“Oh, yeah, that’s definitely not thinking you’re better than people or anything. ‘All you see are stupid people’. are you the Haley Joel Osment of intellectually inferior beings?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you knew so many people that made intelligent, well thought out choices when they’re three sheets to the wind and can’t even legally drive a golf cart.”
Jayne fidgeted uncomfortably. It was still a little jarring to him whenever he was reminded that Xander and the others weren’t human like he was, despite outward appearances.
“Guess there’s probably a lot of things that are different like that, right?” he asked, curious to learn more even though it was a lot to adjust to.
“Yes and no. I mean, I was raised around humans, went to human schools with my sister and cousins. My sister didn’t do as well because of her anger issues, but I, mean, she doesn’t tolerate bullies and it’s sort of frowned upon to almost break a boy’s arm for groping a female classmate. Or..was. Not really sure how most education is done anymore.”
They still did their own teachings, the group of them, for the most part, old enough and well traveled enough to teach the younger ones well enough. But he knew mortals didn’t live that long.
“Yeah, especially when people start calling you names that confirm it.”
He knew she’d seen him take more than a fair amount of shit from other kids at school; watched him take punches and being spat on, and he was sure she’d heard whatever rumours had been spread about him, so he’d quite happily play the victim for a while.
“What’s worse is feeling like they’re not wrong. Maybe there is something wrong with me, but does that mean I deserve to be alone?”
She’d been called a freaks and a loser more than her fair share too, it was part of why she didn’t bother even trying to talk to anyone, so she understood. Better than most, she was certain of that.
Seeing him like that broke her heart a little. Sure, she didn’t really know him, but she couldn’t help but move that last bit closer and hug him.
“No, I don’t think anyone really deserves to be alone. Being alone can ruin any good in a person…”
“That’s not what I meant,” he mumbled, sniffling a little for effect to really lay it on thick.
“I meant that, regardless of what we are, this is the first time in about as long as I can remember that someone hasn’t treated me like shit for not fitting into some arbitrary bullshit idea of normal. It gets pretty fucking lonely when nobody likes you.”
Loneliness was something she understood deeply. She couldn’t relate well to humans and she knew her one dad wouldn’t like her hanging out with other non-humans because it caused a conflict for him. It had always made her feel so damn isolated.
Without a word, she reached out and took his hand, giving it a slight squeeze. “I get that…Starts making you think you’re broken or worthless..”
“Because I like you, and because you’re the first person in a really long time who isn’t family that has been nice enough to talk to me without thinking I’m some kind of total fucking freak.”
“It’d be a little hypocritical of me to think you’re a freak when I’m a werecat that wants to be an art major.” And it was sort of nice to not feel like she had to hide what she was around someone.
“I could stop them. Doesn’t matter how many bullets they could offload into me. It might slow me down a little for a while but it won’t kill me.” he answered quietly.
“Might be enough to buy you some time to get away if they show up when your dads aren’t around? I mean us non-humans gotta stick together against those assholes, right?”
“You do realize that that would just bring other hunters down and they would kill August and me both, right? Hunters are big on vengeance,” she pointed out, not entirely sure why he would make such an offer to start with.
“Why would you even want to risk it though? I mean, you don’t even know me beyond a name and a species.”
It was more than the sort of complication he was usually willing to overlook, but it was still something he might be able to work with, at least for now, and playing scared might buy him a little sympathy and get her to drop her guard faster.
“You know what the Holdens do, right? Not your dad, I mean, but the rest of them? They don’t always kill what they hunt, especially when it’s something that can’t be killed. Sometimes they do much, much worse.”
“Yeah, I uh, I’m aware. Dad’s more of the kill quick type, but his parents…” There was a reason she had been kept as far from Chase’s parents as humanly possible and, honestly, the idea of them haunted her nightmares.
“They’re not really a family that lets their kids walk away from the life either, not entirely anyway. They won’t hesitate to kill their own if they become less human.. I’ve never hurt anyone but that wouldn’t stop his parents from putting a bullet in my head.”
He might have been young, but Teddy knew damn well from family members and people they were connected to, the names of the two biggest and most dangerous hunter clans. Sure, it wasn’t like they could actually kill him, but that wasn’t necessarily something that stood in the way of them coming after someone like him, especially because he was a danger to them.
“You weren’t kidding when you said it was complicated.”
“One of them, yeah.”
She knew the reputation her one dad’s family had, but he was protective enough of her to teach her how to defend herself from a young age, but she was like August. She wasn’t a fighter.
“Yeah, a hunter with a snow leopard spouse and a lynx daughter. We try not to think about that much.”
“You could say the same about morticians or forensic pathologists though. Speaking of which, I think that’s why some of the assholes at school don’t like me. They think it’s creepy I’d wanna choose that as a career, but it’s just because they’re afraid to die.”
He tilted his head like a puppy when he caught that word, his curiosity piqued.
“Complicated? How so?”
“Umm, I wouldn’t really know. I don’t know anyone that’s chosen those particular fields. But, I mean, people like the pathologists help catch killers and what not, so I don’t see why anyone would have an issue there. People are just…assholes.”
“Well…um…He’s a hunter? It’s sort of really complicated since the other dad’s a snow leopard. The fact that it’s worked out at all is a miracle with the Holden’s being big on killing without even a reason.”
“Sort of. I mean, some of my family on that side do go on to become reapers, but that’s more of a vocational choice than an obligation, like my great grandma. Others deal with removing people like child molesters and stuff from the population.”
It made him smile that she had at least a little awareness of that kind of thing, but not enough knowledge that he could use her naivete to his advantage.
“Were you born or bitten? My family knows quite a few werecreatures. Shit, my dad’s half brother and his husband even adopted a whole bunch of them over the years.”
“Wait, why would someone choose to do that for a living? I mean, it sounds pretty depressing. Not the removing child molesters part, but the handling souls part.”
It wasn’t the sort of thing she could handle, she knew. She was too soft hearted at her core, too…weak.
“Born. One of my adoptive parents was bitten though. My other parent..is more on the sort of complicated end of the spectrum, I guess.”
ofviolentdeath 