[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]the ninetales at her sides snarl in unison, just as alex steps between her and her father. it's funny, the skin he touched feels different now. almost like it stings with the disgusting intention he left behind. she pulls it into her chest, cradling it in her other hand.

"we're not doing anything wrong by trying to spend time with our daughter," her mother steps in, as if the coldness in her voice will deter this from happening. it doesn't. it only serves to add fuel to a fire.

"that's a lie and you know it," illeana snaps. her mother glances in her direction but doesn't offer anything further. instead, her father will try to take control of the situation as he always does. casper reyes is a man who doesn't take orders. not willingly, anyway. he glowers at alex, lips finally dropping away from a smile and settling into a scowl.

"kindly remove your hand, mister stone." she's heard that tone before, both in her memories and her nightmares. it brings with it a fear like no other. her ninetales step closer to her body, two bundles of fur applying pressure to her legs in the form of comfort. they understand enough. they lived through it just as she did. "you can't keep us away from her, you know."

god, she hopes he can.

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","stone"]

[attr="class","stone b"]

[attr="class","stone i"]nothing about this interaction sits well with him. his blood boils with disdain. they should pay for what they did to their daughter. they should not be standing here free from their sins. his mind dips into the darkest of thoughts for a brief moment. revenge never works out the way it should.

alexander chooses to pull his hand away. the ninetales step closer and he can feel their fur brush against him. "i can and i will." slowly, they take steps back.

"you may try to stop me, casper, liana."

illeana reyes

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]she can feel herself dissolving into a mixture of emotions. the longer they stay there, the longer their presence is felt, the bigger her inner turmoil grows. it starts small, with just fear until eventually panic and boiling anger are thrown into the mix. the end result? a shitshow of a potion that should not be cracked open. and yet, she knows eventually there will come a time where she will. and yes, revenge is frowned upon but it's also a dish best served cold and she'll serve it as icy as possible. she'll gain the strength to do what has to be done and when that time comes? no one will be able to stop it. not alex, not them, not even herself.

for now, she stays quiet, glancing between the now irritated faces of her parents and alex. she doesn't move, doesn't even consider it an option. her ninetales move for her, stepping up with snarling faces and teeth bared. there will be no action taken on her parents part. not anymore, anyway. both alex and her pokemon make sure of it and for that, she's grateful. relief comes in small increments, small waves lapping away the fear until it's nothing but a memory.

"fine," comes her mother's cold response. illeana knows they won't give up that easily but they relent for now. there's boundaries keeping them from acting the way they really want, after all. "we'll let you go." they won't. they never will. perhaps that's why she shifts closer to alex, huddling herself into his side once more. her parents back away but linger, staring not at alex but at her and she can feel her skin absolutely crawl beneath their gaze.

"we'll see you soon, little one." her father promises and she doesn't want to wait any longer. her hand reaches for alex's and she's tugging, turning on her heel to escape, to run as far away as she possibly could.

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","stone"]

[attr="class","stone b"]

[attr="class","stone i"]even with the way he tries to shield her, they still manage to look right through him. there is a brief moment where he feels powerless, similar to how he felt when he learned he could not simply fire them from devon. the reyes' play the game almost too well, masters of the craft. in a way, he is no different.

no other words need to be said. the look alexander offers them is telling enough. when they try again, and they will, he will be there to stop them. rage slowly subsides when she tugs at his hand, pulling them away from danger.

it takes too long for normality to return. some form of relief greets him when they reach their hotel room. the door slides behind them, shutting the cold out. finally, alexander turns to illeana, reaches out for her, and asks:

"are you okay?"

illeana reyes

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]she runs and runs and doesn't stop until her skin stops crawling. and even then, she doesn't stop dragging alex along as if they're surviving some apocalyptic event. the entire walk back to their hotel room, she's quiet. too quiet to be normal for her, realistically, but her mind is struggling to come up with anything by now.

it's too riddled with thoughts of her parents and implications laced into their words. there will be a next time, that much she knows. that much keeps her moving, keeps her legs from slowing down for even a second. her ninetales keep up with ease, brushing against her legs every now and then as a reminder that they're there, that she's okay. and even then, she still squeezes alex's hand so tight she really thinks she might bruise his fingers.

the safety their hotel room provides is enough for her to finally feel like she can breathe normally again. and when she does, floodgates open and tears begin. it's a normal reaction from illeana, perhaps too normal. really, the girl cries over everything. this one is more than justified though. and it's only fueled by the question alex murmurs, by his arms reaching for her. she doesn't resist, doesn't even think of it. instead, she half crumples into his chest, pressing close for maximum warmth.

a nod follows soon after, hesitant and unwilling to offer much more insight. he sees through most of her actions, anyway, to get to what lies beneath. this will be no different.

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","stone"]

[attr="class","stone b"]

[attr="class","stone i"]the falling snow against the dark blue canvas of the night sky is almost bittersweet. there may be stars but they do not shine. not tonight. alexander embraces her like he always does. it feels different this time, however, and he knows exactly why.

alexander leads them to sit on the edge of the bed. the softness of the sheets should be comforting but they feel rough. "you're safe." it pains him to even have to say it. the desire for vengeance returns momentarily but it quickly fades in favor of reassuring her. sighing, he knows he owes her some answers.

