Rabbit of the Frost

Chapter Four

Nicholas sat at the Dawn Winery dining table in silence for quite some time before he decided to speak. He was thankful for the other boys' patience as he tries to find a good way to start his story.

"When I was a kid, I was left behind by my hybrid parents for being the runt. They didn't want to feed another mouth and didn't expect me to survive through the winter-"

Nicholas remembers the story so strongly. The memories of the Fatui finding him crying in the snow, and how he raised up the ranks to where he was that day. When he was about 13 the fatui noticed his intellectual prowess and showed him off to Dottore who seemed to take a liking to him. Slowly he became a high-ranking scientist, just a bit lower than Dottore's own clones. He earned a delusion, until that fateful day....

He knew something about what he's been doing was wrong. He numbed himself to the screams of the test subjects... the screams of the people he hurt. He saw horrific things through his time as an official. What Dottore and he himself did to those people soon became something Nicholas couldn't forgive.

Still somehow, he kept going, scared of the consequences of what would happen if he strayed too far from Dottore's shadow, but he saw something in those people he hurt. They kept clinging onto what was good. They clung onto life. He slowly understood their passion for life.

The day that broke all that he built. The order came from Dottore himself. It was something that would kill any passion for life that Nicholas had grown to admire so much. His heart was beating so loudly as Dottore left. He had to decide. If he did this there was no going back. In his heart he felt some sort of glow as he decided.

A gift from Celestia left his body and landed into his hands. He followed this passion for life and set free everyone he hurt and quickly ran out of the facility. He led them through the harsh winter and into the arms of people who would be sympathetic to the subjects. People he knew would keep them safe.

In return the people he saved gifted him with a new outfit. Something warm and sturdy that would keep him safe as he left Snezhnaya. He went south. As south as he could run. Finally arriving in Wolvendom where it was warm and sunny. Yet he felt so weak. Attacked by rouge wolves he couldn't fight back, until a young boy found him-

---

Nicholas sighs as he recapped his past for the for boys, "And you know the rest of that story. He took me to the church where you guys took me in..."

"Wow-" Kaeya looked a little shocked to hear it. He couldn't say it's far off from the rest of their stories. Maybe even a mix for all of them.

Left by their parents, finding a home, even risking losing it all because of his past. Kaeya couldn't help but understand all of this. He turned his head. Diluc had a cold stare. He remembered that stare too well from his past. He's too scared to move. Emmett puts a hand on both of their shoulders and smiles.

"You are brave" Emmett smiles speaking so soft and hoarse, if the room wasn't as silent and tense no one would have heard him.

Nicholas nods slowly as a response to Emmett's words. Kaeya and Emmett look to Diluc trying to read what his response to all of this would be.

In a stern voice he says, "Do you still have the Delusion?"

Nicholas' eyes widen as he tries to read what the other is trying to accomplish, "I um-"

Diluc squints, "Give it to me. Now."

Nicholas frowns and pulls out the delusion from his pocket. Slowly he places it into Diluc's hand as the other boy hides it somewhere. The tense feeling seemed to go away like a large wave when he gets the delusion.