Work Text:
Kuranashi did no have the very best of beginnings.
He was born to a broken home, but despite the pain, he had his mother beside him, so all as well.
-
When she was very young, her mother would let her dress up in furisode when visiting festivals.
When she was very young, her mother called her by her nickname and let her play around with female speech.
When she was very young, she met a boy with soft brown hair and long sleeves at a festival.
When she was very young, her mother was there to protect her.
This is what Kara remembers.
-
When he was very young, he wore furisode to festivals.
When he was very young, watched the fallout as his father beat his mother to death.
When he was very young, he was called slurs and beat up too.
Day in, day out.
But that was not all his father would do to him.
When he was very young, he did his best to protect his mother.
When he was very young, he saw his mother die.
When he was very young, he was left all alone in a house with monster.
But then he wasn't.
This is what Karl remembers.
-
She remembers watching.
She remembers running.
She remembers breaking.
-
The first time Kuro woke up was on the streets.
The first time Kuro woke up, he being beaten.
Why? WHY!?
He'd been thrust into this deary place, this deary life with no stabilty or security without his input or acceptance.
He was angry.
So he fought.
-
Broken bones, bleeding cuts, scraped knees.
The first time Nat fronted was a nightmare.
But this was her job, so damn if she wasn't going to do it right.
She bandaged and bound with scraps of cloth.
She gave all the wounds kisses and found them a place to sleep for the night.
When she was done, she returned to care for the children.
It wasn't good, but it would do.
She could already tell that this would not be last time she had to do this.
-
What's the point in continuing on?
What's point when everyday is the same?
When all else were broken down into the ground, Kura fronted for the first time.
Everyday the same, but everyday still living.
An extra dirty blanket, to ward of the chill.
An extra piece of bread, found and eaten.
A new friend.
A little bit more light.
Her work here was done, so she left, until she would have to return and help again.
-
A lecherous old man, willing to pay.
They need the money, so Niles appears and gives him a good time.
Tonight, they'll be able to buy something good to eat.
-
They join a gang.
The leader takes pity on them and sends them off to school.
In return, they help with errands in the gang and its base, a bakery the leader owns with his wife.
It seems too good at first, but they take it anyway.
They want to return to school.
-
The first time someone comes in asking too many questions, Nashi takes the lead.
He tells all that ask of the Uncle and Aunt he lives with and the bakery he helps out at.
He tells them that his parents are dead and how much he misses them.
He believes it.
They cannot be caught. They will not return.
Thank what little good there might be that Kobayashi is a common surname.
-
Soon Nashi is fronting most of the day.
The gang leader and his wife are in on the ruse, and eventually, using the excuse of possible surveillance as a reason, they get the child (cause their body is still that of a child's, despite everything) to stay in the guest room above the bakery.
-
Sometimes Nashi has dreams of a lady who rips at his skin, screaming at how fat he is, telling him that he is beyond love and care.
He tends to forget the day after that sort of dream.
-
Nashi grows up.
Life is good.
He still fights. It's fun.
Then he's sent away.
He can still return, but he is being sent away to a house that promises a home for all who need it.
He is not happy.
-
He meets a young man his age with soft white hair at the gates to the mansion (Mansion! It's too much It's terrifying).
They fight.
Neither wins.
It was fun.
He hates him.
-
There are other people at the manor.
A little girl with blue hair, the lady of the manor. (At first Nashi doesn't believe them but he soon learns to respect her.)
A tall man with bright red hair, her personal butler. (He's one year older than them and says that the lady is too. Nashi doesn't believe him.)
Three other people, here for similar reasons to he and the white haired dude he met at the gate. (His name is Johnathan, but Nashi doesn't want to acknowledge that.)
(Some of the people are rather weird; one of them is clinging on to a stick while another is bald. The last is a child. A literal. Child. In a lab coat. It's so weird.)
Then there are all the servants.
(They're okay, if a bit terrifying in the way they appear out of nowhere.)
-
Life in the manor is good, until they and the grounds are uprooted and plopped in another world.
Then there's a war.
-
He wakes up in the enemy's camp.
He is POW and nameless.
He only remembers the war, the pain, the explosions, the death.
He is terrified.
He does not front again for a long, long time.
-
They are experimented on.
A sick part of them wonders at the science behind their pain, wonders whether others would feel the same pain in this situation.
His name is Neil.
-
They become a weapon.
There is a new alter in their system, except he is not an alter.
They call them Wolf.
Kim locks them away.
Their job is to keep them safe, and this is not something Nashi can deal with yet.
Sadly it seems that he may be forced to do so.
-
Kuro fronts, Niles fronts and Neil and Kura and Kim and the new nameless solider in their midst.
They front.
They fight.
It's the only way they can survive.
-
Nashi doesn't really remember what happened in the enemy's camp.
The next thing he knows for sure is that Johnathan is here to retrieve them.
The journey home is long and painful and Nashi has to face and accept much of the trauma hidden from him by the others.
At least Johnathan is there with him.
They return to the manor, where the others are readying a new wave to destroy their enemies.
The enemies believe themselves the victors, but the war is not yet over.
-
The war is done and over with and now they have time to heal.
Many things have changed.
For one, Niles goes by Karen now, using she/they pronouns.
The girl in his dreams from long ago has changed. She is softer now and her name is Rose. At night, she whispers to him about the beauty of his scars.
Kuro is calmer, and Kura is trying to quit.
Neil is still there, but he is occupied, and hardly seen.
Marshall has a name now, and people to confide in.
They are no longer scared of Wolf.
Nashi is trying out pronouns. He likes they/them sometimes, and she/her when he is feeling girly.
Most importantly however, is that now he knows (they all know) that they won't be alone again.