Chapter Text
Authors Notes: Just a warning for those who aren't used to my writing style. I'm not nice to characters. Your favorite characters are not devoid of this rule. I can and will harm them, They will fight, they will be tortured, they will bleed. (I don't have a habit of killing canon characters so they are safe, but uncanon characters aren't safe.) so if you can't handle killing, torture, blood, and fighting. This might not be the fic for you. However I can promise cuteness, found family comfort, and loving parentals.
Trust Me?
Chapter 1
Every Day
“Remember! The Blue line will get you there, and the silver line will bring you home.” She knew, she had been told hundreds of times now. Thousands if she wanted to think about it more. But the crowd of people swamping the subway pushed her father and father away from her caretakers. “Three stops and you’ll be at school, just one stop on the silver line.”
“You got your key, yes?” Another voice asked her. She held up the key that was on a bracelet she kept on no matter what. It was a home key, something she thought she would never have.
“And don’t forget to eat your lunch! You still look like a stick!” the first one called out. She could barely hear him now. She was pushed into the blue line train as if she were just a bag of potatoes. Weightless and hilariously ticklish. She sat down near the door so that way she could get out quickly when the door opened. Being shoved around by adults wasn’t good.
There were at least other kids from her school on the train. So just in case she got lost she could just follow them. The uniforms were pretty pronounced red, and yellow. Probably easier for people to see in traffic? It made her feel like she had been splashed with ketchup and mustard to be honest.
Her backpack held close as per usual. She felt her cell phone go off. She knew just what it was. She smiled as she looked at it. She saw a picture of her caretakers smiling at her. A small message at the bottom.
‘And remember, we love you very much.’ How could she ever forget? She quickly tapped out a ‘I love you too.’ before stuffing her cell phone back into her pocket.
Lake had been living with the Subway Bosses, Ingo and Emmet now for three months. Christmas, New Years, and Valentine's Day all wrapped up. Although…soon enough, when spring came, she knew her birthday would be coming up. Her parents would give her a cake during that time. It was either snowing, or it had flowers. It always depends on how things were weatherwise. But it was always in the spring.
Now that she got to take a look at her birth certificate she found out it was the beginning of March and that was just a week away. To top it all off she had confirmation now that she would be turning nine years old. It was nice to finally know for sure.
She knew her adopted brothers were planning something. She didn’t know yet, this was her first real party. It made her smile from ear to ear. She normally just made a mud pie in the backyard of her foster parents house. Likely get in trouble for tracking in mud.
The doors to the subway opened and out she walked the two blocks into the school. The crossing guard motioned for herself and four other students to run across.
The halls were crowded as per usual, and she hated being in too big a group away from the subway. The subway was like a second home to her, her brothers could see her as she went about down there. At school though, she was in no man's land and she had no idea where anything was saved for the Cafeteria, and library. She didn’t even know where the office was. She even had to ask for directions as to where the restrooms were a lot.
As soon as she sat down at her desk the teacher smiled at them. It was fake and everyone could tell that she didn’t want to be there.
“This week we’ll be talking about what your parents do at work?” Lake’s smile disappeared and she looked down at her book. There was a picture of a man holding his son's hand. He had a mail person's clothing on. Another picture was a young girl with a mother wearing a business suit.
“How about you, Lake?” Lake looked up and then at the woman. Lake opened her mouth and she shook her head. The teacher looked slightly baffled by this sort of response. You could almost feel the anger wash off the teacher at being brushed off by a student.
After school the teacher called Lake to her desk.
“Lake, I understand that you're shy and you don’t like to talk, but you don’t have to push aside an answer simply because you don’t want to do it.” Oh that wasn’t it at all. Lake opened her mouth to answer only to feel her phone vibrate. She looked at it ‘silver line leaves in twelve minutes’ , her small reminder.
“I’m sorry I have to go.” She tried. The teacher hit her desk and stood up. This scared Lake into standing still and hugging her backpack to her.
“No, you will stand there and explain to me what the matter is.” The teacher crossed her arms. Lake’s heart began to pound in her ears. She was going to miss the train.
“No…I have to go…” She tried to go toward the door only to have the teacher grab her by the forearm and pull her back.
Lake began to shake as she recoiled away from the teacher and looked up at her stunned.
