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English
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Part 9 of kotlc fics
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Anonymous
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Published:
2021-04-24
Words:
822
Chapters:
1/1
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13
Kudos:
69
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720

chosen family

Anonymous

Summary:

Tam has a flashback of a time when things were worse.

Notes:

i was going to post this as a part of another story but changed my mind, so like. here?

Work Text:

That night, Tam’s mind drifted to his parents.

Not Tiergan and Prentice, though he’d long since come to think of them as his fathers. His real parents, who loved him and cared about him and were proud of him with an intensity Tam didn’t always believe he deserved.

But the memory of his birth parents- Quan and Mai- and his time with them- it was never completely gone.

A man screaming. A girl crying. A boy shielding her with his body, because though he’d never known his father to lay a hand on them, he wouldn’t put it past him, and he’d rather take a thousand blows than let him touch her once.

Through it all, a woman stands quietly in the corner. She watches without comment, and does nothing to intervene.

His fingers clenched almost against his will, and he felt his eyes start to burn. It’d been so much time, and yet-

The boy was curled in the corner of the room, clutching his knees to his chest. The door is locked, and won’t be opening any time soon. He’s already tried banging on it, even picking the lock. Then they threatened to punish his sister, too, and no matter how lonely and afraid he is, he refuses to get her involved. But he hasn’t left his room in two days and all because of stupid ink , it was just a blot, that was all, and his mother was an artist, she should be used to this, and he was only a kid but his father had screamed anyway and now he was here and alone and he misses his sister so badly it hurts -

Tam felt his heart start to quicken. His breaths became faster, shallower. He might be shaking- it’s hard to tell. Hard to feel anything but the mounting anger and that debilitating fear.

“I didn’t do anything!” the boy protests. It isn’t often he fights back these days, if only to spare his sister any punishment, but this time he won’t be quiet. This time, he truly doesn’t understand. He won’t understand. “I wasn’t lying! We’re twins! We always have been and we always will be!”

“You’re nothing of the sort,” his father snarls. “You’re her older brother, by a year. A year, Tam, do you hear me? We’ve been over this. Being a twin- it’s shameful. No child of mine will ever claim to be one. Not under my roof.”

“But it’s who we are. ”

His mother’s tone is gentler, but her words cut deeper than any knife. “My dear, when are you going to learn? Who you are is nothing to be proud of.”

Tam’s tears finally spilled over. He was definitely shaking now, and gasping for breath. He slammed the side of his fist against the wall, hard at first, then again, weaker this time. And oh, god, he was sobbing now, and everything was too much and not there at all, overwhelming him and depriving him of feeling all at once, and-

There was a knock at the door, and he flinched. It opened, just a crack, and he shrunk away from it, even though he knew it wasn’t him , it couldn’t be him, he hadn’t seen him in months, hadn’t lived under his roof in years.

“Tam?”

Wylie. He let out a slow, shaky breath. It was Wylie. Just Wylie.

Not him.

The door opened further, and he saw his brother’s face, his brow creased and worry in his eyes.

“Hey, I thought I heard-” His gaze landed on Tam’s bloodshot eyes and tear-stained face, and his eyes widened, his mouth forming an o . Then he rushed forward, kneeling in front of him.

“Hey. Hey, you’re okay.” He stretched out his arms, then hesitated. “Is it okay if I-” Tam nodded, and Wylie wrapped his arms around him, holding him tight.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Tam tried his best to speak despite the lump in his throat. “I don’t think so. I just- my family… I thought about them. I… I remembered.”

Wylie squeezed him tighter. “You have us now. Me and our dads. And Linh’s not going anywhere. You know that, right?”

He nodded, pressing his face into Wylie’s shoulder. He was right. He did have a family. A real family now.

But...

“But I’m a twin. We’re twins. And Waywards, too.”
 “Yeah. And you have no idea how proud I am of that.” Wylie leaned back, holding him at arm’s length. “Listen to me, Tam. You’re my little brother. I love you, and I love you for who you are, not in spite of it. Too many people have let you down before, and I swear to you I’m not going to be one of them. I’m going to be here for you no matter what happens, and so will our dads. Does that sound good to you?”

Tam swallowed. “Yeah,” he whispered. “That sounds great.”

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