We love you (so please don't go)

Chapter 9: Protect Krus at all costs

TW: Talk of mental health issues and [sewerslide].

Ruv, Krus, Essie, Rasazy, and Melody walked home in awkward silence. Krus kept his distance, most likely in fear of "screwing things up" again.

Essie, Rasazy, and Melody would give Krus occasional sympathetic glances and open their mouths to say words of comfort to him, but closed their mouths at the last minute, not knowing what they could say.

When they got to the church, Rasazy turned to address her grandfather.

"I'm really sorry about-"

Ruv cut Rasazy off by putting his arm around her and guiding her to the doorway, making her turn away from him. "Don't talk to him. Don't even look at him."

"Dad!" Rasazy scolded, her eyes glowing teal.

"Don't argue on me with this. This is for your own good."

"I get that you care about us and think you're protecting us, but you're going too far!"

"ESFIR RUVYZVATOVNA MAXIMOVA!" Ruv yelled.

"It's true. You're disregarding how WE feel in favor of how YOU feel about babushka and dedushka and overriding OUR wishes to interact with them in favor of YOUR wishes to not interact with them."

Essie got into her father's face, her expression softening.

"If you don't want anything to do with them, that's fine. You have a right to not interact with them, but that doesn't mean you should force us into doing the same. You don't have to care about babushka and dedushka, but just please take the time to get to know them rather than jumping to conclusions and yelling and cursing at them."

"Mamachka's right." Melody spoke. "One thing I've noticed about you, dedushka, is that you always assume the worst out of people you first meet. You always accuse strangers of bad things, even if you barely know them. You always make that mistake and you never learn from it. So, in that aspect, uncle Selever's right; you ARE an a-hole."

Essie, Krus, Ruv, and Rasazy, turned to the 7-year-old, looking at her with an expression of shock.

---

Essie's POV

I know we should be angry, as Melody literally called father a...y'know, but I was too stunned to scold her, and I can tell that everyone else was stunned as well. Out of all the people who could've possibly called father out on that aspect of his personality, we did NOT expect it to be Melody. It's times like these where we wonder if Melody and Penelope are truly 7 and 8-years-old or if they're adults trapped in the bodies of two grade schoolers.

---

Eventually, everyone snapped out of it and, except for Krus, who stood by the doorway, walked in the church.

They walked in the secret passageway that led to where they lived and were greeted with the sight of Sarv and Rsch passed out in the living room and Affie and Penelope rubbing soothing circles on their backs.

Affie then noticed their presence. "Oh! Hey guys!"

"Things went downhill, didn't they?" Penelope asked.

"Yeah..." Melody said. "Long story short, dedushka said some mean things to praded and aunt Rasazy got mad and ended up yelling at dedushka to stop. Her voice was loud enough to stun birds and make them drop to the ground."

Affie turned to her dad to scold him, only for him to call out to his father.

"OI! KRUSVETO! GET YOUR [A-WORD] OVER HERE AND GET YOURS!"

After a couple minutes, Krus walked in and his eyes widened as he saw his lover and his daughter-in-law out cold.

"Pick up the blueberry-looking cyka you call your lover and get the [funk] out of my house!" Ruv barked out. "Now!"

Krus nodded and wordlessly picked Rsch up and walked out of the house as Ruv picked Sarv up and walked to their room.

Essie sighed before turning to Affie, fiddling with a folded paper in her hands. "Do we have enough ingredients for 10 Pirozhkis?"

***

Essie and Rasazy were kneading dough when, all of a sudden, a black rooster with blue eyes suddenly flew in front of them and sat beside the kneading board.

"What the fork is a rooster doing here?" Rasazy asked.

"I don't think that's a rooster." Essie muttered. In a flash of light, a man with black hair and blue eyes sat in the rooster's place.

"Hi, Uncle Hermes!" Melody greeted before going back to whatever she was doing.

"Hello, my dear niece." The man, Hermes, greeted back before turning back to Essie and Rasazy and greeting them.

"Hello, Hermes." Essie greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Athena wanted me to give this to you." Hermes took out a scroll tied with a yellow ribbon with black dots.

"Hold on." Essie washed her hands and wiped it before taking the scroll from the god. "Thank you, Hermes."

"Any time, Essie." With that, Hermes teleported himself out of the house.

Essie conjured up a pink stool before calling out her daughter's name.

"Yes, mamachka?" Melody asked, running over to her mom.

"Can you continue kneading the dough for me please?" Essie asked. "I need to read a message that your Aunt Athena gave me. I conjured up a stool so you can reach the counter, by the way."

"Kk." Melody said.

Essie took off her apron and used magic to make it kiddie sized before giving it to her daughter and leaving her to do what was asked of her.

She poured herself a glass of water with some ice and undid the ribbon before opening the scroll and silently reading the note.

"My dearest student and mother of my niece,

Your grandfather's mental state is deteriorating every second of every minute. Right now, he's anxious and he feels like he screwed up, like what happened a while ago and what's been happening lately and during the time he and your grandmother were gone is his fault.

He feels like he's a failure as a father, a lover, and a partner because he doesn't have a job anymore, he only has ₽7,930, which is equivalent to $100 left, the resources he has to take care of Rsch are limited, and because he feels like he's supposed to be taking care of his son and not the other way around (even if he (Krusveto) were so sick to the point where he can barely function).

He feels like he has to take care of everyone he loves and cares about so that they'll stay, and feels like he's no good if he can't do that.

He's considering trying to commit "the thing" again, but is pushing those thoughts down for Rsch's sake, which is good, but still.

He's really struggling mentally and even if I barely know him, I still fear that he might die again, but by his own hand this time.

Your daughter and her cousin told me what happened. Please tell Krusveto that I'm sorry about what happened and that he is loved and isn't alone.

Sincerely, your mentor; Athena."

"I will." Essie muttered, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I promise. I'll comfort dedushka and make sure he recovers and that everyone will help."