Christopher Rose, personal assistant to Mr. Vega

ask/fic blog | Strex Family, WTNV

[whyistheskygray]

I’m doing @verobird’s Advent Writing Challenge!

[christopherrose-pa]

Urban Magic 1/5

When a man comes into the shop wearing the most expensive suit Kevin has ever seen and asks to speak with Leonard, Kevin knows there's trouble. The man tucks his hands into his pockets and looks around, a general air of disapproval radiating off of him. The apprentice feels suddenly self conscious, aware of the ink stains on his shirt from where he had knocked an uncorked bottle off of Chris’s desk earlier and the unruly way his hair was sticking up on one side. That was also Chris's fault.

“Ricardo Vega.” Leonard greats the other man, smiling and shaking his hand. “I haven't seen you in two centuries.” Kevin does his best not to eavesdrop from his position behind the register, but he can't help but do a double take. So this was the Ricardo Vega that Chris had told him about. The Ricardo Vega who was considered one of the most powerful wizards alive. The Ricardo Vega that Christopher had run away from, for some still unspecified reason. “What brought you in? I was under the impression you imported most of your supplies directly.”

“I'm here to collect something that already belongs to me.” Ricardo’s voice is smooth, almost hypnotic. If Kevin didn't know better, he'd think that the wizard was trying to cast a spell over them.

“I can't recall anything you've ordered from me, much less payed for.” Tension is lurking in Leonard's voice as he takes a step back, lips pursed. Kevin feels his heart sink. “And unless you're here to do business, I can't help you.”

“I'm here for my apprentice, Leonard. I know he's here, his aura is all over this place.” Leonard's lips tighten further. “Don't play stupid, it's not a flattering act for you.”

“Ricardo-”

“As far as I'm concerned, he's a runaway. And you can either hand him over or I can bring a ministry official next time.” Ricardo is eerily calm, even as he threatens the pair. “And he's such a bright boy with so much potential. Really, it would be a shame for him to have this black mark on his record. And I know you don’t want the law looking into whatever you're selling from that backroom of yours.” Leonard sighs and picks up the phone.

“Christopher? I need you on the shop floor. Something's come up.” There's a pause. “No, Kevin hasn't hurt himself. He hasn't hurt anyone else either. Just get your ass down here.”

“You can't do this.” Kevin protests as soon as Leonard's hung up. “You can't just trick  Christopher and give him to this - this asshole!” Ricardo chuckles. “I'm not letting you take him.” Kevin rounds on the older man, hands clenched so hard that his fingernails cut half moons into his palms.

“How do you plan on stopping me? Claiming Christopher is well within my rights as his master. Insofar as anyone is concerned I'm simply collecting my stray apprentice.”

“Is there something more going on than that, Ricardo?” Leonard cuts across him, eyebrow raised.

“Of course not.” Ricardo’s grin says there is.

“What's up?” Christopher calls, thumping down the stairs. There's ink stains all over his fingers and a stray pen tucked behind his ear. Kevin's heart breaks as the smile falls off of Christopher’s face. Ricardo crosses the room and grabs Christopher's face, possessive as he turns it from side to side.

“Runes Christopher, really?” Ricardo is incredulous as examines the small glyphs behind the apprentice’s ears and creeping up his hands and arms. “I've told you more than once they're beneath your talents.”

“What are you doing here?” Christopher's voice is high and tight as he stands perfectly still. Even from where he stands Kevin can tell that Ricardo is pressing bruises into his apprentice’s face.

“I've come to collect you. You’ve been gone for far too long.”

“I wonder why that is.” Kevin snorts.

“Pack up whatever you've started working on since you got here. I'll review it and decide what's worth keeping once we get home.

“I'm not going with you.” Christopher backs up. “You can't make me.” There's panic in Christopher's eyes when his back hits the wall.

“I can, actually.” Ricardo’s voice is bored. “I don't understand why you'd rather stay here -”

“Probably because no one here wants to fuck me.” Christopher says loudly, cutting off whatever insult Ricardo was going to spew. Kevin sucks in a breath as a muscle on Ricardo’s jaw twitches. Leonard seems unfazed. So that was the big secret. The unspoken reason Chris had preferred sleeping in an alley to staying with his master.

“No one?” Ricardo asks, voice ice as he turns to look Kevin. “I find that hard to believe. I know the - impulses that boys have.”

