Mother & Son

[Year X424 - Norma]

Notes:

Author's Note (PLEASE READ):

A simple fanfic about Irma and her Weisz. For this fanfic I will take their story in universe 0 as a reference, not in the others where Irma dies, nor will I make her meet Old Weisz (*sigh*) for a simple matter of fluency.

In the Fanfiction, obviously (as you can expect from me) there are Weisz and Hermit as a couple (being the canon one in the manga), that's why the tag is still there even though it's a fanfic mainly between Weisz and his mother, Irma.

Also, despite being a Fanfiction based on the Canon and the little we know from Weisz about his life with his mother, many of the things are completely invented by me for pure narrative so if there will ever be an actual canon, it will certainly diverge from this.

Also, Weisz's father, Damon, and Irma's Family are completely my OCs. However, the fact that Weisz's father betrayed and abandoned Irma while she was pregnant with Weisz/Weisz was just born is canon in the manga. (In this fanfic, he abandons her as soon as he finds out.)

I hope you like it and I'll see you at the end of all the stories for the rest of the notes!
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On the rocky and lonely surface of the planet Norma, illuminated by a faint starlight, Irma Steiner leaned against the window of her small home, one hand encircling her rounded belly, which bore the mark of the most precious gift: the life of her unborn son. It was the year X424, and even though time on Norma was marked by different rhythms than what she was used to on other planets, Irma had tried hard to adapt, to find a sense of normalcy in a world that now seemed far from everything she loved. A planet that had been too small for her since she was born on it, poor and lacking in resources for young people like her.

The woman looked out at the city through the opaque window of her home. An abandoned farmhouse that she had used as a home. With a view she was used to, a huge layer of grass mixed with the gray and steel of the farmhouses, with neon lights that colored the streets below. And yet, something was different that night. She felt the little boy, Weisz, kicking in her belly, as if to remind her that she was no longer alone, even though she felt more alone than ever.

Her mind often returned to what would have been the future she had imagined with the father of her child. He was an adventurer like she was, and they had met around the cosmos. Their love had been impetuous, passionate, a fire that seemed destined to burn forever. But, without warning, that fire had gone out.

Because that man...had betrayed her.

She had been abandoned by that bastard, a coward who had sworn to be by her side. She had discovered, with a pain that tore her heart, that he had someone else, then running away from his responsibilities around the cosmos. "Never again" he told her, after Irma had refused to abort. And that betrayal left her alone with a sense of emptiness that seemed to expand day by day. He had also abandoned her when she needed him the most. She had been unable to help but watch the man she loved turn his back on her, leaving her with a pain that seemed too great to bear.

Yet, deep down, she knew she had a mission, a reason to keep going. There had to be a reason why fate had brought her back to Norma, alone with her baby, despite her family having stopped caring about her since she had decided to become an adventurer instead of marrying and being a housewife, becoming dependent on a man.

No, no. Irma had not let all this break her. She had a reason to resist, a reason to fight: the baby growing inside her. "I promise I will be the best mother you can have," she whispered, stroking her belly, hearing another timid response from Weisz.

When she found out it was going to be a boy, she decided on that name, Weisz, because in her native language it meant "White" as well as sounding a lot like the English "Wise" which means "Sage". And she wanted to see him like that. A glimmer of white light in the midst of so much darkness that would lead her to so much wisdom and inner rebirth.

Little Weisz would take his mother's surname "Steiner", since he had only her with him and no one else. But Irma had promised herself that she would do anything for her child.

Because in fact, despite everything, she was trying to build a new life. She worked as a technician in a garage and every day she learned to find the strength to go on, as well as to do that job. Often thought of for rough and dirty men. Every time a new shuttle landed in front of her house to enter her garage for some repairs, she felt a shiver of hope, imagining that there could be someone able to offer her help or even just a word of comfort.

Someone helped her with a few extra tips, someone by finding her a job outside of the garage, others, alas, by trying to take advantage of the fact that she was a pregnant and lonely woman. But her pride was too much to make such compromises and she had preferred to have less money but her dignity still intact.
Even though, a single mother alone with a child out of wedlock who had decided to put aside being an angel of the hearth to go around being an adventurer, the name of "slut" had already been slung over her by the same villagers who had already looked her over when she was younger, with her family members who tried to control her behavior even though she had never been this big wild girl.

Months passed, her belly grew and the loneliness began to weigh more heavily. She began to wonder if she was really capable of raising a child alone. However, every time she felt the little one kick, she remembered that she was strong, that she was a Steiner. Of being Irma.

One day, while she was closing the garage of her house after

a long day, she felt the baby move in an unusual way, the pains were gradually destroying her. A mixture of emotion and fear filled her heart and mind. "He's coming" she thought, and she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the idea of ​​becoming a mother. Alone. Not even being able to afford a midwife with the little money she had, but being able to only rely on herself and on good luck.

Irma spent that night alone, in her bed in her room, struggling with the pain of the contractions, feeling closer to her son than ever. In the end, between the shadows of the night and the chaos of the planet Norma indifferent to the birth of that new life, little Weisz was born, crying in his mother's arms, still covered in grease, the umbilical cord attached and cold from being torn away from that warmth that had welcomed him for 9 long months.

Watching him cry so loudly and immediately seeking her as his first instinct, Irma understood that everything she had suffered was worth it. Now she had her little Weisz, and with him a new hope, a new life. Even if that bastard who had abandoned her and her family was not by her side, she knew she had everything she needed to be happy.

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