Family Ties

[Molly Jordan]

"Grown-ups are sadistic bastards and we can't trust them. We can only trust each other."


"I don't like it when you use that word."


"Fine. Grown-ups are sadistic meanies and we can't trust them."


"I know. I protect you and you protect me."


"That's right. We're all we have, Charity."


An all too familiar conversation, though this time, it was communicated through hand gestures instead of words. After spending time in a home where silence was law, the two had taught themselves sign language with the use of books and "hypothetical" questions to various teachers. Mercy let out a long breath, letting her hands fall once she was sure her sister had registered the message and sliding her band-aid covered fingers easily into hers. Charity had always been the optimistic one, and while her never-ending faith in the goodness of people could be exasperating to someone who had already accepted that the human race was comprised of malicious monsters, Mercy supposed she couldn't complain about it. She'd always tried to give Charity a chance to be innocent, to be a child, and because Mercy had shielded her, Charity hadn't seen the full extent of the world's cruelty like Mercy had, so she still clung to the possibility that there were kind people to be found, somewhere out there. While Mercy didn't want to destroy her sister's idealistic view on the world and humanity, she also didn't want to set Charity up for disappointment, so whenever she began to naïvely believe the kind things that grown-ups said to her, Mercy had no choice to remind her that every sweet thing they said was a lie, a sugar coated cover for poison words that would kill them from the inside out.


Mercy's gaze flickered briefly to the rear view mirror, to make sure that Ms. Pendleton, the agent that had been working with them since they were taken from their birth parents all those years ago, hadn't been privy to their private discussion, before looking back to Charity. She was staring out the window, just as Mercy knew she would be. Charity was the eyes and Mercy was the ears whenever they arrived at a new house. Charity took note of everything around them, while Mercy mentally recorded everything said about them. Charity would find hiding spaces, Mercy would try and figure out what brand of asshole they'd have for parents this time, because the type of parent would affect how Mercy had to behave. Hide, sneak around and protect Charity if they were drunkards; make herself loud, take the blame and protect Charity if they were beaters; figure out where to find all the necessities and protect Charity if they neglecters. Because although she agreed that they'd protect each other to appease Charity, that was rarely the case. Mercy was the protector, and it was by choice. Charity deserved so much better than the circumstances they'd been forced to live in--she deserved better than anyone could provide for her--and Mercy did everything she could to make sure Charity was relatively safe and happy. Of course, there were times she'd fail, times where she couldn't divert the attention to herself or Charity refused to let her take the blame or she just wasn't there, and it sickened Mercy just to think about those instances. She pushed away the memories, heart aching, and squeezed Charity's fingers, catching her attention. The girl turned away from the window, green eyes that mirrored Mercy's own meeting her gaze (identical twins, the two possessed the same dark brown hair, fair skin, freckled cheeks, and green eyes--they both even had the same golden speckles in their irises), and Mercy's heart ached at the fear in her sister's eyes. Mercy opened her mouth to speak, to try and comfort her, but the silver car jerked to a stop before she had the chance.


"We're here, girls," Ms. Pendleton said warmly, shooting them a glance in the rear view mirror before climbing out of the car and moving to open their door for them. After a brief moment of hesitance, Mercy unbuckled herself and slid out of the car. Sneakers so worn out that they were practically falling off hit the gravelly dirt, and Mercy grimaced. The rough terrain would only result in more wear and tear on her already flimsy shoes, but she'd never dream of taking Charity's, even though they were in much better condition, probably because Charity took every possible opportunity not to wear them. Mercy's gaze rapidly darted around the landscape before settling on the couple standing on the front porch of the ranch house laid before them (something new, considering they were used to dull house in the suburbs or shitty apartments), surrounded by three teenagers. Her eyes narrowed with suspicion, and she silently evaluated them as Charity climbed out of the car beside her, gripping her hand so tight that her knuckles were turning white. "Come on, you two, let's get you introduced," Ms. Pendleton urged, tone bright and hopeful, before ushering the two dirty children up to the small porch, "Good to see you again, Mrs. Robins, Mrs. Piane." She shook each of their hands in turn, a wide smile on her lips, before gently nudging the wary twins forward. "Mercy, Charity, this is Eva and Kennedy," she told them softly, "They're going to be taking care of you. Care to say hello?" There was a tense moment of silence, and then Mercy robotically stuck out a hand for Eva to shake.


