canon divergence rosalisa where varka goes on his little expedition and conveniently neglects to tell rosaria that he's been housing a feral preteen, and as his adopted daughter rosaria is now the kid's legal guardian
so deadbeat chainsmoking vigilante rosaria gets accosted one day by a messenger from a school, asking her to please come pick up razor because his teacher was supposed to have been home for tea 20 minutes ago and if she has to stay much longer she might actually electrocute someone
and at first she's like "who's razor." but she picks it up pretty quickly when varka's name is mentioned because OF COURSE this is exactly the kind of bullshit he would pull
so she goes down to the ordo's school and wow... the kid is pretty small. smaller than rosaria was at his age. he'd be kind of pathetic looking if it weren't for the spark in his eyes. and also his teacher is kind of hot but that's neither here nor there
and she's like, listen i can't take him in i'm not fit to be a guardian. coughs loudly. see i'm a smoker you shouldn't send him home with me
and razor's teacher is like "i totally understand. 100%. this must be a lot for you to take in. however i have been in this classroom for 41 minutes and 30 seconds longer than i should have been and if i don't walk through the ordo's front doors in the next 3 minutes and 30 seconds i am going to throw a hissy fit. and darling trust me when i say you don't want to see me throw a hissy fit"
and rosaria respects very few people and very few things in this world but she DOES respect someone who knows how to draw their boundaries. so she agrees to talk it through the next day and she takes razor and his tiny suitcase and brings him home
which ends up being quite eye-opening because the second they step through the doors she suddenly sees all the things that are Definitely Not Child-Safe. like the cigarette ash. and the knife in the corner. and the other knife in the corner.
so she shoves razor in the bathroom and tells him not to move, for barsibato's sake, and runs around her apartment frantically shoving knives and state secrets into drawers. she opens the bathroom door to tell him it's safe to come out, and then realizes with no small amount of horror that there is a CHILD in her BATHROOM right next to where she keeps her BACKUP KNIVES, and slams the door again and has a little freak-out in the kitchen
then she opens the door and is like hey kid. what do you want for dinner. what do kids even eat. and razor looks her in the eye and says "steak." and rosaria says what the hell, do you think i'm made of money or something. and razor says "wolves eat steak." and rosaria says okay... but you're not a wolf... and razor looks very offended and says "i am." and at this point rosaria shuts the door on him again
they have skewers for dinner as a compromise. rosaria puts razor to bed in her room (cause she may be a disgrace but she's not about to make a guest sleep on the couch). and then she has another little freak-out in the living room
cause the thing is: rosaria knows how to do some things very well. she knows how to disembowel someone. she knows how to hide a body. she knows how to roll her own cigarettes. she does NOT know how to raise a child
every adult in her life has failed her in some capacity, and she doesn't hold it against them because that's just the way of the world. she just never thought she'd be one of those adults
she still remembers the look in her false father's eyes before he forced her to kill him. she remembers how torn he'd looked, how proud in his last moments, how much it had ruined her. she knows she will ruin razor too if given the chance. she doesn't know if she has it in her to live with herself after
she marches razor back to the school the next day and barges into the classroom, making the pretty teacher drop her spoon in her tea, and says take your student back. i'm not cut out for this. i can't do this alone
and lisa blinks up at her slowly and says "well... who said you had to do it alone?"
