Blindsided

Asleep

This was written to the song Asleep by The Smiths. BIG THANKS to my beta Dotemms! I have more chapters planned, but feedback will determine how many. Thank you!

  The inner sanctum of the church was cool and quiet. The only sound was the soft rustle of a nun's habit from the office and running water pattering against tile near the cloister, corridors dark as the light of the stained glass windows never reached this far back into the bowels of the structure. The sound of water stopped and a whoosh of air spilled steam into the hall, a tall and lanky stickman exiting the bathroom while toweling off his lavender hair.

  Ruv's face betrayed his exhaustion; he'd been out for three days chasing down another mark and he wanted nothing more than to make a cup of strong tea and sink into bed for a few hours until Sarvente inevitably needed him. She'd long since stopped confronting him when he'd come back to the church covered in blood with his knife in hand and just grumbled something about washing off before he collapsed into bed.

  As he clipped his holster back to his belt and hung his towel around his neck a deafening crack broke the peace and made the hairs on his arm stand on end, the once dusty and cool air now smelling of ozone. His knife was in hand and a snarl on his lips as he approached his old room, where voices could be made out.

  "Shit, shit, shit! Where the fuck are we?!"

  "See, this is why Dad doesn't love you! We aren't supposed to use Mom's powers like this!"

  Ruv kicked open the battered door, and held up his knife threateningly.

  Two stickchildren stood in the middle of the scorched rug, a girl with braids and lopsided black horns wearing a cleanly-pressed pinafore and knee socks and a boy with a maroon sweater and wavy hair pulled into a low ponytail around nubby little horns to match the girl's. The boy pushed the girl behind him and waved his hands in a wide arc, summoning a glowing pink fractal lined with runes.

"Kids aren't allowed back here," Ruv growled, knife still trained on the kids. As he took in what he was seeing, the fractal winked out and the kids visibly relaxed. The girl tentatively stepped out from behind her companion, wary.

"Daddy?"

  Ruv dropped the knife with a clatter. I have a kid?

  He vaguely heard the click of heels on hardwood as Sarvente scrambled around the corner, brow furrowed. "What's going on here?"

  He wordlessly pointed in the room. She peeped her head in, and then smiled softly.

  "Children shouldn't be back here! How did you get here? Who are you?"

  The boy straightened his back and puffed out his chest, a cocky grin on his face. "I'm Selever and this is my sister Rasazy. I'm your son!"

  He clearly didn't expect Sarv to suddenly burst out laughing. Ruv watched his little face fall, confusion in his blank eyes.

  When Sarvente finally got a hold of herself and saw the hurt in their faces, her expression hardened. "Please don't joke like that. Tell me, where are your real parents, little one?"

  "But you guys are our parents," he whined, and the little girl's eyes began to shimmer with tears.

  "Don't you recognize us, mama?"

  Stricken, Sarvente shot a look at Ruv. He shrugged, and picked up the knife to put it back in its holster. She turned back to the children and noticed something in the girl's arms. Earnestly crying now, the girl thrust what she was holding in her arms out, showing a very familiar book, much more worn and tattered than the one currently locked up carefully in her room.