“You're not taking him. You don't have any right to.” Kevin swallows down the fear that had risen to the top of his throat and squared his shoulders.

“Are you challenging me, boy?” Kevin feels tendrils of magic begin to wrap around his sides, constricting his movement. “You should think long and hard about how badly you want to die tonight before you do anything so foolish.” Kevin wants to respond, but as soon as his lips part something forces it's way into his mouth, gagging him. Ricardo smirks. “That's what I thought.”

“Leave the boy alone, Ricardo.” Leonard sounds weary, as though he had aged another millennia in the last fifteen minutes.

“I don't plan on doing anything to your apprentice.” Ricardo wraps a hand around Christopher's wrist. “Mine, on the other hand, is in for a world of trouble.” Christopher looks to Kevin again as though waiting for the other boy to speak up for him. When nothing is said his shoulders drop and the flicker of fight goes out from his eyes.

Ricardo doesn’t release the spell until Leonard has retrieved Christopher’s notes and the pair are headed out the door. The last thing Kevin gets to hear is Ricardo berating his apprentice about the time he wasted studying nonsense.

[christopherrose-pa]

Victoria Scott: Apocalypse Au. Okay so the premise is an early 'Fallout Wasteland' setting, where most everything has been destroyed by a nuclear war, but it's early enough that no major political powers have come forward. Slavery is the backbone of the economic system.

Victoria Scott: Ricardo is making his fortune/cementing himself as a political power house. He deals primarily in booze production and distribution b/c it's hella lucrative.

Victoria Scott: Ricardo bought Chris when Chris was a little kid, and went through the whole brainwashing thing with him as Chris grew up. Chris now oversees a good portion of his business.

Victoria Scott: Ricardo is funding Diego's research. Diego has already invented a way to purify and pipe water, and he's now working on a way to make a town wide generator/electric grid.

Victoria Scott: Ricardo and Chris have a kid - Ellie. Just b/c Ellie is in all the au's but we didn't want her to be Diego's kid for timeline reasons.

Victoria Scott: Kevin runs a news program (Piper style) in the town Diego is from. He spurns Diego as a lover, and speaks out against the engineer's sociopathic behavior. This results in Kevin getting run out of town.

Victoria Scott: On the bright side, he was having a fling with Chris whenever Chris came to get updates on Diego's progress, so Kevin ends up moving into Ricardo's complex/plantation

Victoria Scott: Ricardo is not pleased that Chris brought a lover to live with them, primarily because he's a jealous and rather possessive bastard.

Dadcardo: CACKLES

this is very true

he is

Victoria Scott: So all of this continues for awhile until some way (I can't remember off the top of my head) Kevin gets kidnapped by Diego.

Victoria Scott: Diego is in the middle of waging a war on Ricardo

Victoria Scott: This results in Ricardo having to send men to destroy the town/save Kevin/etc. But Diego escapes

Victoria Scott: Over time Kevin and Ricardo actually become p good friends.

Dadcardo: good for them

Dadcardo: ;w;

Victoria Scott: Kevin struggles to understand that Ricardo really does care for Chris in his own way, but he comes to terms with the fact Ricardo loves in a sociopathic way, and Chris is conditioned to respond positively to that

Dadcardo: this is also very true

yep

Victoria Scott: So after Kevin has been living there four roughly four years, a bottle of poison wine makes its way past security. Ricardo dies, and Chris is positively heart broken.

Dadcardo: NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Victoria Scott: Basically Walter (the head of security) and Diego were in cohoots.

Dadcardo: RICKYYYY

Victoria Scott: This is the only au he dies in I swear

Victoria Scott: But Chris has to put on his big girl panties because he's the acting head of the household. Basically (because Ellie isn't of age to inherit and Chris is a slave) Chris has to arrange the sell of all the land, capital, and assets (including the slaves (including himself)).

Dadcardo: -HYSTERICAL CRYING BECAUSE OF RICARDO-

GOOD FUCKING LORT

you go chris

Victoria Scott: All the money is invested into a trading firm, where it will earn interest for another ten years (until Ellie is 18), at which point the firm will pay her back the investment.

