Chapter Text
It has been a while since that young boy had his life taken away from him.
The orphanage workers whispered behind his back, not accounting for how keen the hybrid’s ears were.
“His therapist says the trauma from the event was big enough that he blocked it out, doesn’t even remember what happened back when his mother was killed.”
“That’s horrifying. The poor kid has gone through so much already. I hope the therapy does something…”
“The main purpose of the therapy sessions is to figure out what happened, and not actually help him come to terms with it, unfortunately. It’s why the police demanded them.”
“Yeah…” The other employee said sorrowfully.
Melon did not play with the other kids, not even the few other hybrids there were at the orphanage. He often avoided the adults, even though they had good intentions at heart. The abuse he suffered at school and later at home was enough to make him back away from any social interaction.
His favorite pastime was sitting near windows to watch the outside city fervently bubbling with life. It brought him some kind of peace, strangely. However, there were times when if he saw someone outside, he would feel an urge to smash their skull in, hear that sickeningly sweet sound of a life fading into the abyss.
He didn’t understand this urge, it was as though it came out of nowhere and suddenly vanished as quickly as it came. He was smart enough to realize it originated from his trauma, but it was no clue at all as to what happened back then. He was also smart enough not to tell his therapist about that urge, because if he did, he would be isolated and medicated, treated like a dangerous creature…
Was he a dangerous creature?
There was something, or maybe someone, circling the outer edges of his conscience telling him he was. That he was to be feared, and that there was nothing wrong with being feared, nothing wrong with his wicked desires. Sometimes that person inside his head could even talk, or perhaps more accurately, scream, in a language he did not know, in a way that made him deeply disturbed. It was what made him cry his way to sleep every night, the realization that he did not have a hold of himself, that he was a mess inside.
He missed his mother, but more strangely, he missed his house. That fairy’s tale house, shining brightly with what Melon though to be motherly care, but very clearly was his mother’s attempt to fake normalcy in his life. Oh, how blissfully ignorant she had been.
One day, maybe… months later? Hard to know when you lost track of time. Melon knows he is a year older, since the orphanage employees threw a small awkward party for him once, but that was all he had to base himself off of.
An old komodo dragon and a small wolf kid, around the same age as Melon, entered the orphanage. The large lizard began talking and playing with the children at the lobby, and when his eyes briefly met Melon’s, he visibly did a double take, noticing the boy’s gazelle antlers and the leopard spots along his face. He asked the worker in front of him:
“How did that boy end up here?” A hint of sadness coloring his tone.
The employee answered “He comes from a very traumatic place, with no father and his mother killed in front of him. We do therapy sessions with him, but so far no noticeable progress was made. Doesn’t play with other kids, doesn’t talk to anyone, he is very much antisocial.”
… It is a bit demoralizing, to be spoken of as though you’re a circus freak, as though you’re not even there. Melon felt a pile of rage bubbling up his gut but he swallowed it back down. Meanwhile, the old reptile began sympathizing with the poor thing more and more, his affection towards him increasing. After having spoken to most kids there, he tugged the wolf boy along and walked towards Melon, the one child he felt most for.
Melon instinctively began backing away, not sure of what he was even afraid of. He soon pressed against a wall, his panic getting bigger and bigger as he wished he could merge with the wall and vanish. What vanished however was all that worry, as soon as the man ducked to Melon’s height and began talking, almost whispering, gently, with a smile on his face. It was a genuine, grandfatherly smile. It brought him comfort, just like that huge fairy tale lie his mother had once called an apartment, but this comfort felt different somehow. More transparent. His breathing slowing down, he could finally figure out what the dragon in front of him was saying. He was asking for Melon’s name.
“M-Melon…” he answered quietly, as if afraid to break down in case he spoke too loudly.
“That’s a wonderful name, my name is Gosha.” The adult spoke warmly.
“This is my grandson, Legosi. How would you feel about coming home with us?”
Melon’s eyes grew big with the offer made to him. Truth is, he was already getting desperate to leave this place, but he had created a sort of emotional attachment to it as well. He didn’t want to get hurt again, so staying out of a family is only logical. He thought about it for a couple seconds, before giving the man a
“I don’t know…”
Gosha did not give up though.
“Alright, that’s more than understandable. But let me say this, and quote me on it” he joked.
“I will do my absolute best to ensure you will live happily in our family, that no one will ever hurt you again. It is ultimately your choice and yours only, but do know that I will support you, that I will love you.”
Those words sank into Melon’s heart, words that he had longed for, as his trusty internal compass began saying that it was okay to take the man’s offer. That nasty voice that haunted him tried to argue, but was shut right up. His resolve was unshakable.
“Ok… I will go with you.”
Gosha cheered and offered to hug the boy, who refused with no hesitation. He wasn’t sure he was ready for so much affection just yet.
The employees looked at the trio in shock
“I thought that boy would never get adopted…” one of them whispered, though a tad too loudly.
Legal affairs solved, it was time to get Melon to his new home.
As he stepped out of the orphanage and took in a breath of the city’s air, he felt relived. It was the first time in a long time he went outside, so finally smelling a place that didn’t reek of heavy cleaning products was refreshing.
They walked towards the car, Melon lagging behind the other two, taking in the ample view of the city he now had but also a bit afraid to walk beside the family. He didn’t want to overstep any boundaries. Even though they expressed their desire to make him a part of the family, he still felt out of place suddenly having people he could call a grandfather, and a brother. It was strange, foreign. Will take some getting used to.
Thankfully, Legosi seems to catch onto Melon’s hesitancy and sticks out his hand.
“Come on, let’s go! You will love grandpa’s dinner!” a pure, childish smile on his face.
That was enough to comfort the other kid, who took his hand as they entered the car, headed home.
Things were starting to look up.
During the car ride, Gosha asked Melon a couple simple questions: his interests, his favorite food, etc, careful not to overdo it. Questions like that should be simple, practical, easy to answer. But not for him. Melon did not know what he was interested in, or what his favorite food was, or anything else. That orphanage deprived him of basic childhood experiences, deprived him of even getting to know himself. Gosha soon noticed how the boy didn’t know what to answer and stopped asking questions.
The rest of the car ride was mostly silent, leaving Melon to soak on his thoughts.
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting when he got to the family’s house, but meeting a scaly wolf who was now his mother was the last thing he could have guessed. He had thought Legosi was adopted, just like Melon had been less than an hour ago. But this family truly was a reptile-mammal mix. She barely showed herself, mostly just speaking to him through a hole on her door, but Melon could tell she was a nice animal. A little bit eccentric, but nice nonetheless. Apparently the idea of adopting a child came from her, when out of the blue she mentioned it a week ago. It’s strange to just adopt someone spontaneously, but again, she was quite eccentric.
The dinner was delicious, from what Melon heard they say. He couldn’t taste anything but sand, of course, but he pretended it was good food for the sake of not worrying anyone or receiving pitiful looks.
The house was quite small, so he didn’t have his own room, instead sharing the same one with the grey wolf pup. Legosi seemed to have a fascination for insects, seeing the amount of insect-related books and posters and toys around his room. He also seemed awfully shy but at the same time excited to have a brother his age he could share his interests with, and it turned out Melon grew an interest in bugs himself after hearing Legosi talk so passionately about them. Legosi was a nice kid. It brought Melon comfort to think that he found such a family after spending so long withering away at that place.
He was going to have good dreams.