Outside Work We... •[TNN One-shots]•

Torn Away •|| WINTUMN + YOUNG ARRI ||•

[A/N: So, you guys know how that in my original headcannon, Arri met Winter when she was about 18? Well, in this one, Winter has been Arri's dad since she was a year old. Oh and Arri's dad didn't get killed in a drive-by shooting. Yeah in this one he's a dick who left Autumn when she gave birth to Arri.]

Prompt: Arri gets torn away from her parents' arms.

Winter had always known love wouldn’t be enough to keep Arri safe. But he hoped it was enough. God, he hoped.

From the moment he held her in his arms at just a year old, she had been his daughter. He was the one who woke up for midnight feedings when Autumn was too exhausted. He was the one who kissed her forehead when she had a fever. He was the one she ran to when she had nightmares.

And now, none of it mattered.

The courtroom was suffocating, the air thick with the weight of an injustice neither he nor Autumn could stop. Across the room, the man who had left Arri to rot for years sat smugly, pretending to be a father. But he wasn’t.

He was a thief.

The judge’s voice was a distant, echoing horror as they ruled against them. Against Arri. Because of fabricated evidence. Because of lies.

“She isn’t safe in your custody.”

The words shattered something deep inside him.

But then— Arri’s scream.

“NO!”

The nine-year-old lunged for Autumn, her tiny fingers clawing at her mother’s dress, sobs wracking her small body. “Please, Mama, please don’t let them take me! I don’t want to go— I don’t want to go!”

“Arri, baby, I’m so sorry,” Autumn whispered, cradling her daughter’s head, pressing desperate kisses into her hair. “We’ll fix this, we’ll get you back, I promise—”

The bailiff pried Arri from her mother’s grasp.

Then she turned to Winter.

And he saw it— pure terror in her teary, wide eyes. “Daddy, please—”

He lunged.

“Let go of my daughter!”

Strong arms restrained him before he could reach her. He struggled, thrashed, blind with rage and agony. He didn’t care if they arrested him. He didn’t care if they beat him down. He only cared that his little girl was screaming for him, and he couldn’t do anything.

“Daddy!”

Her voice cracked. It broke. And it took something out of him with it.

Then— Vic, her biological father's hands were on her, yanking her away, gripping her too tight. Arri shrieked, writhing in his hold. “I hate you! I hate you! I don’t want to go with you! I want my real daddy!”

Winter’s knees buckled. His chest burned. His vision blurred. He felt Autumn collapse beside him, her fingers digging into his arms, her own body wracked with silent sobs.

The courtroom doors shut.

Arri was gone.

The silence after was worse than the screams.

Winter barely felt Autumn pressing her forehead to his. “We’ll get her back,” she whispered, voice raw, broken. “We will.”

But Winter couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move.

Because a part of him— the part that had tucked Arri in every night, held her hand when she was scared, whispered I love you into her hair— had just been stolen.

And he didn’t know if he’d ever get it back.

[A/N: BisexualAshie04 janiceswifeyy myeonnanna_ happy Tuesday babes😘]