#{{tbh Idk if this is classified as a drabble or an IC thing so I’m just slapping both tags down and calling it a day lol}}

[a-beast-of-prey]

Even the shield of a shut door couldn’t quite keep out the merriment-filled voices and the scent of Maxima’s cooking coming from the kitchen. Kula, as always, was the most prevalent presence. Though her voice wasn’t the only feminine one to grace the team’s apartment today; there were guests over, and they’d be here for the majority of the day. K’ could easily imagine what was going on outside the confines of his room. Presents, affection, and a hearty breakfast for Foxy and Diana, celebrating their roles in Kula’s life as matronly figures... Just like last year. And the year before. And the year before that.

He hadn’t moved from bed at all this morning, and didn’t have any plans to do so anytime soon. Instead he remained curled up under the duvet, curtains closed, his only company the warmth radiating from his own body and the small silver cross at his neck. This, he rubbed between his bare fingers absently, staring at nothing in particular in the confines of his darkened room. He tried not to think about anything, but the ache in his chest persisted regardless. Another day, another stark reminder of things he didn’t have; that NESTS had so cruelly stripped him of.

K’ buried his head under the duvet when fresh laughter pealed out. Unbidden, a new source of warmth, wet and stinging, crawled down his cheeks.

For Kula, this was a day of celebration for the two women who had essentially raised, and come to care for, her. For him? It was a lamentation of something - someone - he’d never even had the privilege to know about. Stolen young, and mind stripped to blankness, the most he could recall were fragments. The steady thud of a heart under his ear... A fistful of flowers yanked straight from the roots, clutched tightly in a tiny hand... Sea salt and what might have been lavender tickling at his nostrils...

Happy Mother’s Day.

The words - muffled by the barriers he’d erected, as they were - still made it into his ears, regardless.

K’ slapped a hand over his mouth. He didn’t want the others to hear the ugly, wrenching sob that was trying to claw free of his chest.