Chapter Text
Streetlights shine above the beautiful woman’s car as she drives home down streets littered with potholes, artificial stars deep within this cursed city her tiny family lived in. Exhaustion dripped off her very bones, under heavy eyelids she navigated home through a place she wished to put in her rearview mirror and never return.
But here; here they had protection and safety from the same Supernatural Ambassador Agency that stole their parents away when the siblings were far too young. Ages ago all the races formed the Agency to protect their identities and humans from learning of their existence, offering a career to all who wanted to help with the greater good through rigorous training as it was a dangerous position. Leaving a teenage sister and her toddler brother alone in a terrifying universe where if anyone paranormal discovered their family lineage still existed a deadly price would be put on their heads.
Not knowing what else to do at seventeen, Niki listened to the agents assigned to her case and the siblings moved clear across the city, losing possessions and their identities in the process. Her brother Tommy was three at the time, a bright child with wild sunshine curls of hair and big sky eyes. Young enough the memories of their parents were shadowed silhouettes, only knowing their voice through old recordings and faces through photos hung throughout their house.
Niki still remembers the day they disappeared; a powerful coupling of a witch and medium meant they were high in demand with the Agency. Their Father was rumoured to be the most powerful medium in recorded history where their Mother’s witch powers were spoken about in awe, a pairing that meant they were often away on calls together protecting the city from the paranormal. Her Father had left earlier in the morning, kissing his wife and saying goodbye, he left with a smile.
Tommy was in a playpen in the corner of the kitchen, breakfast smeared across his soft face as their Mother dealt with the dishes. Since the couple had their youngest their Mother had taken a leave from work, only going in when emergencies required her abilities or all hands on deck. Niki gathered her lunch together before following her Father outside to wait for the bus, his car long gone by this point.
During the day she portrayed herself like a normal girl, not someone who goes home to parents who speak about ghosts and cases for hours. It wasn’t her friend’s faults, vows prevented her from speaking about the paranormal to the unknowing. It’s how the World of Shadows protected themselves and humans, she could see the logic in it. Hell, human history proved they would twist something powerful to their benefit and her race hardly needed that help. Most humans lived blissfully unaware, those with abilities quickly instructed by the Agency to never reveal their presence. To adapt and blend among those who walked in the daylight. Most races had enough characteristics to pass, systems in place to protect their differences from their neighbours.
After an uneventful day at school; the usual anxieties about exams coming up and having to find a part time job soon, the young girl came home to three Supernatural Ambassadors sitting in her living room. An apprentice who was only a few years older than herself coddled her crying brother, she remembers grabbing Tommy and soothing him while demanding to know the reason these three Ambassadors met her instead of her parents.
Hoping with her whole heart the sinking feeling in her stomach wasn’t true, at least one of them was always home since Tommy was born to greet her after school. That was a routine they never broke, on the rare occurrence a mission kept them late they kept Niki well informed through texts. Hearing nothing all day followed by seeing her parents' employers, her chest twisted with anxiety.
Eret told her that while her Father was at work, a mission went wrong and he went missing. He and his partner had been separated for a time, then he vanished without a trace. Presuming the worst the moment the Agency found out they sent the three Ambassadors to tell his wife who they discovered had also disappeared. Leaving an upset toddler in the same playpen Niki saw him in this morning, they decided to wait for her here while taking care of the child.
Niki’s heart sank the moment they confirmed her worst fear that one day her parents' jobs would put them in danger. Living in a world where the paranormal legends spoken in fear rang true, many supernatural creatures wanted their Father dead. A medium, especially one as powerful as him, could grasp the spirit’s energy and communicate with them. If someone was murdered, they called her Father so he could ask the deceased who did it or provide his help in resolving the case. Mediums were a rare breed, especially her Father with his ability to draw forth any spirit even with a scrap of energy left. Knowing her Mother, only death would keep her away from her children. Something had happened to them both and it was most likely the worst outcome, many threats on their heads growing up.
At fifteen their parents sat her down and prepared her for the most unthinkable thing, if they died on the line of duty. The Agency’s work was dangerous, it was a rare case but with the amount of whispers about the World of Shadows upping the price on her Father’s life, they thought it best she be prepared. Sitting there with the realisation this was real, one day they might not come home, was a depressing thought. Two years later, that scenario was horrifying and reality, things would never be the same, they were just gone. They left behind an inheritance but Niki immediately put that into a rainy day fund, promising to only touch it in the most dire of circumstances.