"It's nice to meet you," she said stiffly, letting her hand drop to her side once she had shaken both of her new mother's hands, and once again squeezing Charity's fingers, silently urging her to follow her example. The girl obeyed, holding out a delicate and trembling hand to Kennedy and then Eva before quickly stuffing it in the pocket of her ragged grey hoodie. Ms. Pendleton stuck around long enough to carry their bags in for them--each only had a single duffel bag to their name--but considering people who worked with the Parsons facility had visited sometime prior in the week to make sure the house had decent conditions and enough room and Ms. Pendleton herself had already spoken extensively with Eva and Kennedy, there was little reason for her to hang around much longer, and besides, she wanted the twins to have a chance to settle in without her breathing down their necks.


"You know you can call me if you need anything, right?" Ms. Pendleton reminded the two as she pulled her jacket on, and Charity managed a feeble smile for the kind-hearted woman's sake.


"We know, Ms. Pendleton."


"Great. Well, I'll be visiting in about a month to make sure everything is going alright, so I'll see you then," the agent offered as a goodbye, before slipping back out the door, getting into her car and vanishing down the driveway. Once the silver Volkswagen had vanished around the bend, the twins turned back to their new guardians, remaining silent. Usually, by this time, they'd done a thorough analysis and figured out the best course of action. For Mercy, reading grown-ups and figuring out their intentions was like a sixth sense, but for whatever reason, this couple was one that she couldn't decipher.

 

[PunkPrince]

Busy. That was the perfect word to describe the last week. Scrambling to get everything perfect for the pair of twins coming to live with them. The second pair, actually. It was the similarities to Hugo and Ronan that had drawn Eva and Kennedy to these girls. The repeated rejection, over and over again. 


 


Originally, they had gone looking for a younger child, one they could raise together. But these two...they just couldn't leave them behind, in the state they were in. It was too much of what that had seen before. What Eva and Kennedy had endured, in some sense, and what their children had spent their lives in before finding them. 


 


"They're here! Hurry up, Hugo!"


 


Kennedy turned and quickly moved to stand beside Eva again as their son scrambled to close the door behind him. He, as usual, stayed close to Kennedy and his brother, standing between the two, looking anxious as ever. "I hope they like us," he said quietly as they watched the silver car pull into the driveway. Jupiter craned their neck to look at the pair as they climbed out of the car. Their feet shuffled slightly, resulting in the clicking of their high heeled shoes on the wooden porch. 


 


Kennedy strode forward to meet the social worker on the edge of the porch. "Hello!" she greeted, both the woman and the girls. "Nice to see you all. I hope the drive wasn't too far." 


 


The woman suggested that the girls should say hello, and after a few seconds, Mercy stuck out a hand for Eva to shake and greeted her robotically. Eva couldn't blame her. She wouldn't be so enthused if she had been through all Mercy had. "Hello, darling," she said. "It's nice to meet you too."


 


Charity followed, trembling as she did so. It took all Eva had not to look over at Hugo. She took to introducing the teenagers next. "This is Jupiter, Hugo, and Ronan," she said, motioning to each of them as she spoke. Jupiter gave a small wave and a smile, Ronan let out a cheerful, "Hello!", and Hugo only offered a small smile. "Nice to meet you," he said quietly. 


 


The social worker's car vanished down the road after a few minutes, and Hugo bolted inside. It was much too cold for his taste. 


"So dramatic," Ronan snickered, following after his twin at a slower pace. 


 


"We put you both in the same room for now," Eva said. "I hope that's all right. We just thought you might like to stay together, being in a new place and all. That's how Ronan and Hugo were, and they still haven't separated. I doubt they will."


 


"Of course not!" Ronan chirped. "Who else will I discuss dramatic eyeliners with at three in the morning?"


"Everyone else in the house," Jupiter said as they drifted up the stairs. "It's not like I sleep."


 


Kennedy smiled and looked toward Mercy and Charity. "Would you like to see your room now?" she asked. "We weren't quite sure how to decorate since we didn't know what you liked, but we did get you some clothes and decorate a bit. We can go out and pick up some stuff more to your tastes later if you'd like."


