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You don’t know what possessed you to do what you had done, but you weren’t upset about it either. Something inside you had finally just snapped, the rage inside boiling over and finally erupting from you.
You were sitting at the dinner table, stabbing at the food on your plate. You had spent more time stabbing at it and moving it around than eating it, but no one noticed; everyone was too entranced in their conversations.
The brother across the table from you was snickering, probably talking his shit again. He was one of the siblings in Sister Imperators little circle, the position going to his head and giving him an overgrown ego. It annoyed you to no end, but you tried to ignore it.
Your ears perked up at the mention of the ghouls, your focus shifting towards the conversation happening around you.
“—they really are awful creatures, the lot of them. I mean, why do we keep them around? They don’t do anything special. Stupid little bastards too.”
“Did you see the videos of them online? All they seem to do is try and fuck each other. It’s pathetic. Maybe that’s why Papa spends so much time with them; he’s too busy to actually get any and uses them as toys.”
“Probably. That’s all they’re good for. Well, I guess besides playing in the band, but anyone can do that.”
You felt your grip tightening around your fork, your knuckles turning white as you tried to block out what they were saying. It didn’t matter, you couldn’t stop listening now that you had started, the anger inside you growing like a weed that could only be torn out by the root.
“I’m shocked they still keep that dumb multighoul around. I mean, look at him! All he does is backing vocals. Hell, he barely plays guitar or anything. They even summoned a new Ghoul to play the fucking tambourine! I mean how useless could you get!?”
You slammed your fist down on the table, making the others around you startle. “You shut your damned mouth,” you ordered lowly, staring down the brother across from you who looked too damn smug for his own good.
“Why should I? I’m right. Everyone here agrees,” he snickered, smirking with pride, “you can’t do shit about what I think of those dumb hell beasts, anyway.”
“I’m going to warn you one more time to shut up, or I swear to Lucifer himself I will shut it for you,” you growled, putting the fork down, a vein in the side of your head popping out from how enraged you felt on the behalf of the ghouls.
“Right. Of course you are. You sound like that stupid pipsqueak of a fire Ghoul. What’s his name again? Dewdrop? Who cares. You’re as weak and pathetic as he is—“
You rose from your chair, knocking it back as you grabbed him from across the table, shoving him back. He took you with him, both of you crashing to the floor, plates and glasses and Lucifer knows what crashing with you.
You both wrestled for a minute before you finally got on top of him, landing a punch directly to his nose. Once the first punch came, they never seemed to end, blood spraying up and covering your clothes and face, growled threats spilling from you as you beat the little asshole senseless.
The other siblings looked shocked, the bigger of them trying to pull the two of you apart. You gripped the brother tighter, hissing in ear, “if you ever talk about any of them like that again, I’ll rip your tongue out and feed it to you, and that’s a promise.”
The ghouls intervened, finally managing to pull you back and off the brother who was openly crying on the floor, bloody and thoroughly broken. You looked up, your eyes falling to the head table where the papas looked shocked—Copia especially. You looked at Sister Imperator, knowing she was the one the little bastard got his thoughts of the ghouls from. She stared back at you, eyes narrowed with anger; you didn’t look away, glaring at her. Nihil looked thoroughly amused by everything that happened, happy for the entertainment.
You allowed yourself to be dragged away from the dining hall, not speaking a word as you were escorted to one of the offices held by higher Clergy members.
—
An hour passed before Copia finally showed up, looking exhausted. He collapsed in his office chair, his eyes searching your downcast face. You were still covered in dry blood, your eyes glassy with dissociation and rage.
“Well. You put on quite the performance, I must say,” Copia started, leaning back in his chair. It creaked in reply, no doubt in need of some WD40.
You shrugged, not looking at him. Who knew the wooden grain of a desk could be so entertaining?
“Why did you do that? It is not like you to be so aggressive or violent. I don’t think you would ever do that unless it was prompted,” he continued, his gaze never breaking from you. You squirmed in response, feeling ashamed for your actions in part, but only because you knew Sister Imperator would use them against him and the others.
You swallowed, trying to find the words despite them sitting on the tip of your very tongue. It was like they were foreign, in a language you didn’t speak or understand.
“Sibling.”
You looked up at Papa, finding nothing but softness in his eyes.
“I am not angry. I do not have cause to be angry yet. I do not have your side of the story, and I will react once I know what happened. You can tell me, my child. Or rather you will tell me, and you will tell me the truth, yes?”
You nodded, looking down at your hands that were clasped in your lap, your knuckles cracked and red with dried blood. They hurt, the throbbing only adding to your anxiety.
You took a deep breath, exhaling and beginning the story. You told him everything, what they had said, the awful things they called the ghouls—your friends—and how they found it funny. You had snapped and let them have it, thus the brawl.
Copia sat back, not saying anything for a long while after you had finished. You squeezed your eyes shut, preparing to lose your home and everything you had grown to know over this stupid stunt.