“What is going on?” The teacher asked.
Oh they were going to get so mad at her. She hit the panic button on her phone. A silent alarm that notified her adopted brothers that she was in trouble.
Something clicked inside of the teacher's mind when she realized the way she was holding Lake and let go.
“Are you being harmed at home? You can tell us we can make sure you don’t go back there.”
Lake’s heart jumped into her throat and she began to cough and shake. She reached into her pocket pulling out the inhaler, she fumbled with it as it caught onto her jacket and it slid under the teachers desk. She needed that but she was too scared of the teacher to go for it.
She wasn’t sure how long she was standing there as the teacher just yelled at her trying to get her to answer before she had to sit down on the floor. Breathing was growing harder and harder as she tried.
The look on the teacher's face looked horrified for a moment. She couldn’t hear much except the pounding of her own heart, and the raspy breath. She felt the top of her inhaler fit into her mouth. Someone's tender hand under her chin pulling it upward at a slant. The coolness sprayed into her mouth as she took a deep breath and leaned back. She felt someone's hand on her back stopping her from falling back. Her heart stopped pounding and she could hear Emmet yelling loudly at the teacher.
“What are you talking about?! She’s an orphan! You just asked her for information about a passenger she can’t possibly know about.” The teacher looked horrified.
It took the teacher a few seconds before it clicked.
“Well then why didn’t she just tell us about you?” She spat.
“Because we’re her brothers!” They both said at the same time.
It wasn’t completely true, Ingo had to sign off as her father because adoption papers didn’t have ‘brothers’ on there as their soul adoptee. Why Ingo instead of Emmet?
They drew straws.
To the teacher that made sense. Although…
“She must take after the other parent.” The teacher took a sip of her tea and sighed. “So I expect at least one of you to…”
“You expect nothing.” Ingo watched as his brother picked up Lake.
“This school should be amazed if she’s coming back here. Perhaps putting Lake in school so soon wasn’t for the best?”
Emmet felt Lake pull her legs around him, locking tightly around him. She only did that when she felt insecure, or scared.
At this point in time, he was sure it was both.
“Ingo…” Emmet whispered as they walked out into the hallway.
Ingo was about to attempt to help his brother with Lake's coat. It was still rather cold outside, but she wasn’t having it.
“Lake, my love.” She slowly turned to look at her eldest brother. “Let me put this on you.” He held up the gray coat that looked like theirs. “Or we won’t match.” He gave her a smile. It was a rare smile, one reserved specially for her. Okay she knew he was joking. She gave him a cute smile and buried her face in Emmet's shoulder.
She held out her arms for him to put her jacket on her, and accepted the hat on her head.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Emmet asked, rubbing her back. She looked up at Emmet. Her cheeks were still wet from the tears, and her eyes were still a bit poofy.
“She grabbed me the way Shaw used to, yelled at me, told me I couldn’t leave…” She sniffled burying her face in the nap of Emmets neck.
“She should have known better. She had been informed of your happenings.” Ingo growled.
“Such an unruly passenger.” Emmet said as he kissed the top of Lake's head.
Lake felt Ingo touch her forehead and lightly patted the top of her head after.
“No fever at least.” She would get fevers after small asthma attacks. At least they found out she had Asthma and that was why her illness three months ago was so harsh.
“Come along, let us depart.” They walked into the subway and were greeted by several agents calling out for them. Some even waved at Lake who remained in Emmet's arms. After a few moments she was handed to Ingo who sat down on the train seat.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered into his ear. He turned a little to listen to her better. “I didn’t mean to get into trouble.” Ingo couldn’t help but feel angry at that teacher for making her feel bad.
“You are not in trouble.” Ingo informed her. Lake slowly pulled away to look up at him.
“I got in trouble at school.”
“Lake…” Ingo whispered, pulling her back down, holding her tightly to him for a moment. “You are not in trouble, you did nothing wrong. You couldn’t have answered that question, and how dare she touch you.”
“The only one in trouble is that teacher.” Emmet tapped her shoulder and leaned in. “I’m sure her boss isn’t going to be too happy with her after this email.” He held up his phone.
After three months of living with the Subway Bosses, Lake had learned that Emmet was the more wordy twin. He didn’t tend to hold back.