#he's my stupidhead idiot ghost boy and i love him

[subsequentibis]

i like to think in my personal rich fiction that klokateer 1815 gets a lot of praise and held up as an example to everyone else - staying on to work even after death!! - and the band is like wow yeah, wouldn't it be great to have an army of ghosts working for us? and charles is like no. he's actually a terrible worker. he can't touch stuff half the time and death has made him lose most of his sense of boundaries so he keeps floating through walls into restricted areas. i'd have him exorcized if he didn't make for such good propaganda.

[idigihearts1x3]

Merry Christmas Jen

“I don’t have to listen to you, you’re not my real father.”

The living room fell into shocked silence as the other three adults frozen to stare in shock at what their seven year old daughter had said. Merlin just buried his face in his hands.

“Reika Pepper-Kingsmen!” Aoi was the first to recover. “Apologize to your Dad this instant.” “He’s not really my Dad, Papa is.“ Reika folded her arms and huffed.

“He’s as much your parent as I am.” Lewis knew he had a tendency to be overly lenient with his daughter, but there were some lines you didn’t cross. “Now apologize.”

“Why? I didn’t say anything the wasn’t true,” Normally Lewis found her mother’s stubbornness in her endearing, but now was not one of those times.

“Your room. Now.” Aoi’s voice was firm and Lewis’s hair was flickering, a testament to his agitated state. Reika stuck her chin up, but stomped upstairs anyway.

One she was gone Lew’s irritation melted in concern. “Geeze Arty, I’m sorry. I just don’t know what got into her.” Lewis fretted. To his surprise, Auberon just laughed.

“It’s okay, Lew, I’ve been expecting it.”

If anything that made Lewis more worried. His concern must have been evident because Arthur lost his own humor.  “Look Lew, kids try to assert themselves against authority however they can. Not being a biological relative is an easy loophole. One of the kids was going to pull it at some point, if not now then definitely when they hit their teens.” He sighed. “Honestly, I’m just glad Tammy’s at work. She would have taken that much worse.”

Even if she hadn’t been the one the statement was aimed at. She had been forced to give up her dream of parenthood after her death. That somehow a miracle had occurred and she’d gotten pregnant with Merlin had helped. But (and he knew exactly who to blame) Tammy seemed haunted by the idea that she would never be good enough. Reika rejecting her as a parent would have done a lot of damage.

Merlin worried his lip a bit, then crawled into Azul’s lap. “You’re my mommy too, Mom.” He reassured her. “Just like Kaasan. An’ Papa and Dad are my daddies and Pare’s my Pare.”

Azul gave him a tight squeeze. “You know it kiddo. We’re a big weird family, all of us together. Reika knows it to, even if she’s being bull headed.”

“Comes from your side of the family.” Auberon quipped. “I mean, if you and Aoi were any more bullheaded, you’d be minotaurs.” Both Blues shot him a look. Then all three turned to look at Lewis.

“Oh no, I’m not taking sides in this. I’ll stick with being only half ghost, thank you very much.” Lewis put up his hands in surrender.

~

Lewis knocked once on Reika’s door to let her know they were there before he and Aoi went in. He’d been torn as to whether or not to bring Azul and Auberon, but as Aoi pointed out, Reika wasn’t going to listen to either of them until they worked this out and all that would result were more hurt feelings.

Reika huffed as they came in. Her hair couldn’t flame up like her Papa’s, but it could glow slightly and shift hue. And right now it was broadcasting her sulk for the world to see.

“Reika, what was that about?” Aoi tried to keep her voice firm, but not scolding. Scolding wouldn’t get her daughter to talk (Which is not to say it wouldn’t come later).

“Well, it’s true, isn’t it?” Reika refused to let go of her sulk. “You guys are my parents, not them.”

“Biologically speaking, you’re correct.” Lewis said, ‘earning a WTF are you doing?’ look from Aoi. “But by that metric you have no Aunts and only a single Grandmother and Grandfather.”

That was unexpected enough that Reika broke her sulk enough to look directly at him. “What do you mean? I have three Grammas and Grampas. And six Aunts.”

“Nope,” Lewis popped the ‘P’. “I was adopted.” Both of him were. Past that it was different and Lewis was very careful not to dwell on the differences between his component parts. “I share no biological link to anyone, except you.”

Reika’s jaw worked a few times. “But…But…”

“But you want to keep your Aunties and Grandparents.” Aoi filled in. “What we want to know is why you suddenly don’t want to keep your Dad, Mom, and Pare.”

“It’s not that I don’t want them.” She was at least looking ashamed now. “But everyone else only had one or two parents.  You’re only supposed to have one or two parents.”

Lewis sighed, running his hand through his flaming hair.

Aoi was more on the ball. “Reika, ‘supposed to’ means one of two things. Either something that is better or people demanding things go a certain way and no other. The difference is really important. People are supposed to be kind to one another. That makes the world a friendlier place to live in. You’re supposed to eat nutritious food. It’s better than junk food because it will help you grow and stay healthy. Those are important.”