 


[SIZE= 17px]She headed down the hall and pulled open the door to a large [/SIZE]bedroom[SIZE= 17px]. The back wall was covered in wooden tiles, the ceiling arching above the two beds. The two side walls were the same blue as the comforter on one of the beds, and the front wall was the same purple shade as the other. A large closet was on the left wall, open for the moment. Within it, clothes hung on hangers and two [/SIZE][SIZE= 17px]separate[/SIZE][SIZE= 17px] white dressers were on each side of it.[/SIZE]

 

[Molly Jordan]

The girls turned towards their temporary guardians (they'd never considered any of their previous caretakers family, never imagined that any settlement would be permanent, and doubted that would change anytime soon) as soon as Ms. Pendleton's care vanished around the bend in the street, and while Mercy seemed unable to draw her eyes away from the women who had taken them in, Charity's gaze flickered about rapidly. She was the eyes, after all. She took in the house, simple but charming and just large enough to provide shelter for the family that lived within, and the yard, the surrounding forest and the road, and finally, it stopped on the group before her. For just a moment, she allowed herself to survey them, noting that, although Eva was taller, both she and Kennedy seemed sturdy and as such posed an equal amount of threat, as Mercy would say. The teenagers were all rather slender, but that didn't mean they weren't dangerous. Those that were too small to do physical damage could easily cause emotional suffering.


Both winced at the sudden movement of one of the boy's, identical pairs of eyes darting towards his retreating back as he ran inside, before hesitantly following the rest of the group into the house, fingers still firmly interlocked. "That's fine," Mercy responded as they were told of the room they'd be sharing, voice ever emotionless and controlled, "We've always shared a room, and we like it that way." While Mercy spoke, Charity watched, ever quiet, as one of the teenagers--Jupiter, as they were introduced--vanished up the stairs, the two boys meandering into another room and leaving the twins with their new guardians. They nodded simultaneously at the offer of seeing their room, both bracing themselves for what they knew were coming. It wasn't so much disappointment that they'd feel upon seeing where they were expected to sleep, because they were used to terrible conditions, they were expecting it. It was more a dull ache, one that came from years of feeling the same pain time and time again, and they were ready for it.


Without a word, Mercy released her sister's hand just long enough to grab both bags, slinging one over each shoulder before slipping her finger's through Charity's once more. Subtly, Charity jabbed the nail of her thumb into the palm of Mercy's hand, a scolding for not allowing her to carry her own bag, and Mercy responded by rubbing a circle into the back of her hand with her thumb. An apology, but a firm refusal to pass it off to her. They paused when the adults did, keeping a good few feet between themselves and the couple at all times, and merely leaned forward to take a look through the doorway, blinking at the comfortable  room presented to them. Surely, this couldn't be their room. In a few seconds, one of the grown-ups would laugh, ask them if they really believed this was the room they were getting. They'd open the door to some dusty closet or drop down the stairs to the attic or lead them back to the living room. That was where they slept.


But the punchline of the cruel joke never came, and the women simply stood waiting, watching them take in their new room. Charity's eyes were open wide, lips slightly parted in an unspoken question of confirmation, but Mercy showed no surprise, no emotion. The quality of the room was surprising, to be certain, but with all that the twins had been through, they couldn't say they hadn't seen something like this before. Sometimes they were nice in the beginning. All warm smiles and sweets and presents, but after a few days, that act would crumble. They'd decide it was safe to start drinking again, now that the children were used to the house, and then whatever fondness they may have had for the children they'd agreed to take in would fade more and more with every beer they downed. Or they'd get over the thrill of having children and drift back into their day to day lives, leaving Mercy and Charity to take care of themselves, something they were all too used to and had gotten quite adept at. They could keep themselves relatively clean, relatively healthy, and relatively fed--of course, a meal for them generally meant hastily made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or mac n' cheese if it was available and they'd gotten sick of having the gooey peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day.


"I like the colors," Charity said quietly, speaking at last, and she offered her guardians a timid smile that she knew Mercy wouldn't offer to them, "Thank you. Isn't it nice, Mercy?" Her twin merely hummed in response, easing her way into the room to set down their bags. Charity would want the purple bed, she was sure, so she set Charity's at the end of the purple bed and her own at the end of the blue one, reaching without a word to pluck the ice skates from where they were hanging above Charity's bed, instead setting them beside the nightstand. Nothing with blades would be dangling over her sister's head while she slept.

 

[PunkPrince]

Charity appeared shocked at the room presented to them. Had they never had a decent bedroom to themselves before? It appeared not. Kennedy smiled. "I'm glad you like it," she said. "We tried." She gave a small shrug and then added, "There are clothes for each of you in the closet if you'd like to change. A couple pairs of shoes too." 


