Chapter Text
POV Ace – 14 years old
“Ace, you haven’t brought in a signed slip yet.”
Barely did he hold in a curse as he looked to his teacher, “My… parents don’t want me to go.”
The teacher sighed, “You need to go on one excursion with your class, it’s obligated. There is only one more.”
“I’ll go on that one… maybe.” He whispered the last word.
“Alright.” The teacher nodded and left it at that before starting their lesson.
When school was over, Ace rushed out quickly, not wanting to be pulled aside and be talked about his parents not being active in his school life.
“What do they even expect?” he wondered to himself as he kicked a stone down the path he walked. Walking further and further to the edge of the city where the big river ran. When he got to a specific place he went close to a smaller sandlike beach right next the water.
He acted like he was playing, throwing rocks in the river next to him and giggling. Only when there was no one to see him did he slip inside the drainage pipe that ended right next to the water. The wire cover long since had a big enough hole for him to pass through.
When he was younger, he never needed to duck, but since he grew he did need to. Even in the complete dark did he find his way around and after a few turns he climbed a rusty ladder, went through a latch and entered a small room.
With a sigh did he flick a switch and the room lit up thanks to the glow of a small light bulp dangling from the ceiling.
The room was small and lots of smaller pipes ran through it. If Ace had to guess, this was a supply room or maybe a check-point for the sewage system. Probably also the reason why it had running electricity to light up the place. But since he had found this place about 5 years ago, never had anyone been here.
“I’m home. Mom, dad. My teacher complained that you didn’t sign my slip. How could you~” He sang a bit as he threw the copy of another slip he got into a corner that was already filled with them. “Right right, maybe it’s because I AIN’T GOT THEM.”
Anger seeped into his voice as he yelled and kicked at nothing. Throwing his bookbag to the ground. “Stupid fucking school, needing permission left and right as if I can’t decide things for myself! I’ve been living on my own as long as I can remember! I sett up my own school-program myself too!” Even if that was with fake signatures, he still did it. He knew that an education was his only shot at hopefully getting out of this place on his own.
Just as he wanted to settle down on the small matrass he had been able to fit through the pipes, did he curse as he spotted a rip in his jeans. When did that happen? Anyway, it was there and he had to fix it, he only had limited close. So he grabbed the sewing kit he had and settles on the matrass, took of his jeans and started sewing it shut. Every single one of his clothes he had needed to sew. You could see his progress through them. Some looked done by an actual kid, patchwork everywhere. But right now he was kind of proud of himself. If he had a matching thread by some luck, he could fix his clothes up without it being too noticeable. Though, he was glad patchwork clothes were in style, so people didn’t question him at all coming in with them. And those who did where usually those of the older generation who thought it was a youngsters thing.
Being homeless sucked. But foster care had sucked more. They threw him around from family to family. And every single time they only wanted the money the state gave them to take care of him. Yet they never took care of them. The only thing they did was put restrictions on him. Where he could go, where he could not go. A curfew here, a curfew there. He wasn’t allowed to do anything yet he often still had to fight to get some scraps of food. So, this was better. Even if it sucked, he could decide how to live his own life. Now he just had to gather some money and fake a signature to go on that next excursion so his teacher wouldn’t freak out.
“I need to talk to your parents.”
“What? Why??” Ace questioned almost defensively immediately when the teacher asked him that question, having been pulled aside after class.
“Your excursion slip-“
“Is signed and I- my parents put the money with it!”
Ace saw the teacher sigh. Why did they sigh! They just gotte accept it and move on!
“This is not the same signature that’s on your paperwork. You made this one yourself, didn’t you?”
Fuck. Was it not the same?????? He thought he had made this one before???
“Its- maybe they changed signatures?”
“Adults don’t change their signature anymore, Ace. It would mess with a lot of documents. And I still want to talk to them. They missed the last parent-teacher meeting too and I really want to have a sit-down with them to talk about how you’re doing in school.”
“I’ll tell them that I’m doing fine!”
“I want them here tomorrow after school, Ace. Now you can go.”
“But-“
“You can go, Ace.”
Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!!!!
“FUCK!” He cursed outloud the second he got out of the building and was a few steps from the schoolgates. How the fuckedy fuck fuck was he going to get out of this! Why did they need to see his parents???? They were fucking dead! Even if they were alive, they were dead-beats! He didn’t need them, the school shouldn’t need them! What the fuck was he-
He stopped his inner cursing as he saw a man walking down the street with the biggest moustache he had ever seen. It may as well have been one of those fake paste-on moustaches with how perfect it seemed to be groomed.
… That man was giving dad-vibes. If he even knew what that should mean. But before he could even comprehend he had ran up to the man and was staring up at him. The man even looked amused back as he stopped walking. Duh, a kid was blocking his path.
“Hello there, little one.”
Yes. 100% gentle dad vibes. “I like your moustache, and you’re big.”
The man blinked before laughing, stroking over his own facial hair, “Why thank you gurararaa.”
“Be my dad tomorrow at my teacher-parent meeting.”
There where a few more laughs before the man laughed again, “Gurarararara, ofcourse! What time is it? And at what school?”
Ace pointed to the school not far away, “That one. And after school.”
“Alright. I’ll be there. And-“ the man smiled big, “What is my son’s name?”
“Ace.”
A big hand came down and ruffled raven locks. “It’s nice to meet you, Ace. You can call me Pops!”
He was a little weirded out by that but just let the man do as he pleased. He was Afterall going to play his dad for the meeting. But after a while the ruffling got too much and he pulled away. Not forgetting his manners he looked up and said a quick thank you before running off towards the place he called home.