Victoria Scott: Chris, Caesar (the doctor), and Santi (the head cook) all get sold to an Earl that is based off of Sally's portrayal of Earl on earl-Harlan

Victoria Scott: Chris is actually sold for a somewhat obscene amount of money, because everyone wants Ricardo's right hand

Dadcardo: you go chris!

YOURE WORTH A LOT

Victoria Scott: Daniel is the head of Earl's household (so Chris's old job) and he DOES NOT LIKE Chris at all

Dadcardo: o h

Victoria Scott: He basically relegates Chris to mopping floors until Chris can get it right, except he doesn't teach Chris how to properly mop and Chris has never mopped a day in his life

Victoria Scott: Dan thinks he's just being stubborn. After all., what type of slave can't mop a floor?

Dadcardo: chris apparently

Dadcardo: LMFAO

Victoria Scott: Fast forward about a month and Earl inadvertently saves Chris from a life of floor mopping

Victoria Scott: Fast Forward about six months and Kevin shows up with Ellie and Maria (Chris and Kevin's daughter) in tow

Victoria Scott: He convinces Chris that they need to run away together.

Dadcardo: ;3;

Victoria Scott: This, of course, leads to everyone getting caught. And now Kevin, Ellie, and Maria are enslaved b/c that's the punishment for freeing slaves/helping runnaways

Dadcardo: MY BBIES

NOOOO

Victoria Scott: Eventually things sort of even out. Chris makes a deal with Earl that if Earl will let Chris have control of the household for a month, he can double productivity.

Victoria Scott: Because Ricardo treated his slaves in a very egalitarian manner, where Earl treats his in a very traditional manner.

Dadcardo: totally see it

Victoria Scott: IF Chris can successfully double productivity, Earl will give Chris the same privileged status that Chris had under Ricardo (with the caveat that Chris has to give Earl /everything/ he gave Ricardo if you catch my drift).

Dadcardo: (chrisssssssssssss)

Victoria Scott: Daniel hates this. Chris institutes rules like 'one day a week Earl has to listen to complaints from the slaves and free people in the household' and 'whipping is not a unilateral punishment, instead punishments should be learning opportunities that fit the crime (ex - if a slave spills hot soup while ladling, they have to ladle a hundred bowls of hot water without spilling)

Victoria Scott: Chris triples productivity in a month

Victoria Scott: He puts in some other great things too - all kids have to go to school/can't work until they're 12, etc

Dadcardo: CHRIS IM SO PROUD OF YOU

;A;

LOOKIT YOU GO

Victoria Scott: Daniel, however, is very traditionally minded. He does not approve of any of this.

Victoria Scott: There are certain things that Chris can't save the slaves from - slaves can't say no when a free person 'propositions' them, etc

Victoria Scott: Chris doesn't like Dan because Dan views both slaves and women as sub human

Dadcardo: Daniel don't do this

d a n i e l

Victoria Scott: Walter shows up around year 3 to act as head of security

Victoria Scott: Chris is not pleased. He's still convinced that Walter is responsible for Ricardo's death. Also Walter has a weird obsession with Kevin and will hurt/assault/rape him

Victoria Scott: This behavior carries over to Maria, who's about 15 when it starts. Long story short she gets pregnant and two years later Chris and Kevin get their revenge by cutting off his dick while he's in a drunken stupor and shoving it down his throat

Victoria Scott: Walter leaves the house shortly after this. Dan also leaves because Earl refuses to kill Chris and Kevin for assaulting a free man. Earl insists that he can't know of it was really them.

Victoria Scott: Everyone knows it was them

Dadcardo: fucking asshats

>:uuu

Victoria Scott: So while all of this is going on both Earl and Diego are steadily gaining power, until they're the two major political/economic powers

Victoria Scott: Marcus is a close second, but he also refuses to use slave labor. His assistant Jake comes to observe Chris once, trying to learn from Chris.

Victoria Scott: Chris acts really vapid and 'slave like' for about two weeks before he finally snaps and gouges a guy's eyeball out who tries to get too handsy with him/cop an attitude.

Dadcardo: FUCKING

THATS MY BOY!!

Victoria Scott: And that's about as far as we have it developed

Victoria Scott: I mean, I'm missing a lot of th little details

[fconvicted]

drew my million dollar asshole. i miss him dearly.  did a few touch ups on his human form.

