Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Reagan sat alone in the woods, the cold wind stinging her skin as it blew past, swarming the woods in the smell of… roses?

At that moment she could’ve sworn she saw a glimpse of blue, paired with a sweet laugh. Standing up, Reagan edged closer, stumbling as she did. Falling flat on her face, she heard the cocking of a gun ring out and echo in her ears.

“Who’s there? I will shoot if you don’t reveal yourself,”

Lifting herself up, Reagan slowly walked towards the unknown people.

“Oh, it’s just a kid. Hey, where are your parents?” It was a tall man with brown hair and a a blonde who looked to be shorter than Reagan.

She paused, “I don’t have parents,”

“God, then what are you doing here?” The man asked, lowering his gun just a smidge.

Reagan didn’t answer.

The blonde looked at the man worriedly, “Richard, our reputation,”

“Oh, kid, what are you good at?” Richard asked in a monotone manner.

“Science,” she replied simply, not bothering to mention exactly which parts of the subject.

“How good?”

“I graduated from high school a month ago good,”

“Good enough to become a Hand”

—

“Remember our instructions Orestes,”

Reagan clenched at the sound of her new name, Reagan was apparently not an appropriate name for her ‘talents’ Orrin wasn’t either so they eventually settled on Orestes.

Other than a new name, she had a new family, a new home, a new life, but something felt cold, something felt missing, like a gaping hole in her chest.

The first thing Orestes noticed walking into the dining room was a four tier cake with the words ‘happy birthday Brent’ then she noticed the growing years playing in the background, then a ginger boy, around her age.

“Hey,” she walked towards him, “happy birthday um… Brent,”

“It’s Brett,” he muttered bitterly.

“Oh, happy birthday Brett, I’m your new sister I guess,”

“Okay,” he looked even more downcast at that.

“Orestes, or Orrin, it’s ok to meet you,”

Chapter Text

Call him petty all you want but Brett had never necessarily loved his sister, she stole any attention his parents had and didn’t even apologise after.

It didn’t help that she was currently living in his apartment and making everything smell like roses for some reason.

Luckily, it was his first day of work and Orestes was a freelancer, so sweet, sweet somewhat-silence.

As usual, he got out of bed at four, Orestes’ talking with a client muffled by the door as he got ready.

“Morning Brett,” she hummed, “happy first day of work, also your tie is tied wrong, need some help?”

He looked down and sure enough, his tie was done wrong. “No, I’ll be fine. See you later Orrin,”

“Bye, and hey, we match,” she pointed out, gesturing to her baseball shirt’s green sleeves and to his equally green tie.”

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered turning to the door and not bothering to look back at his sister.