Chapter Text
{~}
Rose Rhondeland, the former Chairman of the Galar League and former president of Macro Cosmos, has been imprisoned today. He has been charged with attempted genocide on one count and and also attempted mass destruction on one count also. He strongly denied both of these, but he turned himself in after pleading guilty at a court session yesterday. He has been transferred to a medium security prison and will be there for at least 12 years. We interviewed Mr Leon Dande, the new Chairman, to get his opinion on these events.
”Obviously, like the rest of Galar, I am both shaken and fearful after the supposed ‘Darkest Day II’, but now that we know it has been dealt with and Mr Rose is more stable than he obviously was, I think that we should both move on from the past and try and make Galar better than it was when he was in charge!”
Oleana was slouching on her black couch, soup in one hand and the tv remote in the other. The had been mindlessly flickering through the channels when she saw yet another news channel reporting on the mess that her husband had created.
Not only had he nearly destroyed the whole region, but he had also nearly destroyed his whole family’s lives. Oleana couldn’t sleep at night anymore because she, being the thoughtful and empathetic person people didn’t think she was, was too worried about her husband who was currently sleeping (or maybe he wasn’t) in a cold prison cell, alone. Bede was also affected extremely badly. He would go through spells of extreme sadness and would cry for hours on end and then suddenly get angry at the fact another person in his life had suddenly disappeared. He would also sometimes be scared and worried about if his father would get hurt in the prison or even if he would ever come out again.
Elijah, who was now 1 and half years old, wasn’t affected much, but he still would cry for his father, for Rose would always rock his baby to sleep. This meant on top of the stress of the fact her husband had been put in prison, Oleana had to deal with sleepless nights with a crying toddler. It was so bad sometimes that she would have to call Peony to come and help her. That would calm him down a bit because Peony looked so much like his older brother, but he wouldn’t settle down completely. Kabu had tried to help, but Elijah didn’t like Kabu very much (Peony said it’s because Kabu had quite a firm grip and had learnt that the hard way, which made Kabu blush hard. No one understood why, but after Peony explained he learnt when he and Kabu had spent the night together, everyone else blushed in embarrassment), so Kabu wasn’t very much help. Kabu was quite upset when he found out Elijah didn’t like him, for he had Allister and when he was a baby quite liked him. Peony told him that it was probably because Allister was his baby and that Elijah would grow up and learn to love his uncle.
Peony, Nia, Kabu and Allister were upset about the news and Peony was angry with Rose for fucking up something AGAIN. Nia was just plain angry and even said she was embarrassed to be related to Rose in one interview. Peony scolded her for saying that, which resulted in Nia’s teenage hormones kicking in and shouting at her father, which just made the whole situation worse.
Oleana, now standing up to get some actual clothes on (yes, it was 4 o’clock in the afternoon and she still had her pyjamas on), sighed as she walked across the room to her bedroom. There, she picked out the closest outfit in her wardrobe and changed into it. It was a baby blue jumpsuit with little pink hearts on the pockets. She thought it was at least acceptable, so she stuck with it and headed to the kitchen, where Bede and Elijah were getting the dinner ready.
She opened the kitchen door to find Bede cutting up Pecha berries for a curry quite robotically and Elijah sat in his high chair with his favourite toy, Mocha, a plushie of a Glameow. Oleana’s eyes, however, were on her eldest son the most, who now had finished chopping the berries and was now slowly pouring curry spices into a large pan.
“Hey my lovelies, how’s it going?” Oleana tried to sound enthusiastic, but Bede didn’t respond to happiness anymore.
“Mama! Mama!” Elijah began to call, putting his hands out for his mother to pick him up. Oleana grabbed the baby and then got closer to Bede and moved his hair out of his face.
“Beanie-boo, what’s up love?”
“MUM I TOLD YOU TO STOP CALLING ME THAT!” Bede shouted, Oleana backing away instinctively.
“Excuse me, young man! Don’t you dare shout at me like that!”
“I DON’T GIVE A FUCK ANYMORE MUM! I CAN DO WHAT I WANT!”
“Bede, stop shouting at me!”
“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT’S GOING ON RIGHT NOW, SO JUST FUCK OFF, WILL YA?” With that, Oleana put Elijah back into his highchair and pulled her son into a hug.
“Baby, I know what’s going on. I really d-”
“NO, YOU DON’T!” Bede pushed his mum away and stormed off.
“Yes, I do! I know you’re upset. I know you are angry and I know you are scared but Bede we need to work together!” Oleana was tearing up, but she stopped herself from crying.
“I DON’T WANNA WORK TOGETHER! I WANNA DIE ALONE!” Bede began to cry, ran to his room and slammed the door behind him. Oleana ran after him and then sat out outside of his bedroom door.
“Sweetheart, let Mama in.”
“I TOLD YOU, I AM GOING TO DIE ALONE! I MADE PEACE WITH THAT WHEN MY REAL MUM GAVE ME UP!” Oleana could hear her son sobbing in his room, which made her start to cry.
“Bede, you are not alone, ok? You are not going to die alone, either. Mama is here.”
“B-but I am! Papa gave me up!”
“No he didn’t, he just messed up big time. He would never leave you.”
“Mama, can you come in?”
“Of course, just let me in.”