[christopherrose-pa]

Five Times Christopher Was Right, and One Time He Was Wrong. Ch 1: Childhood

“You’re going to get a stomach ache.” Christopher informs Diego with all the moral superiority a six year old can muster. Christopher is sitting on the old rope swing in the Vega’s back yard, scuffing his toes in the dirt. Little dust clouds spiral up around his feet as cherry syrup drips down his arm.

“No I’m not.” Diego drops another popsicle wrapper. It drifts down, sullenly, to join the pile at his feet.

“You can’t eat a dozen popsicles Diego, you’re going to die.”

Keep reading

[christopherrose-pa]

Five Times Christopher Was Right, and One Time He Was Wrong. Ch 1: Childhood

“You’re going to get a stomach ache.” Christopher informs Diego with all the moral superiority a six year old can muster. Christopher is sitting on the old rope swing in the Vega’s back yard, scuffing his toes in the dirt. Little dust clouds spiral up around his feet as cherry syrup drips down his arm.

“No I’m not.” Diego drops another popsicle wrapper. It drifts down, sullenly, to join the pile at his feet.

“You can’t eat a dozen popsicles Diego, you’re going to die.”

“No I’m not.” Diego rests his elbows on his knees, eyeing the six popsicle sticks at his feet. “What do you know anyways? You’re just a little kid.” He contemplates the iced treat carefully. The wrapper had claimed it was apple flavoured, but the bright yellow promised lemon instead. He shrugs and takes a bite.

“You’re only a year older than me.” Christopher does his best to kick dirt at Diego, falling a foot short of his goal. The older boy snorts.

“A year and a half.” The silence settles between them as Diego finishes the (probably not apple) popsicle, an (actually apple) popsicle, and a bright green one that looks like lime jello and tastes like nothing. By the time he looks back up Christopher is still struggling with the cherry popsicle, the syrup having dripped down to his elbows. “Your mother’s going to yell at you.” He observes, standing and stepping over the nine wrappers at his feet. “I made you roll up your sleeves so you wouldn’t make a mess.” Christopher just shrugs, smearing the mess around his lips.

“Push me on the swing?”

“Absolutely not.” Diego’s nose wrinkles in distaste. “We’re going inside and putting your shirt in the wash.”

“I want to swing. Besides, I don’t have another shirt to change into.” Christopher’s lips tighten into a thin line, ready for a fight. They’re stained bright red, the color feathering into his cheeks. Diego takes one step, two steps towards the swing. His stomach rebels, churning at the motion. Christopher digs his heels into the ground. “I’m not going inside.” His voice is shrill with childish indignation. “You can’t make me.”

“Christopher.” Diego tries to keep the desperation out of his voice.

“I don’t want to!”

“I’ll let you pick the radio program.” There was nothing subtle about the desperation this time.

“Can we listen to Annie?” Christopher asks suspiciously. His feet still as he regards Diego carefully. The older boy never let him listen to Annie, claiming it was too childish. Diego prefers to listen to Captain America.

“Whatever you want.” Diego’s stomach rolls again. “Just please come in.”

Christopher watches the faintly pink water swirl down the drain, kicking his heels as Diego washes the remnants of the popsicle from the younger boy’s face. “We’re going to miss the beginning.” He complains, trying to wiggle away.

“You are not touching the radio with sticky fingers.” Diego does his best to hold the younger boy still, dabbing at mostly clean cheeks. Christopher’s shirt is puddled on the floor, cherry syrup staining even the collar from where it had dripped down his neck (Diego still isn’t sure how he managed that).

“I’m clean now.” The younger boy successfully wiggles away, running on quick feet to the shelf the radio perched on.

“Christopher!” The younger boy froze, half way up a chair so he could reach the knob. The warning in Diego’s voice is obvious, but the way the light glints off the button proves to be more tempting. Christopher switches it on. “Christopher Morgan Rose!”

“Only my mom gets to call me that.” The younger boy replies, grinning at Diego from across the room.

“You’re lucky I don’t turn it off.” Comes the sharp retort. Diego doesn’t think he would have the willpower to climb the stepping stool, but he makes the threat just to watch the way that Christopher’s face crumbles.

“Nu uh! You promised I could listen to Annie.” The younger boy’s eyes are wide, his bottom lip trembling. Diego’s stomach twists. He writes it off as the popsicles, and not some sort of guilty reaction. After all, this was just Christopher. It wasn’t like it’s someone important.

