Don't know how many people would be interested, if any, but I have a really cool au that I've been spinning and I wanted to share it. so here it is!
Leo knows that he's lucky. Really. He has a roof over his head and clothes on his back and food in his stomach. That's more than most orphans can say. The Footman family had taken him in when they found him abandoned as an infant when they didn't have to. Especially a turtle yokai when most of them were human. He knew that.
But sometimes he couldn't help but wish for more.
He vaguely remembers when he was really little. Back when the Footmans were too busy to deal with a fussy little kid. He used to have a nanny. She used to hug him. Sing to him. Teach him. A tiny part of him that never outgrew the questions he had when he was younger wondered if that was what love felt like.
She left the manor when he turned six. That was around the same time that the Footmans decided it was time for him to start earning his keep. He started out small, helping the cooks by hauling water, sweeping and mopping the floors, pulling weeds in the garden, gathering the eggs from the coop. But as he got older, the more jobs he had added to his list.
By the time he was thirteen, he was the one responsible for the market runs. It was the best thing that could have happened to him. He was able to get out of the manor, away from the disapproving eyes always haunting him as though waiting for him to mess up again. But more importantly, going to the village let him meet his best friend. April was a breath of fresh air, something to look forward to, a reason to smile again.
It was April that taught him how to be a kid and not just the servant from the Footman manor, not that he ever breathed a word to her about where he lived.
She teased him and pulled him into games and laughed with him. He would do anything to make her laugh, letting it buoy him along. It was so different from Cassandra's laugh back at the manor. Knowing that April was waiting for him, with a warm hug ready at a moment's notice, was the only thing that kept him going some days.
As the years passed, Leo did his best to always be good enough for everyone around him. He kept his head down and did his chores perfectly (as much as he could when people loved to mess with him) and saved his best smiles for April. He couldn't risk the Footmans finding out that he spent so much of his time in the village with April so he did his best to never cause problems with anyone. He bit his tongue when people were rude and smiled politely when the shopkeepers acted like he was an idiot.
As long as no one knew the truth, then he was safe.
And yet he found himself unable to stay silent one afternoon when shouting drew his attention. His feet moved before his mind could catch up to them, putting him between the irate shopkeeper and another turtle yokai with an orange mask.
He swallowed back the fear, steeling himself as he glanced back at the kid and gifting him a smile only to be met with a beaming grin. Leo knew pain and cruelty. If he could save someone else from it then it was worth something.
Whatever this cost him, it would be worth it.
Part 1 - Part 2