Au where blake and cinder are half siblings
Ghria moved the hood covering his head as he made it to the steps of the orphanage with a small, swaddled baby. He sighed as he looked over his child once more, worried about what would happen to her when he left her, but he didnt have much other choice. He wasnt in a position to care for his child, and as much as he had wanted to watch her grow on his own, he knew he couldnt give her the life she wanted. Not alone and not while traveling on the road with people who wouldnt understand him. He knocked on the door as loud as he could, swaying nervously as he waited for the door to open for what he was told was the best place for faunus.
The door slowly opened as an elderly woman looked out. “What are you doing out here in this weather?”
Ghira cleared his throat and slowly moved his child into view. “I… need to leave her here. I uh… I’m not in the best position to give her the life she needs. And a friend of mine told me that you run the best place for someone like her to be.”
The woman nodded and gently took the child into her arms, smiling as the baby girl started to whine. “And her name?”
“I’ve been calling her Ember. Ember Belladonna.”
“I’ll make sure she’s taken care of.”
Ghira smiled and with a quiet thanks, started to head out to the snowstorm once more. The elderly woman closed the door and started to take Ember upstairs to the nursery, cooing to the child to calm her.
Over the next few years, the old woman passed away and a new owner took the orphanage under her command. Files of a few children were lost or misplaced, Ember’s being one and a new name given to her: Cinder. Cinder spent her time trying to survive, bullied as she grew up. It wasnt long before she was punished for being a faunus, blood dripping down her claws as she panted and stood over another young boy with deep scratch marks across his face.
The matron of the orphanage slapped Cinder’s back with a ruler and glared at her. “Causing trouble, are we?”
Cinder winced and her claws retracted as she turned around. “I… was just defending myself.”
“And attacking another one of your family here? Up to your room without supper.” The matron attended to the child on the floor and let out a heavy sigh. “No wonder no one wants to adopt you. A faunus as dangerous as you doesnt belong here.”
Cinder held back the comment she wanted to make, and the anger she felt as she clenched her fist and made her way back upstairs to her room. She knew she was far from the only faunus at the orphanage, though she felt like she was the only one that was constantly in trouble. The only one beaten down day after day by the other children, and the workers that came to volunteer at the orphanage.
As a few more years passed, Cinder found herself beaten day after day by the same children she had lived with, passed over by the prospects looking for a child to take home, and punished by the adults that were supposed to take care of her. Each day had become the same, tedious day over and over again. Scrubbing the floors, helping make the meals, going outside only to be bullied by another one of the children, punished for defending herself, made to scrub the floors again and clean while the other children relaxed. Anger boiled through her as she was punished over and over again until one day, a woman walked over to her while she was scrubbing the floors.
“I’ll take her,” the woman said in a commanding tone, her face serious as she watched Cinder clean.
The orphanage matron paused for a moment as she looked over Cinder, mulling over the words she wanted to say. “You should be aware that that one is a faunus. A troublemaker that’ll need a stern hand-”
“Then she’ll be perfect for me.” The woman smirked and started to walk off. “There will be paperwork for me to fill out in order to take her home, correct? I would like to get that started today so I can bring her back to Atlas for a fitting as soon as I’m able.”
“Wouldnt you rather have another child? One that isnt a faunus?”
“No need. A faunus is exactly what I need.”
A small smile crept across Cinder’s face when she heard she was wanted. And while she wasnt entirely sure what Atlas was like, she was sure it had to be better than the orphanage she was currently kept at. Her excitement was short lived as she found herself in Atlas, a shock collar fitted around her neck and electricity flowing through her body as the madam tested everything to make sure it was in perfect order. As her claws came out and dug into the wooden floor, she felt the metal buckle of a belt across her back and the madame’s voice in her ears.
“You are not to allow anyone to know you’re a faunus.” The madam took her finger off the button of the remote to the collar and frowned as she looked over Cinder. “You’ll do the cooking and the cleaning, stay out of the guests way, and out of sight unless otherwise told. Do you understand?”
“Yes… ma’am,” Cinder struggled to say as her throat tightened from the shock that had gone through it.
“Good. Now I want you to start cleaning-”
Cinder’s stomach rumbled, interrupting the madam and earning her another shock as a scream left her lips.
“That’s for interrupting me.” The madam stopped the shock and picked up a piece of half eaten bread from a tray and tossed it to the ground in front of Cinder. “Eat, then you’ll clean the kitchen and wash the dishes. Once you’re finished here, you’ll come to me for your next task.”
Cinder panted as the madam started to walk off and slowly grabbed the hunk of bread off the floor. She took a few, slow bites from it, muscles still tight from the shock and shaking as they untensed themselves. After the first swallow of the stale bread, she spoke in a rough voice to no one. “Yes… ma’am…”