Many powerful beings wanted the family erased as their crimes were hard to hide if they could just ask the dead. Video or voice recordings and a witness often stood up in the rulings of the Agency, the group in charge of controlling the supernatural masses. Niki’s Father was able to make them manifest to the point of being seen by cameras or at least heard on tape, an impressive skill that made him an important piece in the policing faction.
The Supernatural Ambassadors offered an olive branch; they could provide new identities to protect them as children of renowned members who had ‘given their lives for the cause’. Offering them a home where Niki could raise Tommy far away from one tainted with painful memories, she accepted. She would never pay a mortgage but she had to get employment for groceries and bills, thrusting her into the life of adulthood rather harshly.
All three Ambassadors swore they would be the only ones who knew her true identity, Eret offering personally to take her case so she would have a face she had seen before. The Agency had put people into protective custody before, when such powerful beings were at play a safety net had to be put into place. Eret would forever be handing her files, offering annual check-in’s along with helping in any way they could.
Throwing her post secondary education plans to the back burner for now, she watched with a bittersweet taste in her mouth as all her friends went to pursue their dreams. The lonely life of surprise single parenthood caught her when she least expected it, but she knew that this sacrifice was one she had to make.
For her sunshine, anything.
As Tommy grew up Niki tried to raise him the best she could around the long hours her days held now, sending him off to the best daycare she could afford while working at a diner and finishing high school. When he started speaking with things she couldn’t see, her worst fears were confirmed. Though she lacked paranormal abilities herself, it's clear they landed on her tiny brother’s shoulders. A too daunting task for one whose bones still had at least a decade of growing to do, she encouraged him to keep his imaginary friends a secret.
If anyone found out they still lived, he would never get the chance to grow into his large sky-blue eyes and loud laugh.
As the years passed he would pester her with questions about their parents, she would provide some details but never how or why they died. She didn’t want their graves to haunt him too, their blood spilled by vengeful creatures who wished to keep some secrets dead and buried.
Of course, she couldn’t hide the fact they lived in a world where most humans were unaware of the World of Shadows; the paranormal beings who roamed among them. Cautioning her brother to never reveal his powers, she promised him at eighteen she would tell him the truth about the Agency. There were others like him, but the humanity they lived around didn’t know this fact. Telling him the same vows she once had to repeat herself, she made sure Tommy memorised them. She didn’t want to scare him, but Niki stressed the importance of humans never learning the truth about the supernatural races.
As Tommy approached being a teenager, his smile began to lose some joy as the cruel realities of being different set in. The voices got louder, Niki would often awaken late into the night as he screamed at the nightmares that plagued him. Coupled with the days spent with kids who weren’t cursed in such a way bullying his oddities, Niki grew desperate watching her baby brother fade away. He smiled less and grew sickly thin, a lack of sleep plus the emotional drain was hurting him deeply.
Staying up late to comfort him began to take its toll on Niki as well, often late to her now full time hours at the diner as a waitress due to oversleeping her alarm. Chugging coffee constantly to try to make it through the day, only to come home to a haunted brother with too many skeletons at the tender age of twelve. Eventually it led to her losing her job due to her being tardy, at that exact moment she decided to go to the Agency and demand their help once more. After all, if they were there to help citizens, surely a young boy with a bright future could be allowed some measure of peace.
Years ago, Eret gave her their contact information if she ever needed anything as well as following through with their yearly check-in offers. She tried for so long to keep them afloat, always being told how independent and strong she was for accepting such a burden. Those nights she would cry herself to sleep, wishing to whatever above to relieve her of responsibilities. Losing her early twenties to her brother’s childhood was not something she regretted necessarily, but it was an impossible weight for only her to bear.
Finally, accepting that she didn’t want to face this alone anymore, Niki went to the Agency and asked for an appointment with Eret. When they came out to greet her with the Ambassador badge, she realised just how much time had passed. When the pair had first met they were only an apprentice, it took years of strenuous training to get the full rank.