“Let me get you a shirt.”

Christopher curls against Diego on the couch, head bobbing sleepily against the older boy’s chest. They had done their best to roll the sleeves, but they still dripped past Christopher’s fingers (much like cherry syrup had been dripping earlier, Diego thinks wryly). Annie is over and the pair had settled as they wait for Christopher’s parents to pick him up.

The scene is interrupted when Diego’s stomach rumbles, angrily. The older boy pushes Christopher away and runs for the bathroom, collapsing just in time to become reacquainted with all nine of the popsicles he had eaten.

Christopher follows worriedly, not understanding why he had been pushed so violently from his rather comfortable pillow. A grin spreads across his features when he hears Diego puking.

“I told you so.” A smug grin greats Diego as he exits the bathroom, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. He heads to his room, pushing past Christopher just a little bit harder than is necessary. The younger boy trails behind like a shadow. Diego doesn’t have the energy to tell Christopher to go away as the younger boy settles into the bed next to him, wrapping an arm around Diego’s midriff.

“I told you so.” Christopher whispers, just before Diego drifts off to sleep.

By the time Christopher’s parents come to pick him up, they’ve shifted so that Christopher is curled against the older boy’s side. Diego has one of Christopher’s hands clutched to his chest like the teddy bear that Diego had been insisting he was too old to sleep with. Half asleep, Christopher clings to Diego, not ready to go home.

“What are you wearing?” His mother asks, baffled as she eyes the too large navy blue button down that Christopher is drowning in.

“I borrowed it from Diego.” He informs her proudly, arms flapping at his sides as he tries to wiggle his fingers free from the sleeves that had unrolled during their afternoon nap.

“And where is your shirt?” Christopher freezes, mouth forming a perfect circle. “Christopher Morgan Rose!”

[christopherrose-pa]

//Sneak peak of a longer thing I'm working on.

[christopherrose-pa]

When Christopher first begins working for the university, the Dean makes it abundantly clear that he's only here to satisfy liberal donors. It's the late seventies. Both or his children have flown the nest, and Christopher has been alone with his writing for a few years. Diego had been surprised when the university reached out to a "Dr. Vega" to come and teach. But completing the letter had made abundantly clear that the opening was in the humanities department,  to teach freshman level philosophy and sociology classes.

Christopher begged Diego to let him go. There were no more children to look after, and the increased wages meant they could hire a house keeper. Christopher begged Diego, told the engineer he was dying of boredom when stuck at home. Diego, of course, wanted to know why Christopher couldn't take up a /normal/ hobby. Why he couldn't sew or embroidered or volunteer at the library. Diego also knew that the battle was lost as soon as Christopher said "please". What could it hurt, after all?

The professor hid certain facts from his husband in the beginning. Half the grading that Christopher did was foisted upon him by others, taking advantage of the newest member of the faculty. He never told Diego thay his office wasn't a proper room, but a corner of a supply closet that they sectioned off. He was spoken over and disregarded by his fellow teachers, even the ones who were younger (the ones who didn't care that the degree on his wall was from an ivy university).

But Diego came in one day to surprise his better half. The engineer got to hear the way he was spoken to (it was Phil that Diego overheard, Phil from antropolgy who had decided to explain, at length, why it was inappropriate for a homemaker to be out of the home). Diego threatened to make Christopher quit. He threatened to go to the news with the tale of how the university was treating an ivy educated, well respected, member of the academic community. Diego threatened to sue.

Christopher's office was moved to an actual office (with a view of the promenade). He was no longer spoken over at meetings. Other professors stopped dropping off their work for him to complete. The university press started publishing his writings again. The head of his department had made them stop, claiming that a new professor didn't have the necessary academic background to be published.

Through all of the drama, Christopher's students loved him. At first the head of his department thought that Christopher was going too easy on them. The pass rate of his classes was higher than most. But when it came time for faculty review, they found that Christopher was pushing his students into more and harder work.

There were hiccups, of course. Students who would disregard and disrepect Christopher in the classroom. There was the Colt boy who took to stalking the professor  (and Dwyer, the campus police officer who told Christopher he was over reacting to a bit of boyish fun).

