Ok this is really bad and unpolished but I just, I wanted to try my hand again at writing for FH? Especially for Skully cuz I’ve never felt confident in writing any version of him, even this one, but I kinda wanted to tackle the other side of Neoma’s fics? I don’t know man I’m kind of riding the wave here, sorry if it conflicts with headcanons or he’s really out of character. orz
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Once, when The Skull had been a childform, he had broken the hand of another robot that had pushed Hare into the mud. At the time, he had felt powerful, like a righteous protector, unconquerable when he chose to step in to the affairs of the world around him. That bloom of confidence was quickly stripped away when his father appeared on the scene. It’d be years before Skull understood how what he’d done left his father feeling humiliated, but the anger—the cold, sharp anger and the disapproval in his eyes—that nearly killed Skull then and there.
Ten years later, he got into a fist fight with Shi Carlton at school, and it was like no time had passed at all.
His father, being the vice principal, had sent him home immediately. “We’ll talk later.” Maybe Thadeus knew the waiting would hurt him more than any amount of yelling would. At the time, Skull hadn’t even considered going anywhere else. He just went home and sat in the living room, TV off, staring a dent in his arm plates and thinking I’m an idiot, I’m a goddamn idiot.
Thadeus got home half an hour before school should have let out, likely to cut off Hare and Jacky. He didn’t have to give the order; Skull simply got up and walked into his study, taking the spare seat while Thadeus leaned against the desk, staring him down over his folded arms.
“I’m not going to ask any questions,” Thadeus said quietly. “You’re going to explain to me what happened.”
“He swung first,” Skull muttered, staring at the carpet.
“So I’ve been told.”
Silence.
“He didn’t give me a chance to explain.”
“Then explain it to me.”
Skull balled his fists on his knees. “I…it was misunder--…”
“I don’t even like him. I owe him for fixin’ 'Nessa. He’s an aft, but it’s not like he’s got any other fuckin’ friends, a'right?”
That’s what he’d said to Hare, over a week ago now. He just wouldn’t shut up, joking about Shi being his boyfriend. It rankled on so many levels; the fear, the abhorrence the thought of romance brought up in him, that sick dependence that made even brilliant people like their father turn mad; the suspicion that Shi did like him like that; the potential that that time-bomb would destroy the only friendship he had—
God, he was an idiot. He didn’t know how Carlton had heard what he’d said, maybe Hare had played his words back for him, but he knew that he’d caused this and he was an idiot and Dad knew it too.
Fate intervened, and they tried to ignore it. But Thadeus’ cell phone kept ringing, and on the third round he snatched up and hissed “What,” into the receiver. He paused, then mumbled, “What do you mean you’re in the driveway? I’ve shown you how to—his core?” Thadeus’ fist slammed against the desk’s edge and he swore, shoving the cell back into his pocket. “Walter brought Jack home. He’s having a fit. Stay. There.” And with that, he stormed out of the room.
Jack. In a bizarre twist, he felt a pang of almost-jealousy that even now, when Dad should have been wringing him out, Jack’s problems came first. But it was a chunk in an awful stew of emotions churning inside him, and for a moment Skull just dropped his forehead onto his palms and sat quietly.
Then he panicked.
He couldn’t tell Dad what he’d done. Not now. Even now oil was pulsing in the back of his optics and he couldn’t—would not—
Skull grabbed his car keys and ran for the garage. Vanessa, his precious Vanessa, was waiting for him; she seemed to spring to life as soon as he touched the key to her ignition. They torn backwards out of the drive—Dad was standing in the doorway, shouting something he couldn’t hear.
And he drove away.
No music, no radio, just no thinking, no nothing but driving aimlessly toward the edge of town.
This spot had a nice view. Part of a park or something. Skull pulled over, and leaving the keys in the ignition, got out of the Jeep and sat down next to it, staring out over the city and leaning his head against Vanessa’s chassis, listening to her rumble. It was calming. He was calm.