“People who insist you do things a certain way aren’t concerned with better, just with themselves being right. These people will say it’s wrong for all of us to love each other. Because you shouldn’t love more than one person. Because you shouldn’t love someone of the same gender, Because your Mommy and I and your Daddy and Pare look so similar.” And it was just looks (and their souls), thankfully. They had suspected due to things like Azul’s blonde hair and the fact that Auberon was related to the Kingsmens paternally and Artemis maternally. Testing had proven none of them had a genetic link to the other. “They’d also say your Pare would have to be a boy all of the time. Now think, would your life be better if it was just me and and your Papa, no Pare, Mommy, or Daddy?”

“Or Merlin,” Lewis added. “After all, if Pare and Dad aren’t your parents, then he isn’t your brother.”

If Reika was beginning to look remorseful before, she looked completely stricken now. “I didn’t mean that! Of course he’s my brother!” She faltered “Isn’t he?”

“Yes,” both Aoi and Lewis said in exasperated relief. “There are people who believe your only real family is the people you’re biologically related to. That the bond of blood should trump any other connection.” Lewis explained. “Those people are idiots.”

“Your Papa and I love you with all our hearts,” Aoi was quick to assure, “But the others don’t love you any less. The same way both set of Pepper Grandparents love Lewis as much as your Aunts.”

“There are also people who chose not to love the children they birth. Or worse, see the child as property and not a person.” Both versions of Arthur had dealt with that. From Auberon’s abandonment to the hideous abuse Artemis had undergone before Lance got custody. But neither were tales for such young ears. “What decides whether someone is really your family is if they love you and you love them. That’s is. And I can guarantee everyone who lives here loves you.”

“And you love them back.” Aoi had no doubt about that as she ran her hand through her daughters glowing hair.

Reika nodded. “Am I still in trouble?”

Aoi laughed. “Young Lady, you are grounded, but good. But we still love you, no matter what.”

~

Artemis Kingsmen loved working with her Uncle, but she was equally glad to be home after a long day. Keeping up the ruse to Lance’s other employees that she was still among the living was exhausting. At least they had been pretty respectful of her being genderfluid (It was hard to hide, honestly. Once she had unlocked her special brand of shapeshifting she was a girl when she felt like a girl and he was a boy when he felt like a boy, the only exception being during pregnancy). Still, as far as her coworkers were concerned, she was Lance’s kid, no matter what the gender of the day was. Acceptance was almost intoxicating in it’s own way.

“Welcome home, love.” Azul greeted her with a kiss. “Good day with Lance?”

“Not a bad one,” Artemis allowed, kissing her wife back. “Tiring though. I’m just glad I don’t have any muscles to ache. How’s it been here?”

“Eventful,” Azul rolled her eyes. “Reika decided to act about a bit. Aoi and Lew are dealing with it.”

“Just Aoi and Lewis?” Artemis was a surprised. Usually any parental things were either handled by one of them or all of them depending on the severity.

“It was appropriate.” Azul shrugged, not wanting to get into it. “Forte’s probably announcing your arrival, so Merlin and Auberon should be here soon.” There was no doubt the Geardead was formerly Lewis’s with it’s desire to act as butler and majordomo.

“Pare’s home!” True to Azul’s prediction Merlin came barreling through the halls to hug Artemis. The hug was a normal thing for any parent coming home from work. That Merlin’s hair was sparking and his eyes were slightly glowing wasn’t.

Artemis picked him up and squeezed her child tightly. “What’s wrong Merls?”

“Reika’s a stupidhead.” Merlin explained, burying his head in her shoulder.

Artemis shot Azul a look that clearly said ‘What did she do?’

Before Azul could answer, Auberon made it into the room and gave his wife a hug, trapping Merlin in between them. The child didn’t protest though, even when Azul joined in.

“Good, everyone’s together,” Lewis and Aoi came down the stairs, Reika between them. The violet-haired girl hung her head. “Reika has something she’d like to say to you guys.”

They reached the bottom of the stairs. Reika shuffled her feet and didn’t look anyone in the eye. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I was being stupid.”

Merlin set his jaw, but didn’t say anything.

“Thinking that our family should be a certain way because it’s ‘normal’ is dumb and mean. I love you all and I’m really glad you’re my family. All of you.”

Just as Reika’s contempt earlier was clear, so was her contrition now. She snuck a glance at her family. Dad was smiling at her, proud of her for apologizing, but not overly hurt. Mom’s smile was much smaller. She obviously still wasn’t happy that Reika made the remark in the first place. Pare was shocked, not having realized what Reika had said until she apologized for it. She looked so hurt, Reika wanted to apologize all over again.

But the least happy one was Merlin. From the angry look he was giving her, she knew he had made the connection she missed, That saying Dad wasn’t her parent was the same as saying Merlin wasn’t her brother.

“ ‘M sorry,” She said again, ducking behind Kaasan’s leg.

“I’ll forgive you,” Merlin said, though he still sounded unhappy. “This time. But if you ever say we’re not family again…”

“I won’t!” Reika promised desperately.

“Good,” Merlin curled back into his Pare, he’d forgiven her, but he still wasn’t happy with her right now.

Reika wilted a bit, but her Kaasan put a comforting hand on her shoulder. As much as she hated that her daughter had to go through this, actions had consequences and shielding her from them wouldn’t be good for anyone. Her son had already been deeply hurt and she had no desire to repeat this.

But the hurt feelings would fade. By the time Reika was ungrounded, Merlin would already have a bunch of new ideas of trouble for his favorite sister to join him in.

The family would endure, forged as it was in absolute love.