That was one of the things she had taken a lot of notice of. The holes in their shoes. She was glad they had thought to get a couple of pairs for each of the girls. 


A high pitched squeak came from down the hall and a roll of sequins came rolling past the doorway, unraveling as it went. Jupiter scrambled after it, shoes clicking as they went. Eva suppressed a laugh. 


"There's a lot of that here," she told them. "Runaway sequins and glitter just about everywhere you wouldn't expect it to be." Hugo darted past the room with Jupiter following at a normal pace. He almost always ran everywhere. She chalked it up to his generally anxious nature. Move faster, and there was less of a chance for something bad to happen. Less time.  


"We'll leave you to unpack and get yourself settled now," Kennedy said. "If there's anything specific you want for dinner, let one of us know. Eva's a pretty good cook, so she can whip up just about anything you'd like."


The pair disappeared down the hall together, and after several minutes, Hugo peeked into the doorway. "Um, hi," he said quietly. "Do you need any help unpacking?"

 

[Molly Jordan]

The motherly masquerade the two women wore made it hard to read them, Mercy was finding. Normally there was some small flaw in the design, a crack in the adoring mask. Fingers would flex as a tentative Charity spoke in response to sweet words, as if with the desire to wrap around her throat and silence her, or a smile would pull just a little too wide as the false mother would force it to stay in place in front of the social workers. But it appeared these two had perfected the act. If anything, that made it more distressing to be around them, because Mercy couldn't guess what they were going to do or say, how they were going to treat them when the front of perfect parents fell away. At the prompt tp unpack, the twins merely nodded, and waited until the two had left before beginning to unpack.



"What do you think of them?" Charity asked softly as she pulled out one of her three shirts, smoothing it out in her lap before setting it in the top left drawer of her new dresser (the top two would be dedicated to undergarments and shirts respectively, while the middle two would have pants on the left, and the bottom two would be skirts and socks respectively). After all, Mercy had always been a better judge of character than herself, able to see through sugarcoated lies, superficially gentle touches and supposedly generous gifts. While she tried to be as wary as her sister was, Charity's optimistic and all loving nature led to her being deceived by artificial affection on more than one occasion. She remembered one particular instance where the people that had taken them in already had a teenage son who had loathed them from the moment he looked at them. She remembered being elated when he offered her a present--the cutest little stuffed bunny she had ever seen--despite how Mercy had warned her not to trust him beforehand. And, of course, she remembered feeling the happy bubble inside of her burst as he tore the head off right in front of her, sneering as tears had welled in the then eight-year-old little girl's eyes. Mercy had been furious when she found out, and it was the ensuing fight between herself and the significantly older and larger boy that got them returned to Parsons.


"I don't know," Mercy admitted after a moment of hesitance, tucking a faded violet skirt into one of her drawers, "I can't read them, and it's making me nervous. For now, just - just stay close and be quiet, okay? I think that's the safest option." Charity nodded silently, emptying the bag and filling the drawers before suddenly pausing, staring into the hollow duffel bag before beginning to frantically feel around the bottom of it for something that evidently wasn't there.


"Merce, I can't find--" Before she could even finish the sentence, Mercy had stuck her hand deep in her bag, rummaging around for a moment before finding exactly what she was looking for.



"Here," Mercy cut her off quickly, holding out a worn out little lamb, missing an ear and a button eye with stuffing leaking out and a dirty pink sweater pulled over its squishy form, "I guess you packed him in my bag by mistake." Charity let out a breath of relief and took the ancient stuffed animal, which she had named Biti upon being gifted with it, nuzzling her nose into the top of its head and breathing in the familiar scent of dirt and rain, a scent remarkably similar to that of her sister. Mercy couldn't help the fond smile that formed on his lips as he watched, turning back to her own bag. Even with all the wear and tear Biti had been through, Charity loved him just as much as she had when he was brand new. Or, relatively new, rather, considering Mercy had bought him from the children's aisle from a Goodwill in a town they had once lived in. Charity had never understood how she had scrounged up the money, but that was just as well, Mercy supposed. If Charity knew that her favorite (and her only) stuffed animal had been bought with money that Mercy had stolen from their then foster father's wallet, she wouldn't have been able to love it with a clear conscience.


Both looked up at the sound of a voice from the doorway, recognizing the boy peering in as Hugo. He seemed tentative, shy, and while Mercy was unyieldingly steady and emotionless, Charity was softer, and something about his timid behavior endeared him to her, so she offered an equally tentative smile as she nodded.


