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its-elvie-innit · 8 months

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Far far far in the depths of the federation, where they keep their prisoners in dust and drab. I know in my heart baghera sits on the floor awaiting what is next. I know in my heart she is surrounded by silence and an overwhelming feeling of dread, of knowing that she escaped once and they brought her back. Even if she gets off the island, they will always bring her back.

I know in my heart that she has her head settled against the stone walls as she stops straining her ears for noise because there is none. Her mind has decided to stop for a minute in this place. It could have been one day, it could have been twenty. She is sad and alone and her wings are dirty, dragging against the unclean surfaces, and all she will know for however long she is in here is uncertainty doubt and dread.

A step. A noise. She lifts her head.

There are footsteps, coming down the corridor leading to the long line of prison cells she is in. A big white metal door obscures whatever would be in her view. It doesn't block out the noise.

She scrambles for a second, towards the bars, away from them, before reaching an unhappy medium between crouched and raised in a dark corner close to her cell door. If they grab her, she can run for it. She's stronger than them. She hopes she is.

The footsteps are closer now.

They halt quietly in front of the door, but there are still little sounds, like shuffling and scuffing feet against the floor. There are more of them, then.

The single keypad on the big metal door clicks.

On her haunches, baghera prepares herself for whatever is to come. The door swings open-

Cucurucho.

He doesn't look at her.

Instead, the bear pivots to blow bubbles where she can't see, the wall she is pressed against blocking most of her view. She listens.

Softly, the shuffling starts up again where she hadn't noticed it stopping, and cucurucho turns to continue. He passes Bagheras cell, completely, not even sparing her a head turn to acknowledge. She waits for a moment in anticipation of another bear, and gets... not that.

Instead she sees the bright yellow of richarlysons tennis shoes.

Baghera leaps forwards, terrified. That is her nephew, behind a set of bars she cannot get out of. He is here, in a place he should not be, should never be, and his fathers must be terrified she is so scared for him, she is asking him why he is here in a language he doesn't even speak-

Richas looks at her, and with the speed of a Grand Prix Formula 4, Baghera realizes that this little child, with his tiny hands and tinier eyes, has a massive crack running up the full length of his torso.

And he is not alone.

A better angle lets Baghera see not only Richas, but Chayanne behind him, and Tallulah, where they are connected by holding hands. She cannot see the others behind the door, but it is more than just them.

"Mon dieu.." it is hard to get the English words out so they can all understand, "What.. has happened?"

Richas is dirty. As is Chayanne, and Tallulah. They each get progressively worse, with the older siblings cracks spreading further even than they did when she saw them last. Every one of them have wide eyes and their little hands grasp hers, trying to make words with their faces, trying to make her understand because they don't have signs, they have no where to place them if they did, they don't have the time-

Cucurucho has pulled an egg gently from her hands.

He is not a gentle creature. She yells at him, and tries to reach for the other two through the cage, gets to her elbows before she is screaming as they too are pulled from her grasp. These are her kids, they are her family, they are her nephews and nieces-

They are her kids.

"Dapper!" She half-yells, half-screams, and she calls his name first because she will not believe her littlest egg is here. She has only seen three, so maybe none of them are in this wretched place, and she can know they are safe at home in bed. "Dapper!" She yells again, and leonarda hears her voice and sees her siblings being ushered forwards in the narrowing corridor. Running for her Tia, they hold hands through the bars, and Leo nearly slips on the damp floor- she is trying to mouth the syllables she needs; Baghera would call her smart, would praise what she learned in school if they had time at all. There is a crack running from her jaw up to her eye, and a matted patch of hair by her ear; and baghera holds onto her trying to lip read. The other kids are struggling, but cucurucho only has a few arms so he continues forward with the first three and leaves Leo to desperately attempt to communicate. Baghera says any word she understands.

"Foolish, taken, us, sleeping, Tia- get AWAY from her!" There were words in between but she couldn't catch them, and Leo is lifted screaming into the air, arm clutched by baghera until she's too scared of hurting her to keep holding on. All she knows is that the eggs behind Leo have started to rush in. Ramón is next, and behind him an egg already reaching out to hold, skin the same as pitch, and his white eyes open and scared like she's only seen once. Baghera holds onto both of them before being lifted, but this time she does not let go. Dapper won't either. Her arm is being squeezed between the bars and she can feel her shoulder being lifted almost out of her skin, but she will not let go. Ramon slips away from her, barely keeping grip on her non-dominant hand, so screaming, she latches onto Dapper.

She is in a tug-of-war with the bear over her son. Baghera is a mother, and she will not lose.