They carried themselves with the same grace she remembered, kind and considerate to all around them. Also joined by their partner, a handsome vampire named Foolish, Eret led the group back to their office.
The moment the door closed, Niki broke down. Months of watching her brother waste away worried her to no end, her back was ready to shatter into dust with the weight she carried. Finding the strong arms of friends, Eret immediately offered to do whatever she needed.
Confessing her concerns about Tommy and losing her job, the partners stepped up to the plate in a way she could never pay back. Coincidentally, Eret and Foolish’s assistant had quit a week before due to personal reasons so they hired her on the spot, though she had no experience in such a position they offered to train her from scratch.
Niki confessed she hadn’t told Tommy of their heritage, secrecy a better safety blanket surrounding the teenager. Promising to tell him on his eighteenth birthday, she asked if there was anyone to prevent ghosts from invading their home to torment her Tommy.
Eret offered to come over while Tommy was away at school to lay down some safe-guards against the paranormal. Working long days they and Foolish lined their entire property with lines of salt and iron flecks deep in a ditch they dug in the earth. Then, they burned sage in every room to clear out any remaining spiritual energy before doing a final walkthrough to check for any residuals.
Tommy immediately noticed the lack of ghosts, asking Niki why their house was so quiet. Explaining some of what the pair did without using their names, Tommy gave her a now rare sunlight-filled smile. Relief lay on every curve of the teenager’s face, peace for the first time in his life.
As the thought crossed her mind Niki pulled into the driveway of their red-brick house, the porchlight pouring across the dark jade grass from the front door in a warm yellow glow. The two story home felt like a familiar hug now, held within its walls was where Tommy spent his entire wild and energy filled childhood. Reminiscing on chasing the small blonde through its spaces brings a small smile to his sister’s face, Tommy is worth the world to Niki.
Giving herself one last look-over in the car’s mirrors, caramel eyes surrounded in long lashes above the bags heavy below her eyes above soft cheekbones. Her bob of rose-pink hair lay limp after the long day of work brushing the tops of her collarbones in a sharp cut, Eret and Foolish had been on several missions this month and the filing took her late into the evening.
Grabbing her purse from the passenger seat and walking to their spruce door, she fumbles with the keys chain laden with crafts Tommy had made before opening the door to their messy living room. Controllers and books strewn everywhere, hers and Tommy’s interests combining to make the room comforting. A large threadbare red couch hugged the right sky blue wall across from a large television set with a dark wood coffee table between. Since getting her current job Eret was generous with their bonuses and a good chunk of it went towards making her brother happy. Sure she would get a few books here and there to indulge besides squirrelling away a significant portion into a precious savings account. The rest always went towards something her brother hoped for like the newest gaming console or a gardening tool he wanted.
Plants covered many flat surfaces with bright colours, her brother’s green thumb showing itself as he found peace among fragrant blooms. Their backyard was a work of art, the boy had a talent for convincing the most stubborn plants to thrive. Though the ghosts no longer plagued him within these walls, the outside world was still rough on the poor boy. Tommy never seemed to grow close to anyone else, preferring animals and plants to real human connection besides his sister.
Speaking of her brother, Tommy emerged from a hall to the right that led to their bathroom and kitchen. Holding two mugs of steaming tea, he gives her a warm smile as he goes to place it on the coffee table where a bowl of fresh-popped corn sat covered in delicious butter. Wearing cosy flannel pyjamas, he seemed ready to hang out for a while in the comfy room.
He had grown up so tall, far overshooting her by almost a foot. His golden curls were wild on his head, tangled strands of spun sunshine straight from their Father. Bright blue eyes that reminded Niki of their Mother met hers as she placed her purse down, returning his greeting grin. Tommy was such a perfect mix of the faces Niki missed, she had inherited the more gentle features of her Mother compared to the sharp angles of the teenager that were a resemblance to his Father.
“Niki, I made some of your favourite tea!” He proudly exclaims, patting the cushion beside him where he lounged on the couch. “You mentioned you wanted to do a movie night tonight and it’s your pick, I even said I wouldn’t whine if you happened to choose something cheesy!”
Internally Niki cringed, not remembering this conversation and extremely tired from her day. But such a happy mood was rare, she couldn’t pass it by just because she was exhausted. A reminder of why she got out of bed each day was a welcome one right now, after today she needed a mental reset remembering her urge to pick up and leave this city behind along with the ghosts of their past.
