfect after spending it at the arcade.
"Do you want Soren to meet us there? I can-"
"-that would be perfect! Thank you." Rosaleya replied appreciatively. She thought that maybe Crystal hadn't wanted any extra students to chaperone, but since she had suggested it, she accepted.
"Good morning, Headmaster." Claudia greeted in a very professional tone, offering her hand to shake. "I don't need long, but I wished to communicate this with you in person instead of an owl. I've already told Rosaleya, but seeing as how Leigh is unconscious, she won't visit him yet. He's been hospitalized at St. Mungos-" and she explained the 'story' for him. Mugged because he sucks at magic, check. Muggle area with a gang, check. Formal tone, check. Mentioning that I'm his fiancee, check. Bothering with tears or unrealistic empathy, X. At the end of her mental checklist, she heard an abrupt buzzer sound for the X. "That is all I have to say. Have I forgotten any details?" What she clearly meant was 'Do you have any questions'. She came off as a warm person, sure, but when she spoke of Leigh, her eyes turned ice cold.
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It's not a date, then. I'm not coming.