Cucurucho gives up attempting to handle all three for the moment. Ramòn and leonarda are both biting its arms, fractures running through Ramòns lips where his mustache used to be- they are fighting the good fight, and filled with fear, they are still little monsters.

Dapper holds her as she runs fingers through his dirty black hair and pushes palms against his face that come away wet. She is worried, and he cannot talk, but they press foreheads together anyway and Baghera tries to understand him just through skin.

"Dapper, Dapper, mon puce, what happ- where, where is your sister, are you all alright, are you okay?" She cradles his face in her hand and speaks so fast she would doubt him understanding her if she didn't know better. "You are okay. We are okay, my baby, look what they did to your face"

Dapper leans in closer and tugs on her hair urgently. There is focus in his eyes, like there always is, despite the noise and clamor and stress she knows he is under. His top-hat is gone, and that is all she can think as he starts to pull off a shoelace from his patent leather shoes and knots it between them quick as a whip, tied to the swinging door on both sides with tight knots. Then, he leans down and struggles for a second with his second one.

A tinier hand reaches down and pulls it loose for him.

Pomme.

Baghera loses it. Her child.

Squeezing past the door and grabbing at the bars as dapper starts to twist the second shoelace. Her little girl.

There is a crack, but calling it a crack would be..

There is a split. A split in her child, running from her neck down across her upper arms, and, she assumes, the rest of her too. It gapes at her, like a void. Her perfect, untouched child, with both lives and a million safehouses and every tool she could ask for to help her stay alive and safe and.

Baghera reaches her fingers, wrist tied to the bars, up to the shaky scratches on Pommes face. Animal marks.

It does not make her love this child any less. Pommes eyes are strong and hard like her brothers. She is not shaken, even though she is shaking. She is still her pomme.

It does make her want to burn something down, though.

Cucurucho appears then, and tries to lift her children away from her. There is nothing she can do but yell, scream, and angle her foot out into the gap of the walkway to try and kick this fucking bear over. Dapper and pomme, both with only one arm free appear to be trying to twist its arm off. When it sees the shoelaces keeping her children tied down to her, one last tether to earth, Baghera thinks it is over, reaching out with its surprisingly chainsaw-like claws to snap the threads in two and take away her children, but when it does, the black strings do not cut.

It hesitates, and tries again, but all the laces do is bend a little. Pomme and Dapper nearly kick a dent into its shiny white stomach before Cucuruchos eyes flash with something like defeat and Bagheras door opens. The eggs are pushed through by the very edges of their laces and cucurucho pulls the door shut.

"Enjoy the Island"

It cut half of its platitudes. The bear is probably losing its mind with them right now, but the trio don't even register its exit. Instead they are staring at each other, and then Baghera is trying to reach out and tear the shoelaces off her hands. She is tied down absolutely to the bars, though, and dapper hurries to untie the impossible knot he has around his wrist one handed. Pomme does the same but is notably worse at it, and Baghera starts to take a moment to process the last few minutes. The last few days.

The eggs are in here with her. She has no idea to get out. She doesn't even know why she's here.

Baghera realizes this, and looks at her kids, in shock. They're both untied now and rush forwards to bury themselves under her looped arms. She can smell them through her own dirt, filth built up under their skin, even, and tucks her elbows closer so she can hug them tighter. Baghera thinks, and looks at her eggs, and wants to be strong, but really, really can't. The tears start coming.

When they do, Dapper and pomme start too. She can't stop any of them now and figures there's no point even really trying.

They'll be good for cleaning their faces, at least. The tears might get some grime off. She buries her face further into her children's hair. Something terrible hits her though, and it's not the reality of their situation for the first time in the last ten minutes.

"Dappy, we will have to wash your head tomorrow. Have you ever taken a bath without your hat on? Your hair is terrible"

Dapper kicks her in the knee with a smile on his face and pomme starts to giggle and she can tell all of this with her eyes half covered by her kids because they are family, and then Dapper starts to laugh, and so does she, and soon they are all laughing through their tears and grime because they are family. Baghera chokes a laugh between them and decides she will not think about where they are again until she is certain she can think rationally. She pulls back and gives each of her eggs a kiss to the forehead before doing so.

"Can you get me out of these shoelaces now? I want to give you hugs properly"

Both kids start to pull away from her with big grins on their faces. She can tell she will not be moving from this spot until they choose. They are stubborn, like her.

They are strong. Like her.

#hiiiii take my fic i meant to make one paragraph of and then was way more than that because i couldnt stop writing #man its 4:20 am i started this AT 3:19....SHUT UPPPPPPP #maybe i will clean this up and fix it to post on ao3. maybe i will. good night #qsmp #etxt #qsmp baghera #qsmp pomme #qsmp dapper #qsmp fic #writing

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