Dwyer regretted that statement when Diego went to the actual police. When Diego had to carry a bloody Christopher home the way he had when they were children. That was when Diego started picking Christopher up from the university. The professor didn't protest, just adjusted his office hours to fit around Diego's work schedule.

[christopherrose-pa]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

//I just uploaded 21 ficlits

[christopherrose-pa]

They say that Lord Strex is heartless. That's a half truth. Lord Strex has a clockwork heart, the result of an injury sustained during one of his experiments. It's experimental and volatile, and the reason you'll see his consort ushering him from the room when his knuckles turn white from clenching the armrest of this throne too hard when some idiot is angering him.

His consort will lie on his chest at night, listening to the soft ticking that resonates into his bones - that's become the undercurrent to his life. His consort will run hands through his hair and smile up at him, and try to elicit some reaction that isn't a half hearted grumble. But hands will stay above the waist line, the clockwork heart can't stand the stress that illicit activities will bring.

They have a child, just one. A little girl with eyes as black as the space between the stars. It's rumored that the couple got her in a deal with a demon. When she smiles, you're not sure if they lost the bet or won. She's brilliant and her vocabulary proves it. Plants spring to life beneath her fingers, and the wall around her window is covered in blooming ivy.

They say that Lord Strex is heartless. His consort will sometimes have bruises, purple plastered across pale skin. His advisors will die, often in private and seldom in front of crowds (blood thirsty, calling for death after a mishap). His wars are brief and brutal, prisoners sent home with missing fingers, hands, feet, demoralized.

They say that Lord Strex is heartless, but his consort will smile at him like he's the world. His child will run into his arms when he comes home from a long trip. His people live prosperous lives, toast his name at feast days (and when drunk in the tavern). They say Lord Strex is heartless, but whatever ticks in his chest seems to work for him.

[christopherrose-pa]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

//I just uploaded 21 ficlits

[christopherrose-pa]

"No, no, no." Christopher said quickly, lips pursed. "You've made it perfectly clear that she's not my daughter and you want her to have nothing to do with me."

"That was before Dan decided to skip town." Earl's drawl grated against Christopher's skin, making the slave shudder. "Now I need her to form a strong emotional bond with someone, and who better than the guy that told her Dan was a piece of shit?"

"She doesn't even like me." The protest was a desperate, last ditch effort to appeal to a God who wasn't listening.

"Change that." The way Earl folded his arms indicated that he was growing quickly annoyed. Christopher knew he ought to quit now, before his owner decided that he was becoming too mouthy for the delicate dance they performed around the thin line between disrespect and Christopher's ability to run the household.

"She hates my family. She'd be miserable." The slave's fingers tapped over the desk. Earl smiled, knowing he had won.

"Figure it out, Chrissy."

[christopherrose-pa]

Victoria Scott: Suburbia au

Victoria Scott: It's basically a spin off of main verse, but where they live in a normal city. We're avoiding the fact it's impossible for Chris to get preggers

Victoria Scott: So for whatever reason Chris gets pregnant, and Diego decides they have to get married

Victoria Scott: Diego also decides that it's unacceptable for his child to be raised by a nanny, so Chris has to quit his job.

Victoria Scott: And when baby #2 comes along Diego decides they have to move to the suburbs

Victoria Scott: Queue 16 years of systematic abuse before CPS finally gets involved due to some worrying things that Ellie and Maria have to say about the relationship between their dads

Victoria Scott: Diego has to leave the house, sober up, and promise to change before he's allowed back in the house

Hans: boys boys boys

Victoria Scott: Oh, and Chris has an affair with the boy-next-door (Kevin) before all of this happens

Victoria Scott: So Jake is their CPS officer, Caesar is Chris's therapist, and Kevin is the boy-next-door

Hans: thank the lord Chris has a therapist tbh

Victoria Scott: Diego returns, everything proceeds for a few years, he falls off the bandwagon, and accidentally hits Maria one night (this is right after Ellie has left for college)

Victoria Scott: Diego is also really good friends with the chief of police, Walter, which is why earlier in their relationship Chris would call the police and nothing would happen

Victoria Scott: So Jake gets called and Diego has to go to jail for domestic/child abuse

Victoria Scott: Chris then has to overcome 18 years of being conditioned to be dependent on his abuser

Victoria Scott: His only friends are his CPS officer and his therapist TBH

Victoria Scott: It's kind of pathetic

Victoria Scott: Chris is also, like, aggressively involved in Ellie and Maria's school lives

Victoria Scott: He's on every committee

Victoria Scott: President of the PTA

Victoria Scott: He's trying so hard to feel useful

Hans: Chris is the parent that the principal fears

Hans: I kind of love this AU

Victoria Scott: He really is

Victoria Scott: Chris is involved in /everything/

Victoria Scott: And then right in time for the girls to grow up, he gets to return to working for Ricardo and be useful that way!

