"She moved with shameless wonder."
In which Ranboo meets a girl named after the stars. A girl with a troubled past who's meant to find a community and instead they both find a best friend.
Her path of self-destruction and anger leads her to her cous...
TW: Mentions of food/eating disorders throughout the book. As well as smoking.
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The four hour flight to California goes by fairly quickly. Asteria stares out the window the whole time watching the passing ground. The only miserable thing about the flight was the fact that she couldn't smoke on the plane.
Her stress release has always been cigarettes and alcohol even if she wasn't meant to have them and they are unhealthy. Asteria doesn't give a shit if they kill her. She stopped caring a lot time ago.
When the plane lands in San Francisco she is first met by another CPS worker who is there to talk to her older cousin. Asteria looks around in nervous anticipation of seeing her cousin for the first time in a couple years. Sure they talked, but her family never made the trip to California and he never came to Ohio.
Techno stood against a wall waiting for his cousin, messing with car keys to keep himself distracted. When he got the call about Asteria needing somewhere to stay he was quick to agree. He couldn't let the teenager be on her own, she's already has had a rough life.
He's determined to give her the stability and love that she deserves.
Techno smiles when he sees his cousin come around the corner. "Hey Ash."
She doesn't respond just looks at him with her arms crossed. She doesn't look angry, just doesn't feel like talking.
The workers starts to talk about what Asteria needs. She goes over the plans for her therapy appointment, medications and other arrangements. Then they are allowed to leave.
"Do you want help with your bag?" Techno asks hesitantly. Asteria just shakes her head no and picks up her things by herself. She only has two bags, one of which was a backpack. Techno leads her to his car and together they load her things and head on her way.
The drive to Techno's apartment isn't to long but he passed her the AUX chord. Asteria thanks him with a smile and lets Lemon Demon play through the car speakers.
When they get to the apartment she lets Techno carry a bag up the stairs.
"Elevators broken," he huffs as the finally reach his door. He unlocks it before they head inside. The first thing he does is lead his younger cousin to the guest room he has.
"This will be your room," he says and Asteria notices a small white dog running towards her.
"Floof!" Asteria says quietly yet excitement fills her voice. The small dog runs around her ankles and she bends down to pet the animal.
Techno laughs, "I'll let you get settled in and I'll be in the kitchen when you're ready. How does pizza sound for dinner?"
Completely distracted by the dog Asteria gives him a quick thumbs up. Techno walks away and a few minutes later Floof runs after him. This gives the girl a chance to take her things into her new room.
She doesn't do much for unpacking figuring that she would have plenty of time to do that later. Instead Ash changes into a fresh set of clothes to get the gross feeling of being stuck on a plane off.
As she's leaving the room she catches a glimpse of herself in a mirror. She steps closer and all of her features come into focus. Asteria stares at herself, noticing everything wrong with her. From the intense dark circles under her eyes, to how skinny she was and the way her clothes hung weird on her frame. She sighs quietly and walks away from the mirror but the insecurities stayed burned into her thoughts.
She's able to find the kitchen fairly easily since the apartment isn't very large. Techno isn't there and she hears his voice from another room, most likely on the phone. Ash sits down on the floor and Floof crawls into her lap. Without meaning to she ends up hearing bits of the conversation.
"Yeah dad she's here."
"We are going to be perfectly fine."
"She is not going to cause trouble! I know her past might not make that seem true but she's a good kid."
'Great,' Asteria thinks to herself. Her uncle even thought she was a failure. She becomes so involved in her own thoughts that she doesn't notice Techno come in for a moment.
"Hey Ash, what kind of pizza do you want?" She just shrugs as a response. "Cheese it is." He orders it for them and a while later it arrives.
After techno takes some he says, "I've got some work to do but if you need anything I'll just be in the other room." Asterisa gives him a small smile as he walks off. She stares at the pizza in front of her, mindlessly picking at it but not eating.
Despite knowing she's to skinny she can rarely bring herself to eat. She tells herself it's because food makes her feel sick but it's really because she's scared that food will make her ugly.
Ash has always struggled with loving herself. Her problems deeply rooted in her younger years and spreading to the present. These negative thoughts and emotions branched out into mental illness. It remained untreated because her parents would tell her that her problems were just the teenager trying to get attention. It became such a common excuse the girl began to use it herself.
Abandoning the food in the trash she curiously wanders towards Techno's work room. She stands silently in the door way and watches him work. Minecraft characters flash across the screen and she can only guess he's editing.
The family knew briefly about his youtube career but never did a deep dive into it. Now she's intensely watching him edit, the process capturing her attention completely. So completely that when the man turns in his chair to get up she visibly jumps.
This causes Techno laugh quietly and she smiles. "What are you doing?" She asks quietly.
"Here let me show you."
~ Author Speaks ~ Word count: 1013 Technodad :) Also almost a 100 reads in 3 days?!?
