Chapter Text
“What is this?” Aventurine has to stop himself from outright glaring at Jade. She smiles thinly at him. “Now, now, no need to be so upset. We were as surprised as you are now when we first got him.”
Aventurine turns his head back to look at the boy through the one-way mirror. He estimates the boy to be no older than eight, but with how malnourished he seems he could be older. “And he just turned up at the IPC’s doorstep?” he asks. Jade looks uncertainly at Aventurine for a moment. “Not per se…”
Jade clears her throat. “His father approached an IPC worker and handed him over.” Aventurine raises his eyebrow questioningly. “Okay, then where's the father?” Jade looks him directly in the eye. “He killed himself.” For a moment, Aventurine holds eye contact before breaking away to look at the boy.
“How can you be so sure the boy's an
Avgin
?”
He could hear his voice wobble as he said the name of his dead, they were supposed to be dead , race. “Have you done a blood test yet or..?” Jade handed him a clipboard with the boy's files.
The first thing he noticed while reading through the files was the boy's name. An Avgin name.
‘Anastasius’
Resurrection .
Fate works in cruel ways . Aventurine thinks before letting out a tired sigh and going back to looking at the files, specifically the blood work.
Name: Anastasius
Age: 10
Sex: Male
The boy is small, too small for his age.
Blood type: AB-
Aventurine bites his lips, that's gonna be a problem . Out of all the blood types, he just had to have the rarest one.
His eyes scanned all the kid's blood work. “Gods, his blood counts are terrible,” he whispers to himself and continues reading the files until he gets to the ancestry portion.
Species: Half Avgin
Aventurine gently taps his head with the clipboard. Closing his eyes, he takes a few deep breaths, then stands up straight and looks back at Jade, who has been silently observing him.
“Why am I here?” he asks plainly, handing her back the clipboard. Jade smiles enigmatically as she takes the board. “I think we both know why you're here,” she says. Aventurine grits his teeth. “I don’t have time to take care of a child,” he replies tensely. “You might not, but your partner sure does,” she replies casually.
Aventurine freezes and swallows dryly. Of course, they know about his relationship with Veritas; he is a fool for thinking they could hide it. “Dr. Ratio is a very busy man. You can't possibly expect him to drop everything and raise a child he doesn't have any relation to. That's simply too absurd, even for the IPC!”
“Who says anything about the IPC asking?” She smiles malignantly at him. “From what I hear, the ever-famous Dr. Ratio is soon going on leave for a ‘research’ trip. And funnily enough, his research just so happens to be close to the planet where your new resident is. Isn’t that just convenient?”
Aventurine scoffs, “So what, you want me to go up to him and ask him to raise this mysterious child who happens to share the same blood as me? I thought it was confirmed that all Avigns were wiped out of existence.” He crosses his arms to hide how much they are shaking.
“The universe is far too big for anything to be truly gone, darling. You of all people should know this by now.” She walks up to him and fixes his collar. “Now be a good boy and go meet your new ward.” She pats his cheek in a ‘motherly’ manner.
Aventurine pulls away from her touch and stalks off to the entrance of the holding room where the kid is being held.
“Think of this as a blessing!” That is the last thing he hears her say before he closes the door of the holding room.
He rests his back against the holding room’s door and takes a few deep breaths to control his heart rate.
The kid looks at him skittishly, trying to make himself look smaller than he already is. For a long, painful minute, Aventurine can see himself in the kid's position—newly orphaned, hungry, scared, and alone. Aventurine clenches his fist before forcing himself to relax. He doesn’t want to scare the kid any more than he already is.
“Anastasius?” The kid flinches when he hears Aventurine call out his name. Aventurine quickly rephrases his sentence and says more gently, “Your name is Anastasius, right?” The boy nods but refuses to respond verbally. Aventurine smiles encouragingly at him. “My name is Aventurine, and I'm going to be your caretaker for the foreseeable future.”
The boy stares at him, confused. Can he even speak the galactical language? Aventurine bites his lip. “Can you understand me?” The boy opens his chapped lips and speaks. “A-a bit…” His voice is croaky, and he slurs his words. Aventurine hesitates for a moment before he opens his mouth and speaks in his mother’s tongue for the first time in what feels like forever. “My name is Aventurine, and I'm going to be your caretaker for the foreseeable future.”
The boy's eyes widen, clearly not expecting him to speak Avginan. “You can speak the same language as me!” the boy says excitedly. Aventurine feels himself softening at the kid's excitement.
“I’m an Avgin as well.”
“Really? I thought Papa and I were the only ones left!”
Aventurine’s smile strains.
“We’re probably the last of our kind, I’m afraid.” The boy frowns. “Oh.” He seems sad for a moment before brightening again. “That’s okay! As long as Papa and I aren’t alone anymore, it’s fine!”
They didn't tell him his father is dead , Aventurine realizes. He turns to look at the one-way mirror. He knows Jade is watching. They want me to tell him . He grits his teeth.
He takes a deep breath. “I'm afraid your Papa has gone far, far away, and he can't come back…” The kid's smile fades and he begins to look distressed. “Papa left without me?” Tears begin to form in his eyes. “No, Papa wouldn’t leave! He promised he’d stay and wouldn’t run away like Mama!” The kid starts bawling his eyes out.
Aventurine looks horrified. He doesn’t know what to say to help the poor kid calm down. Gods, please help me. Aventurine hesitantly approaches the kid. “I’m sure your Papa loves you very much, but unfortunately, he had to go.”
“I’m sure your Papa would still be here if he could.”
Lies.
The kid's father is a bloody coward, taking the easy way out and leaving his child alone to rot in this cruel world all by himself.