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@randomwriteronline had this, and I wanted to write it. So I’m gonna
The first time Kim Grosso had seen Niamh O’Flannel break a man’s leg, he fell in love.
It was on one of his first days at the studio. When he walked into work, he found a few of his fellow employees in a fight with protestors from some moral decency group. He wasn’t sure how they’d gotten in, nor did he particularly want to engage in the fight himself. His anxieties began to mount, leaving him frozen in place in the entry hall. Thankfully, no one involved in the fight seemed to notice or care that he was there. Then he heard the door open behind him.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” He heard Niamh’s telltale voice from behind him, almost a growl. “It is too early for this shite.” He half expected Niamh to yell at him, but she charged right past him.
“Break it up!” She snapped. “I’ve got work to do and I haven’t had my coffee.” The fight did not stop. Niamh narrowed her eyes.
“I said…Break it up!” She yelled before promptly throwing one of the men into a wall. The fact that said man was one of her coworkers didn’t seem to matter. This, however, turned the attention of the protestors to her. Her other coworkers immediately backed off in the face of Niamh’s fury, rushing to the side of their fallen comrade.
“Miss O’Flannel, please don’t injure them too severely,” Grant said from where he was sitting off to the side. He was too tired to deal with this right now. He’d already called the police and they’d be here soon enough.
“No promises.” Niamh smiled. Kim felt his heart skip a beat as Niamh beat the protestors black and blue without even seeming to break a sweat.
“Oh no.” He whispered as he watched Niamh break their legs. He was starting to sweat profusely now. “Oh no.”
“Something wrong, Kim?” Grant had just noticed the toymaker was both there and looking extremely distraught.
“I’m fine! Nothing’s wrong!” Kim laughed nervously and perhaps a bit too loudly. “Okaygottagonowbye.” He then bolted out of the entry hall and desperately hoped no one had noticed how red his face had gotten.
.
Charlie was out in the park when he met Thaische. Malcolm had suggested they all go to the park, dragging Joey along. Joey couldn’t spend all his time cooped up in that apartment all the time. So they were going to the park and Joey was going to draw some plants or something. Charlie liked the park, even if it was kind of hard to get around the playground while on his wheelchair. But he could still wheel himself along the paths and find things to draw.
“I bet you can draw some of the people around here.” Malcolm had said.
“Or you can draw plants.” Joey had added. “Plants always make for good subjects.”
Charlie had decided to draw some plants, because there were some beautiful flowers in the park. He hadn’t been able to find any of the flowers yet, which was disappointing, but he had now stumbled across another child. The child was wearing a poncho and hunching over an animal skull. Their brown hair was pulled out of their face with a blue headband, although a few strands were still loose. They had two different colored eyes, which was so cool. Before Charlie could roll closer to ask the kid what they were doing, someone else walked up.
“What’re you doing, kid?” The man demanded. “You shouldn’t be playing with dead things.” Charlie wasn’t at all interested in him and neither was the other kid. The other kid kept looking over the animal skull in their hands, completely unconcerned with the man talking to them.
“Hey! Kid!” The man snapped his fingers at the kid. “I’m talking to you!” The kid continued to ignore him, getting to their feet and picking up the cane beside them. They put the skull in a bag at their side and started to walk away.
“Where do you think you’re going?!” The man demanded, grabbing the kid by the arm.
“Let go.” The kid hunched their shoulders, trying to pull away from the man.
“I asked you questions. You need to answer me, you little freak.” The man growled, his grip tightening. “Where are you going and why are you playing with dead shit?” Charlie wasn’t really in a position to intervene and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. The man didn’t seem very nice. He’d probably insult Charlie too.
“Let go.” The kid repeated, their brow furrowing in something between annoyance and anger.
“Not until you tell me what the fuck you’re up to.” The man snapped.
“Why?” The kid asked.
“You seem like a shifty little bastard.” The man narrowed his eyes. “People like you are always up to something.”
The kid’s frown deepened and they tried to pull away. “No. Go away.”
The man growled some kind of curse and yanked on the kid’s arm. This, evidently, was a mistake. The kid raised their cane and smacked the man over the side of the head. This was enough to make the man let go of their arm and stumble away.
“What the fuck?!” He yelled. “You little-” He didn’t get to finish as the kid smacked him again with the cane. They kept hitting the man’s head until he stopped moving. Then they wiped their cane off on the man’s clothing and started to walk away.
“Hey!” Charlie wheeled up to them. “Hey!” The kid stopped, turning back to look at Charlie.
“You’re really cool and I like your skull,” Charlie said with a big smile. “Do you want to be friends?” The kid tilted their head to the side, blinked, and nodded.
“Okay.”
“I’m Charlie!”
“Thaische.”
“That’s a cool name! Want to meet my dad?”
“Okay.”
Malcolm had to admit, he was a little surprised when Charlie showed up with another kid who happened to be covered in blood.
“This is Thaische! We’re friends now!” Charlie announced happily. Joey looked up from his sketchbook and paled.
“You’re…Niamh and Kim’s kid…” He said slowly. Thaische nodded, not paying too terribly much attention to Joey.
“You know them?” Charlie asked, lighting up.
“He’s the son of some of my employees.” Joey smiled shakily. “Say, Thaische Your…brother isn’t here, is he?” Thaische shook his head and Joey let out a small sigh of relief.
“Why are you covered in blood?” Malcolm asked, regarding Thaische with a mix of concern and slight apprehension.
“Killed somebody,” Thaische answered. “Wanna see my skull? It’s a squirrel skull.”
“Um, no thank you.” Well, there were probably worse people his son could hang out with.