“That was an admirable thing to do for your friends, child. You could have done nothing at all and yet you chose to make some kind of right, even if it was.. a little more aggressive than it could have been.”
You looked up at him, wide eyed and disbelieving at the words that had come out from his mouth. Maybe you were high from getting knocked around during the initial scuffle.
“You practiced the idea of wrath. ‘Do no harm, take no shit.’ I…” he trailed off, licking at his bottom lip as he tried to find the words, his hands waving around as he grasped at them, “eh, you did not take his shit, so to speak. This changes things quite dramatically.”
You looked confused at that, burrows furrowed as you waited for an explanation.
“The brother you fought with says you had a disagreement and that you beat him for it. It never said what the disagreement was about, you see,” Copia explained, shaking his head, “although, after hearing your story and the stories of the others at the table and around it, I believe you have not done much wrong.”
“R-Really?” You squeaked.
He nodded, sighing, “now, you are not completely off the hook. You cannot solve issues with violence, even if they deserve some kind of wrath. Next time, you come to me and tell me, and I will handle it. That way no one gets physically hurt. Am I clear about that?”
You nodded, mumbling, “yes papa.”
“Good. Even with quintessence ghouls, it isn’t fun to fix up injured humans,” he muttered, his expression growing stern, “now, you are on probation for the next two weeks. No skipping mass, extra chores, curfew, and all that jazz—or whatever you kids say nowadays.”
You nodded again, looking down, face flushed with shame, “yes papa, I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t think about how this would affect your job. I don’t want you to get in trouble over rogue siblings.”
Copia chuckled at that, shaking his head, “I am Papa, child. I can’t get in trouble over this. Sure, my brothers might tease me or give me shit, but it will be fine.”
“You’re sure?” You asked, biting at your lower lip, “Sister looked really pissed. That was her best sibling and I just… wiped the floor with him. Won’t she bring that up?”
Papa waved you off, scoffing, “she’ll get over it.”
You nodded, although you didn’t feel convinced. Copia stood, slapping his thighs, “alrighty then. Let’s go. The ghouls wish to speak to you and I promised them you would after I was finished. But once they are done saying they’re piece, off to bed with you. Your curfew begins tonight.”
You just nodded, following Copia out as began to talk about his rats.
—
The ghouls were all gathered in the common room of the den, all of the quieting the second you entered the room with Papa.
Papa nodded at them, “ghouls. Well, I’ll leave you to it. The ghouls will accompany you to bed.”
You just nodded, watching as he left, your heart beating quicker in your chest as you looked at the gaggle of ghouls staring you down. “Papa said you wanted to talk…” you murmured quietly, unsure of what to say.
They stared for a few more seconds before Swiss grinned, “you sure did kick his ass, huh kid?”
You smiled, nodding. “Yeah, I guess I did,” you whispered, blushing for whatever reason.
Aether clapped you on the shoulder, smiling as he led you to the couch, “you didn’t have to stick up for us, you know? We could have handled that.”
“I know,” you sighed, plopping on the couch next to Cirrus and leaning up against her. Cirrus shifted you so you were laying with your head in her lap, the tips of her claws scratching your scalp just right that you forgot what the hell you were even talking about.
“Apparently beating the ever loving shit out of dickwads makes humans tired,” Cirrus teased, laughing quietly when you flipped her the bird.
Rain came over with a warm washcloth to help clean you up a little bit, helping Aether with the clean up and medical inspection he was performing. “We’ve never seen you like that,” Rain murmured, wiping at your knuckles.
“Yeah! What the hell! We never knew you could do that!” Dewdrop all but shouted, looking annoyed that he hadn’t known about the small violent streak inside you.
You shrugged, feeling exhausted as the ghouls continued to act like mother hens, fussing over you while you struggled to hold your eyes open. The ghouls were a very protective bunch, seeing you as a pack mate or something similar; that meant that they came running whenever their scrappy little human got hurt, doing everything they could to make you feel better or whatever else.
They were starting to bicker amongst one another, drawing tired bouts of laughter from you before you could stop them. Someone tapped you on the shoulder, your eyes cracking open to see who. Mountain stood over you—well, towered really—holding out a small bag of weed. “For you,” he grunted, forever his stoic self.
You waved him off, “nah. Keep it. You owe me a stoned movie night, though. Ghoul pile and everything.”
Mountain smiled at that, nodding and letting you return to napping as Aether looked you over meticulously.
“Satanas, Aeth. Are you looking for fucking fleas?” Swiss grumbled, earning a small swat from Cumulus.
Aether rolled his eyes and continued to work, the continued scratching from Cirrus and the comforting feeling of warmth putting you to sleep.
You woke up in your bed the next morning, surrounded by ghouls who had taken to piling up in your bedroom. They were stretched out everywhere, all of them sound asleep. You smiled at that, moving to the makeshift nest they were sleeping in on the floor.
You burrowed in with them, going back to sleep amongst your rag tag little group of ghouls