[02 - Surprise Adoption! Or Kidnapping. You Choose.]

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"Fyodor, do you think I'm a monster?" You blurt. It was a sudden question. You and Fyodor, at age 15, were sitting in his house, on the couch in silence as you did your cursed homework together.

His eyes widened for a second, he didn't expect you to ask that to him, not so soon. He recovered quickly as ever, though.

"No, I don't think so." He said. To the naked eye, he looked genuine, not like a master manipulator who could drop his face at the drop of a dime. But you were different. You knew everything about him. From his embarrassing moments in 7th grade to the time you spotted him trying to dissect a squirrel, everything.

[I think that you're just like me.]

Your heart fell as your ability revealed his true emotion. Your ability was your enemy, at times. Why did you use your ability that time? It was better just to leave it at that, the simple 'No' would have been enough. Curiosity killed the cat, as they always say.

"I-I see..." Were you sad? Because your friend thought you were a monster? You tried to hide it, but you were like an open book to Fyodor— after all, he knew everything about you as well. He knew you used your ability on him and that you knew he thought you were a monster. He knew that you were a teenager too. A teenager that felt insecure, unwanted, and unneeded. Of course, him thinking you were a monster definitely didn't help that.

He slowly moved closer to you.

"I'm sorry." Not even an explanation, as usual. Just sorry. At times like this, you really wished that you could punch Fyodor, but you'd die if you did so. What a cruel joke god played on you.

"Ah... I hate you, Fyodor." The only person in this world that you didn't fear, that you didn't put on a show around. You could be yourself near him, and yet you felt you had to hide everything from him as well.

If only you could just hug him and cry on his shoulder and die. Maybe you should have done that, all those years ago, and saved yourself from all that suffering.

But that wouldn't have been a death you would have wanted.

Right?

•••

You awoke to see a room with intricate wall trimming and detailed patterns on the ceiling, a singular tear at the corner at your eye, which never fell. Maybe you had a bad dream? A nightmare, even?

There was a voice next to you, speaking in a language you didn't know. Well, you could barely compute anything, actually. You just woke up.

"W-What..?" You spoke in Japanese.

"You're awake, I see. Good." It sounded like... French? Guess you got the long-awaited answer to your question. You were probably in France.

If that's the case, maybe this man knows Russian? You doubt he knew Japanese.

"Who... Are you?" You inquire in Russian. God, your voice was rough and dry. Your throat hurts just by breathing too hard. Speaking Russian was difficult as it was, but with a dry throat? Hell nah, my bro.

The man looked at you with slight shock. First, you spoke in a language he didn't know of (or at least he thought, since he didn't know what you were saying.), and then in Russian. How did a child know two languages and neither of them be French, the country they were in?

"I... Augustus Ruthven." He pointed to himself while saying his name. The man spoke in broken Russian, with a bad accent too. You nearly laughed at his attempt at Russian, but that would ruin your already dry and hoarse throat.

Now that your eyes have adjusted, you can see that the man had purely red eyes with a spiral-like pattern on them, an eyepatch, and red hair that went just below his shoulders. He looked like a high-class aristocrat too, with his posh outfit.

You slowly nod. "I am..." Cough, cough... "[Name]." You reply in Russian. Come to think of it, didn't you take French in middle school and high school? You were far from fluent, but you could understand a little, mainly because you sucked so badly at French, Fyodor took it upon himself to drill it into your head until it was like a brand mark on your brain. Most of your energy was placed towards making sure you didn't forget your Japanese while you were studying with Fyodor in Russia.

The man- Ruthven- nods. "Do you speak French?" He asks, in French.

"Little amount." You reply. Hopefully you said the right thing, you haven't spoken in French since you were, like, 17. "Do you speak Japanese?" You ask in Japanese. He just gives you a confused look. "I guess-" Your throat hurts. "Not." You sigh, then immediately regret it when your throat burned in protest of the long exhale.

Giving up on speaking, you gesture to your throat then shake your head, trying to tell him that your throat hurt. He nodded and stood up to leave.

Now was a better time than ever.

You try to use your ability.

[I'll be back with a glass of water.]

It worked

It worked!

The amount of relief and happiness this gave you was immeasurable.

You finally confirmed that you could use your ability, even in a different body.

Now then, you're still quite tired.

Just closing your eyes for a minute or two shouldn't hurt.

•••

You woke up to see Ruthven sitting next to you, just staring at you.

It gave you some serious Mori vibes, but you shrugged it off.

He had a cup with water in it on the bedside table next to you.

You sit up, then take the cup and look at him with gratitude, to which he just nods at.

You stare at the water for a moment, sniffing it. You just wanted to make sure you weren't gonna get poisoned.

After confirming it was just plain old, fresh and clean water, you drank it like there was no tomorrow.

To your surprise, you had long fangs that hit the glass harshly with a clink!

Weird. Those were far too long to be a human's canines, right?

Ruthven waited until you finished.

"Thank you." You say in French, with an accent that was probably very off.

"You're welcome." He replies.

"Uh... Shit I don't know much French..." Now it was just awkward, with you and Ruthven just silently sitting there and not even making eye contact.

"You don't seem to have a home, correct?" He asks suddenly.

You didn't even know who you were anymore, and he expects you to answer him?

"I don't." For some reason, you felt as if your vocal chords were suddenly taken over. Maybe it was the original body's muscle memory? It felt like a reasonable conclusion.

"This may seem strange, but... You can stay with me." The fuck. why does he look... embarrassed? You couldn't understand half of what he said, but he seemed to be offering you a place to stay. You narrow your eyes at him, and use your ability.

[You can stay with me.] 

You nearly spat out the sip of water you just took just then.

"Oh no..." You muttered in Japanese.

A/n

Ok... three chapters for the remaster debut! I think that's good enough, right?

I'll see you in the next chapter,

Ryoko

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