Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 17)

(Teens are very, very difficult to adopt sometimes though. Like the things they've been through at that point makes it hard on them and hard on the foster parents.)

"I think it's easy to tell when someone's lying about something like that," he said.

(Oh 1000% it'd be hard af, I fully agree with that. But they need people to give a damn about them)

"You would think it'd be easy to tell when someone was lying about being your dad."

(Absolutely.)

He shrugged. "I think it'd be harder than you would expect."

She scrubbed her face, angry at herself for not being able to stop the tears. "Apparently."

"How about Tomhas?"

She snorted, then wiped at her nose regretting doing so for the snot droplets that shot out. "He doesn't have any."

"What about before? Do what you did with your Papa."

She bristled a bit but forced herself to take a deep breath and calm back down. She wasn't being even remotely fair to Tomhas right now... not that he really deserved fairness after what he'd done. But still. She was trying to at least humor Severus.

"...He's generous, I guess."

"Sure." He nodded. "What else? What has he done that's generous?"

"... Adopt me... and rescue me from Aleth-- gods I'm an asshole." She buried her face in her hands as her face flushed with embarrassment.

"No, you're not," he corrected gently. "You're going through a lot. You're right to be upset with him. But draw yourself back to the big picture and to the littler details as well. Think of your whole relationship with both of them, not just the bad parts."

Ky nodded, silent for a moment as she tried to work through her embarrassment. She had no right to be so angry with him. No. Right. He could have left her with Aleth if he'd wanted to. Let Aleth and Tarr beat her senseless and then drag her two weeks through the snow, hoping she didn't starve to death while taking her as close to the brink as humanly possible. And then hope she didn't fuck up -- which based on every single interaction she'd had with Gaius up to this point she most definitely would have -- and end up with them all getting executed or worse.

Tomhas had saved her life, both metaphorically and literally when he stopped Aleth and delayed Jaerek. And she made him cry.

World's worst daughter.

She scrubbed her face, not able to look up. She looked and sounded very small when she managed, "...I shouldn't have--I was... out of line to... gods. He's done everything for me. I shouldn't be..."

(I'm trying to give out #FishSketch prizes for RevMo and I am having a surprisingly hard time thinking up adequate fishes to sketch lol)

(What kind of fishes do you have so far?)

"You weren't out of line at all," Severus said patiently. "He was out of line. But he told you that because you deserved to know. I expect he knew how you'd react."

(I did a zebrafish for alliyah, un-puffed pufferfish for Random, and channel catfish for Liminality... just tried a cowfish for Harry and it came out horrific xD)

She grimaced. "I made him cry..." Though he was crying before all that. "...Actually that might have been Septimus. But I made him keep crying..."

Spoiler

Motif:


horrible outcome:

(Maybe try a stonefish? Or a batfish? Or a sturgeon?)

"Perhaps he's bounced back now? Tomhas is a resilient fellow."