“Ok.” Bede opened his door and when he did, Oleana nearly shrieked.
“Baby boy! Your head has a big blue bruise on it! Did you hurt yourself?”
“Yeah, I believe the harm was inflicted by myself.” Bede looked down and whilst he thought his mum wasn’t looking, he pulled his sleeve to cover his wrist.
“Bede, why did you just pull your sleeve down?” Oleana sounded just a tiny bit frustrated. She may be tired but she wasn’t stupid.
“I-i didn’t!” Bede stuttered, a lump appearing in his throat.
“Bede, show me your arm.” Oleana said flatly.
“F-fine.” Bede reluctantly gave his mum his left arm. Oleana carefully peeled back the sleeve to see small cuts on her son’s wrist and forearm.
“B-bede, why?”
“I’M SORRY!!!” Bede then burst into tears, taking Oleana a bit by surprise.
“Hey, I’m not angry!” She bent down to look at her son in his purple eyes.
“B-but, it’s all my fault!”
“None of this was your fault! At all!” And at that one, most inconvenient time, Elijah began to cry. Oeana had forgotten all about him. Some mother you are she thought Well done. Now your youngest is crying and your eldest has been cutting himself, all because you couldn’t keep a proper eye on both of them! Get your act together woman!
“Mama. You should sort Ellie out.” Bede said tone dead.
“Ok, just… don’t do this whilst I’m gone.” She looked at Bede’s wrist while speaking and then turned around to go sort out her baby.
In the kitchen, Elijah had spilt his grape juice on the floor. He was an addict of that stuff. It’s like if a cocaine addict dropped their powder, she thought.
“Hey hey hey, it’s ok sweetie. Mama will get you some more, don’t worry.” Oleana picked up the cup, grabbed some more of the juice, poured some into her son’s beaker and gave it to Elijah. “There you go Ellie.” Oleana sighed in relief when her son calmed right down when he was given the juice. She then walked back out of the room to go back to talking with her older son.
“Is he ok?” Bede asked. He was quite protective of Elijah and had always been, so it wasn’t unusual for him to ask.
“Yeah, he just spilled his drink, don’t panic.”
“Oh, ok, good.” Bede looked down again.
“Hey, I am not mad. I just want to make sure you are ok.” Oleana stroked her son’s hair like her husband stroked hers.
“I’m fine. I will survive, I guess.”
“Good. Well then, do you want to talk about anything?”
“Yeah, I do, actually.” Bede looked at his mum deeply and sadly. “Why are there divorce papers on the kitchen worktop?” The question took Oleana back by surprise. Shit! He had seen them!
“I was going to tell you, but you have been so upset and disturbed lately I didn’t want to…”
“Talk to me.”
“You see, I was thinking about maybe getting a divorce from your dad. I thought maybe I could start over or something. But then I thought that it might just kill your father if I did that to him now, seeing how mentally unstable he is. What should I do?”
“Don’t do it. Not only from my point of view as the kid in this situation ,but also because you know that dad takes everything as his fault, so telling him that you don’t wanna be with him anymore would quite literally end it for him. He might also take it the other way, and start to hurt you.” Bede said to his mum very honestly.
Thank you baby boy. So I shouldn’t?”
“Not now, no. But when everything is a little more calm between us all, you could think about it again, if you want.”
“Ok, I will. Thank you sweetie.” Oleana stood up, kissed her son on his head and then left the room. He is more grown up than I am. She thought Maybe i need to grow up.
{~}
Oleana walked into her room and grabbed her phone. She then called her husband’s phone. She had no idea why she kept calling him (this wasn’t the first time) when she knew he would never pick up. She let it go through to voicemail and then spoke into her phone, “Hey love. When you are free, do you want to go to the beach? That would be extremely delightful. Call when you are free, ok?” Oleana then sent the voicemail and heard Rose’s phone vibrate in his bedside drawer like it had the other times she had sent a voicemail.
Suddenly, she heard his phone go off again. She then fished it out and looked at the notifications. 77 missed calls, 76 voicemails from herself and… one voicemail from Peony. Immediately, she clicked on the notification and began to listen to it.
“Hey Rosie. I just wanted to let you know that I am leaving planet Earth today after a long time thinking about it. I can’t do this anymore. Today I was hounded by at least twelve different news reporters all telling the public that I should be ashamed to be your brother. I wanted to let you know that I am not ashamed at all and I know you never meant harm. I am deciding to leave because my heart hurts so much and I am hurting Kabu with that pain too. I know some people will miss me but I promise that pain won’t be permanent. I am sure that after a few weeks everyone will be happier than they ever were because stupid Peony isn’t here to annoy the living shit out of them anymore. I am sorry that I am doing this but my head, my heart, my lungs and my wrists hurt so bad. I know that’s weak but I can’t help it. I just want to tell you that I love you so much and you are the best brother I could ever have. मैं तुझ से प्यार करता हूँ, big brother. And if you have forgotten what that means after my pathetic attempt at teaching you our home language, I love you, big brother. I always will.” The line then cut off and Oleana was now a sobbing mess on the floor.
Immediately Oleana wiped the tears off her face and sprinted to the door. She had to at least try and save him from himself! She told Bede about what was happening and then ran out of the door.