"they work for devon." he starts, clearing his throat. "i found out months ago and tried to get them fired but the board overruled it, stating the work they do is too valuable to lose." in that regard, he has to agree with them, no matter how vile it makes him feel.

there's a pause before alexander says: "i know what they did to you."

illeana reyes

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]she lets him guide her, too distracted by muddled thoughts to be anything other than submissive. the sheets don't prickle at her skin too much. at least, not that she notices. she's kept in the moment by his touch alone, like a tether keeping her in the realm of the living. funny how she constantly needs an anchor or else she'll float away to the depths of the sea.

she doesn't speak when he reassures her. instead, a nod is all she gives, all she's capable of right now. and yet, that changes in the moments that follow.

first, it starts with pieces of information. he feeds them to her on a silver platter as if she's expecting them. and yeah, perhaps she might have been, but damn does it have to sting this much? she tries to keep her features neutral as he talks but disdain bleeds through as it always does when her parents are the topic of discussion.

"they work for you," she has to repeat it because really, it doesn't sound true at first. how could such vile people work for him? her mind struggles to wrap around it and yet, it still fully can't. not when he continues, when he supplies the punch that knocks a gasp straight out of her.

she's silent at first, processing and reprocessing what he brings to the table. he knows. he knows. and then, it feels hard to breathe, as if the oxygen has been slowly sucked from the room and her lungs are struggling to gather more.

"how?" is all she manages to croak out. her skin burns with the reminders of scars, of memories buried into her skin until the end of time. until she's nothing but a rotten corpse six feet under. and even then, she isn't sure if her bones will still carry the weight of abuse on them.

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","stone"]

[attr="class","stone b"]

[attr="class","stone i"]"hospital records."

he answers truthfully. months ago, not long after they first met, he had looked into her history and it led him down a dark rabbit hole of pain and anguish. though the records looked clean, usually excused as an accident or similar, he knows better than to take them at face value.

"they revealed enough for me to connect the dots."

dots that perhaps were not for him to connect. in his pursuit of knowledge, of finding out the darkness that plagues her, he violated her trust. her privacy. he sighs, holding her a little tighter.

"you didn't deserve any of that."

illeana reyes

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]"why would you dig into my hospital records?"

she has to force herself to fall silent, half out of fear and half out of irritation. both surge with a ferocity that's difficult to ignore. and yet, both are justified. he dug into her past, into something that she wasn't ready to share, and it places a strain between them for these next few moments. her body tenses as a result, fresh tears already beginning to well up in her eyes.

"i wasn't ready for you to connect the dots," she murmurs. her grip loosens and even with his tightening, she still pries herself away from the touch. it makes her skin crawl, as if aggravating the written history of her past on her body. and she despises it.

softly, she adds, "apparently i did." nothing further escapes her. instead, she settles back into silence, tears now beginning to streak down her face for the second time today. and like a map, she makes a mental count of the tallies in her skin, of the times she wasn't enough for her parents. of the times she was too weak to fight back. the numbers rise and rise until she's losing track and having to start all over again.

funny, it almost calms her a little.

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","stone"]

[attr="class","stone b"]

[attr="class","stone i"]"i wanted to know what they did to you."

he had acted on a hunch, on a little feeling that kept gnawing at him that something wasn't right. he wanted so much to be wrong that when he discovered the truth, he had to double-check. triple-check. he still remembers the phone calls to the hospital. the conversation he shared with the doctors.

"i know, and i'm sorry."

she's slipping out of his arms before he even has a chance to react. he moves then, kneeling down on the floor in front of her as tears streak down her face. instinctively, his hand raises to try and wipe them away.

"you didn't. i swear you didn't."

illeana reyes

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]her features settle into an almost eerie expression: halfway between neutral and hard. it doesn't suit her but she can't help it. she was taught by the best, after all. a reyes through and through.

"it wasn't yours to know."

she doesn't like the bite in her words, in the way they fall like steel. each one is meant to get her point across, to show how he had no right to pry into her past. normally, she wouldn't mind but this? this is different. it feels like a violation of something. of trust, of privacy, of herself... she isn't sure but it angers her.

illeana stays silent in the face of his apology. it feels like words right now, like an excuse said to diffuse her emotions. and normally it'd work but this is the one line she wouldn't have allowed him to cross. not until she was ready, until she had processed and accepted it herself.

he crouches in front of her, reaches to wipe tears from her face, and she stills at the touch. what should be comforting and warm isn't hitting the mark and she's letting out a shaky sigh.

"you don't know that," she whispers because really, he doesn't. he knows of hospital records and accounts from doctors, nothing more. not the experience, not the fear, not the feeling of being treated like a lamb for slaughter for years. and it makes her cry a little harder, anger crumbling into sadness without hesitation. "you don't know what it was like."

and she'll never let him know. not yet, anyway.

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","stone"]

[attr="class","stone b"]

[attr="class","stone i"]"then tell me."

alexander has no right to know and yet he pushes his boundaries. his desire to know has led him down this path and though it would be so easy for him to just stop and turn around, he doesn't, perhaps unable to, not when knowledge is right there in front of him.

"tell me what it was like."

illeana reyes

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]the twist of anger on her features is too noticeable to ignore. and it's almost painful the way it comes on so suddenly, as if she's only familiar with anger or tears.

"no."

don't force her to remember it, to recount it, to play it back like a movie. it's too painful, too much for her to handle. and the reminders she lives with on her body are covered right now but they still burn just as much as they did the day they were made. fuck.

"please," she whispers, turning away from him. hiding herself away, hiding from the suggestion. "just no."

he has to understand. he has to.

ALEXANDER STONE