Chapter Text
Rae sighed as he rubbed his face. How he wished he could just turn off the world around him so he could work in peace. It would make things a lot easier. He needed to finish this project before his mother’s started to question why it took so much money. Before they started to question him as to why he was doing this project.
He might have wanted to turn off the world but there was a small handful of people he wouldn’t ever want to turn off. One of who was his nephew, well cousin biologically, who had just ran into the room and threw their arms around him. He laughed and looked up at the teen.
“Hello Athena,” he smiled and their joy was overwhelming.
“Hi!” They laughed and he smiled. Without moving out of their grasp, he grabbed and pulled over the pink, child sized, swivel chair for Athena to sit in. He had plenty of other chairs, in a variety of colors, sizes, and types, but they insisted on this very chair. Rae played along, as if he didn’t know exactly why they needed that chair exactly, but he was content with it. He did still laugh when the teen had to adjust a few times to fit correctly in the chair.
“How was school?” He asked as he turned back to his project. He noticed their sudden nervousness and his chest ached as he watched them pick at the pale pink gloves that covered their hands.
“Kids at school called me a monster again. Jamie and Easton, of course, told them off but… but they said I killed my mom,” Athena mumbled and Rae sighed, turning his chair again and ignoring Athena’s heartbreak in favor of cupping his nephews cheeks.
“I’ve been taking care of you for how many years now?” He asked, a joking smile filling his expression and he watched them laugh a bit.
“Seven years! You took me in when I was ten!” They hummed and he nodded.
“I don’t think I’d take care of a monster for seven years,” he hummed. He couldn’t say anything about Soul’s death, he and Athena knew the truth, but he could lighten their fears.
“Yea…” Athena smiled up at him, “although we do live with Aax and he’s a weird fish thing so-“
“Oh shut it!” Rae laughed and gave them an affectionate noogie. They squealed and grinned at him.
“So what are you working on?” They hummed and he was glad to see that all the sadness had started to fade from their system, he had made them smile again.
“I’m working on something for Caspian, although you gotta keep that in the down low,” Rae hummed and Athena grinned.
“I’ve been working on something for him too! If I get it, can we work on it together?” Athena asked.
“Of course, although remember that Jamie’s coming after dinner and we’re gonna do a bit of research for our trip tomorrow and then they’re sleeping over,” Rae hummed and Athena grinned. Ah yes, the long weekend trip they’ve been planning for months. Rae’s biggest research was within the study of mind, matter, and abilities. Of course he, obviously, focused on the mind abilities and matter abilities, but his research has broadened overtime. This latest trip would be going to Greece to look at some studies from the first person who showed their abilities. As this was a cross continental trip, they were leaving on a Friday and would return the following Wednesday. Rae’s lab assistants, of course one of whom was his nephew, had gotten out of the homework they’d be missing due to the research they’ll be doing.
“Yessss!” Athena promptly ran upstairs and Rae smiled softly, closing his eyes for a moment, thinking through all he knew and his research rather into his died of study.
Everyone had special abilities in this world. Rae was an empath, he could sense and read others emotions, they radiated off them like colors. There was more to it too, a base color and some people had different than others. He hadn’t ever told his mothers about that ability though, he didn’t think much of it as it was often blurred with his empath abilities.
Enderian, one of his mothers, was a telepath, and his other mother, orchid was an ‘Empathic manipulator’ which was a fancy word for she could manipulate people’s feelings to a small degree, make someone who was sad feel happy and similar things.
Rae was a strange and special case. Someone, now a lot older and retired, had the ability to take two pieces of DNA and create a child. There was a lot more to it of course, including the very fact of that said child would need to be carried to term, but the first child to ever exist in that way was Rae. At the end of it all, Rae blamed his strange second ability on how he came to be.
Growing up, Rae was rather famous for being the first child to be born how he was, but also both his mothers worked in fields that made them minorly famous.
Most of his family did.
His uncle Alerion could create beautiful illusions, often of the stars and space manipulation. He did a lot of stuff for shows and movies, creating inexpensive and realistic special effects. Fable could morph matter into anything, even as simple as taking gas particles and making them solids. He worked in props for tv and but he also did great for creating clothing and necessities for those in need. Netherum did pretty much the exact opposite of their brother, they dissolved everything they touched. Soul, Netherum’s wife, had the special ability to manipulate a persons soul, often bonding it to others, like a child to a parent and such.
Then, in Rae’s immediate family, came his cousins. His cousin Will, Alerion’s son, had a way with directions, he could think up a place and create a map in front of him, he could lead anyone anywhere by giving them a special compass. His gift, in Rae’s opinion, was very broad and wide ranged much like his fathers.
Sherbert’s ability was interesting. Rae had grown up with his mothers teasing Fable because not once was there any sign that sherbert had another parent, that fable had ever had a relationship. They often joked that Sherbert was a cloned child, which was another ability based way for someone to have a kid. The only outlier on that idea was Sherbert’s ability. They could essentially create life of sorts, or bring things back from the dead more so, although it merged with creation. Rae could still remember when he was young, he and Sherbert played a game of how many chickens could Sherbert bring up. He created living beings and for a while he had an army of Charles, until Fable caught wind and made them send them away.
And then, at the end of it all, was Athena. Rae tried not to think of Athena’s abilities, or how those gloves had gone on the shaky hand of a two year old while they stood over their mothers body. He had been four when his ability amerged, four was the most common age, two was almost never heard of. Yet Rae remembered hearing his aunts breathing stop and feeling fear arise from his cousin and their parent. He remembered the funeral and the pink gloves Athena wore everywhere after that day.
Athena had the ability to where, if they touched someone who both bare hands, they would end their life. Athena was the only person Rae knew who had an ability they couldn’t control. Even Rae could deafen the noise of others emotions, but Athena had no control and when he took them in, when they were ten, that became his main goal. He would make sure they gained control.
Outside his biological family stood his two boyfriends, although as of only a few months ago, fiancé’s. Aax and Caspian, who’d been living with him since right before he took in Athena, had rather interesting abilities in their own rights. Caspian could phase through objects and briefly become invisible. He took advantage of both way too frequently and the amount of times he spooked Rae couldn’t have all been accident. And then Aax, as Athena mentioned earlier, had a strange ability. He had more Olm like qualities and any abilities they had, but beyond that he could talk to sea creatures. His ability did, in fact, leave them with a lot of fish and, the favorite pet for Aax, axolotls.
There were more people Rae could think through, sorting their abilities into spots, but before he could, his door opened again and Athena came back with a project that barely fit in their arms.
“You okay over there?” Rae called and they nodded their head proudly.
“Yep! I got it!” They hummed as they dumped everything on the table next to Rae’s project, grabbed their small chair, and moved over to sit next to him, leaning against his shoulder for a moment before getting to work.
“Whatcha making?” Rae hummed and Athena grinned up at him. When he watched them, it was easy to forget their ability, forget how they ended up in his custody, and those breaks were what made everything easier. Athena’s smiles on the other hand, are what made everything he did worth it.
“Do you think he’ll like it? I mean it’s supposed to be a gift for when he first moved in with us… Aax gets his next month…” Athena mumbled and Rae wrapped an arm around his nephew.
“It’s perfect no matter what and I’m sure he’ll agree,” he hummed and when his nephew grinned again, he was content. Despite all the shit the world pushed at them, and their shitty ass ability, they were mostly happy and he would be as well.