Victoria Scott: Ricardo and Caesar are married

Victoria Scott: Chris might have relations with his therapist and his boss on occasion

Hans: That’s surprisingly sweet

Victoria Scott: When the divorce papers go through they have a party. Janet from across the street comes too.

Victoria Scott: She's been through, like, three husbands

Victoria Scott: Janet knows what's up

Hans: all hail Janet, true hero of this au

[christopherrose-pa]

The falling out was inevitable, and a large part of the reason why Ricardo discouraged relationships among his personal staff. Christopher, after all, flitted through lovers like a teenage girl through a catalogue, stopping at whatever struck his fancy before moving on. Adrian wasn't prepared to walk into the assistant's apartment to find him kneeling between another man's legs.

The gunman didn't take it well.

It didn't help that, when Adrian went to confront a drunk Christopher in the speakeasy a few nights later, the younger man laughed at him. Mocked his affections, his performance in bed, his obviously unfounded idea that Christopher had ever loved him back. Even the men around Christopher couldn't help but snicker into their drinks, trying to avoid calling too much attention to themselves. No one wanted to be on the wrong side of Adrian, but some things in life were too good to pass up.

[christopherrose-pa]

"Can you still fly?" A girl at Ellie's preschool asked once, seeing the harness that bound his wings to his back. This was before her parents bundled her away with a look of distrust, leaving Ellie clutching his hands with the same question bubbling from her lips. He just laughed it off, some non answer appeasing childish curiosity for the time being. She would ask again when she was older, incessantly until she learned what it meant for someone to be tied like Christopher was. Then she stopped asking, avoided the subject like the plague; like the dirty secret that it was.

Christopher couldn't even say that he dreamt of flying. Not anymore. Instead he dreamt of falling, plummeting endlessly as he fought the too tight leather that wouldn't let him save himself. When he would wake up screaming, Kevin inevitably pulled him close and murmured sweet nothings. They never spoke about the night terrors, just let them pass into the empty space in the sheets between the pair.  It was preferable to dream of falling when the alternative was to dream of what he would never have again.

Once a week Kevin would unclip the harness, help Christopher stretch out wings that were growing weaker and weaker. They would wash and preen together, the water cool on skin that was always hidden away. At first Christopher loved this chance to spread his wings (quite literally). But the years wore on and he was forced to face the atrophy of disuse. As the years wore on they shriveled with along with his hope of ever flying again.

And still he dreamt of falling.

[christopherrose-pa]

@cecilofdesertbluffs: //your writing slays me and I looove it, oh my goodness, I’m so glad to see you back! ♡

//Thanks so much! I’m glad to be back, even in this limited capacity.

[christopherrose-pa]

When Kevin offers him freedom, Christopher grabs it in both hands and runs.

It isn't the most noble thing to do, to leave a soulmate and infant in mourning behind him. But Kevin is giving him the one thing he's longed for since the police first booked him - a chance to find Ricardo again. To wake up where he belongs with the family he chose, not that which was foisted upon him.

But Ricardo isn't in any of the safe houses.

He isn't in New York, he isn't in Baltimore. He isn't even in that little Mexican town with the name Christopher can't pronounce. He doesn't answer the emergency phone, doesn't respond to letters left in all the right places.

After two months the assistant has just enough money left to rent a car and drive back to Desert Bluffs. His dignity is in tatters around him as he knocks, too softly, on the worn door to Kevin's apartment. Kevin hears, he always hears. He throws open the door and his arms around Chris. "I thought I had lost you forever."

Christopher's heart breaks.

Nothing had changed in his absence. The worn couch still faced the television, a weary sentinel. The books were kept meticulously clean, the floor less so. That wouldn't do. Not once Ellie started crawling. The assistant caught his thoughts with a start, realizing that he was acclimating far too quickly.