“Tommy.” Niki teased, going to sit beside him and picking up the hot mug. “We both know you are going to complain no matter what I pick.”
“Well that’s just what brothers are for, to judge your choices.” He sipped tea before continuing. “Loudly.”
“Alright, just for that comment we are watching Princess Bride.”
“Oh come on, we literally watched it last month.”
“It’s a fantastic story, also that was two months ago!”
“We have literally watched it at least once a year ever since I can remember.”
“Yes and that streak is going to continue to happen. It's a great movie!”
The back and forth banter kept going even as Tommy rolled his eyes and went to load the disc into his Playstation, settling under the heavy forest green crocheted blanket Niki had made last winter. Slowly, his eyes slipped closed beside her as the movie played out, finishing his tea and his half of the popcorn before passing out against her shoulder. Though he seemed awake when she got home she knew he would fall asleep halfway through the film.
High school seemed to bring some of that weary energy back to her brother, she reflected on the days fondly as short as they were. Hugging his heavy head into the crook of her neck, she took comfort that they could still have nights like this. Caressing the soft, short hair at the top of his neck, she combed her gentle fingers through his silky curls. Reminding herself to sit him down for a haircut soon, she watched the credits mostly stuck in her own head.
She knew these days were limited, soon he would be deciding what he wanted to do after he finished his public schooling. His eighteenth birthday was on the horizon, only a week away, she resolved to sit him down soon to talk about his options after. They had discussed it before and he had expressed some interest in horticulture, though his never-ending curiosity about the Agency didn’t ever seem to be satisfied. She had been careful with their money, putting away a significant portion to fund his college or university courses if he chose that option.
But just for a little while longer, she could hold him in her arms and protect him from reality and hope with everything she had he wouldn’t follow in their parent’s footsteps. Though she also worked there, an assistant was a far cry from an active Ambassador position where he would be put in the same danger that took their parents. She had always been so vague with describing where she worked, hoping to throw him off the idea. Niki refused to outright lie to her brother, but there were moments she wondered if when she gave into his questioning he would immediately run off to join them.
She understood the draw, being around others who understood you more than the overall ignorant humans that they lived around was a plus. He would no longer be looked at weird for whispering to things Niki would never see, but if he revealed to the world of his medium abilities there was no more hiding.
Niki could never turn off the thoughts about her brother’s future, she knew he still spoke with ghosts daily. Something about him just attracted wayward spirits, she wondered if maybe the day she admits the truth she also brings Tommy to meet Eret. Maybe they could help him learn coping methods and ways to banish them temporarily, after all their Father seemed to not be as heavily affected and they share the same abilities. With Eret being a witch, it was within the same classification of paranormal gifts and they had offered it before to teach Tommy protection mechanisms.
Tommy mumbled in his sleep, breaking her from her sleepy thoughts. She hugs him tight one more time, before reaching to shake his shoulder.
“Come on sunshine, both of us can’t sleep on this couch anymore.”
“Mmmmm…but I’m comfy-” Tommy mumbles before trailing off to unintelligible whispers.
“You will be even comfier in bed, I promise.” Niki crawls out from under his lanky torso, pulling him to a standing position by his hand.
He stumbles and she giggles, not quite grown into his limbs plus being tired meant he walked like he was an uncoordinated deer. Leading him to his bedroom she tucks him into bed, surrounded by his homely mess of knick knacks and computer parts scattered throughout the room. Besides his gardening and turning their backyard into an oasis, he had recently taken to building a tower computer for himself with money he earned by walking dogs for the neighbourhood.
Pulling his soft navy blankets to his chin, she kisses him on the forehead, his eyes already closed tight once more. Mumbling a goodnight and ‘I love you, sunshine’ to her baby brother, she leaves to go to her own room. Reminding herself to set an alarm ten minutes earlier to make coffee, she prepares to go to sleep herself. Doing one last walk around the house to make sure the doors are secure and the windows are closed, she tucks herself into her own rose-coloured sheets.
Tommy’s face being the last thing in her thoughts, she hopes she has done enough raising him. A usual worry for the woman, she thinks of their parents and hopes they are proud of both of them.