"That would be delightful, thank you."

 

[PunkPrince]

Hugo watched the pair silently for a moment before stepping into the room. He had decided right away that he liked them, or at least that he liked Charity. He wasn't too sure about Mercy for the time being. That was usually how he was with new people. Pick one and get used to the other one a bit slower. It was how he had been with Eva and Kennedy. He had attached himself to Kennedy first, as she was smaller and he had met her first. 


The boy shuffled into the bedroom and began taking things from the bags, separating them into neat piles to go in the drawers. He looked over at the pair and tentatively asked, "What do you think of them? Eva and Kennedy, I mean. I think they're kind of nervous. This is the first time they've gotten a kid the traditional way. Especially without meeting them first. We were all pretty much runaways they met in the bar they worked at and then adopted us officially. And now we live here."


"That's probably the most words I've ever heard you say in one go."


Jupiter stood in the doorway, Ronan peeking curiously around them. Hugo rolled his eyes as his sibling strode confidently into the room, Ronan watching from the doorway. "At least to somebody you don't know."


A light piano song drifted up the stairs. It had to be Eva. She was the only one who played. A skill her mother had struggled to teach her when she was young, after her death Eva had promised herself she would learn. And learn she had. She could sing too, but she did so far less often, shy about her talents. 

 

[Molly Jordan]

Charity had just opened her mouth to respond when a voice came from the doorway and she snapped it closed once more, gaze flickering towards the teenagers in the doorway, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Mercy did the same, subconsciously shifting closer to Charity as Jupiter strolled into the room. Charity's gaze flickered between the three faces, and then towards the doorway at the sound of piano music, before looking back to Hugo, swallowing thickly to gather her courage before responding, the prospect of speaking much more intimidating with so many people in the room.


"They seem very nice," she responded, choosing her words very carefully, "It was really kind of them to give us this room, and we appreciate them taking us both. Apparently the odds of people doing that aren't very good." She could see Mercy tense just at the implication of the two of them being separated, shoving a shirt into her drawer with a sharp, jerky movement before closing it.They'd been separated once before to be sent to different families, and it hadn't ended well. Both had ran away from their new homes the very first night, meeting up at a gas station that was almost equidistant from both houses, and they almost didn't bother to go back to Parsons. They had considered just running away then and living on their own, but the gas station attendant had noticed them, become concerned and called police before they could get far. The people at Parsons hadn't tried to separate them since, lest they vanished into thin air. After silence had lasted for a moment, Mercy began to speak.


"Do you have any dogs?" It'd been hours since they had been locked outside; it was dark, and cold, and Sincerity's hands were frostbitten and shaking as she yanked Modesty away from the dog she'd tried to join in the dog house, desperate to be warm, when it snapped at her, saliva dripping from its mouth and empty eyes focused on them. "Cats?" Sincerity hissed lowly, jerking her hand away from the cat that was standing over the plate left for Sincerity and Modesty, eating the food they were supposed to share. It didn't matter, Modesty supposed, since it was little more than cat food anyway. "...Rodents?" A wiry tail brushed Sincerity's face and she had to fight the urge to sit up and scream, able to feel the rat thrashing in the tangled mess of her hair. She shouldn't have been surprised, considering the closet she had been locked in was full of them.

 

[PunkPrince]

"They'd never separate siblings," Jupiter said. "Eva doesn't have any, and Kennedy never got on with her brother, but they both understand how close siblings can be. Kennedy's case was a rare one."


Kennedy and her brother Logan hadn't spoken in a long time. He's never liked her being trans. The last time they'd seen one another, Kennedy had come home looking shattered, a rare thing for the children to see. She had offered them no explanation. Jupiter supposed she had told Eva at least something, but the broken person she had been afterward kept any of them from asking about it. Jupiter didn't think they wanted to know. 


"They took Hugo and Ronan together. I didn't have any siblings for them to take." Jupiter shrugged. "But now I have those two." They motioned to the twins. "They're okay most of the time."


"We don't have any animals," Ronan said. "I've always really wanted a bird, though. I like animals. I think Eva had a guinea pig once, when she and Kennedy started dating. She's mentioned him to me once or twice." The boy paused. "Both Eva and Kennedy are really nice."


"Is there anything you want to know about us?" Ronan asked. "Or Eva or Kennedy? Aside from whether we have animals, I mean. We could show you around the house if you want."

 

[PunkPrince]

Bump