To Love and Let Go [Aeryn Oneshot]

[Tom]

If Aeson Kight were still alive, Parson Cham would have died a second time.

It'd be a mixture of beaten black and blue and the red of blood combined together into a storm of hatred and anger at the suffering Aeryn was going through. She had been the one who made a mistake this time, she was careful most of the time. Careful enough to look out for herself. Careful enough to fight off her cousins from attacking Stella Blakesley. Careful enough to be able to leave the house on her own and be a regular teenage girl, but now she was an adult and making mistakes were on her and no one else. That night had been a rough one, a mother and father flashing with their grins pointed towards the sky. False promises of a false god to give them immortality leading to a little girl and a little boy being alone in the world of District Six and Kights.

Parson Cham had ended her perfect life with the worst mistake she could have made. No more pretty dresses for her mother to put her into. No more being a doll for that woman who never was allowed to have children and especially didn't want to be a grandmother. Aeryn had laughed out of spite the first time she felt the morning sickness and realized the truth clicking into place. Kight and Cham. What a fucked up mix she had said to her mirror thousands of times. Time passed quickly over her pregnancy, where days extended for longer and longer, she hid it well from her mother, until it wasn't able to happen anymore.

A simple rise in dress sizes was enough to have her mother questioning her. Once the news broke, she was treated poorly, but not in a way that was abusive, but enough that Aeryn was on her own for good. No more Aeson to watch over her. Aeryn Kight could handle herself and her new baby, but she couldn't handle the rumors between cousins and awful businesses. A silence filled her more and more as the anger bubbled in the pits of her stomach, letting her loathe Parson Cham for the entirety of the time. The guy walking around unknowingly a father to be, but Aeryn wanted that fact to hurt. She wanted him to hurt.

Parson Cham was not a good man.

She'd watched him in the eightieth after their night together. Watched the way Angel De Costa and Parson Cham hit it off well, making out like their world wasn't ending and it didn't. At least, she swore it didn't since the guy was walking and breathing and leaving behind ruin. Parson was close with the victor, the same victor who saw her brother die in the games. The same victor who didn't deserve to be here. Her brother would have made a better victor than Teddy fucking Ursa, but she couldn't do anything now.

After the baby was born, Aeryn held the child, feeling the wails of the baby girl shriek down her chest, filling her with an emptiness she never knew was there. The baby looked more like Parson Cham than it did Aeryn. Small features reminding her of Aeson in many ways, but there was the different noses and the way the baby's eyes were that reminded her of who's baby this really was. She held the child, staring right into his eyes before she whispered under her breath words that scared her.

"My daughter."

Two words, bleeding into the open. She cried that day. Cried to whatever god would listen because this was her child. Her baby that she had brought to this world. Kights weren't failures though. Kights followed strict rules and Aeryn was not a mother. It's small whispers under her breath that gets her through it all. The next day, she takes her baby home with her, unable to give him a name. It's in the hollowness of the full moon, when every Kight is asleep, unable to glare at her that she whispers her brother's name to the baby.

"Aeson. You'll be as strong as him."

Days turns into weeks. Weeks turn into months. Every day is a new adventure for Aeryn, learning what the baby's preferences are. She raises him. She dresses him. She feeds him. She bathes him. She loves him. It's a new thing here and there that she learns from him. Aeryn argues more and more with the Kights about what to do. She argues until her throat runs dry and her tears no longer fall. Her cheeks are stained red with the fury in her chest. She's still angry at Parson, but it's for making her suffer this new gift and knowing she was going to lose it all the same.

On the sixth month since the baby's birth, everything comes to a head. A shouting match to match the fire of the Kight Family. Her mother, her grandfather, and her cousins sit her down with their glares. Talks of legacy and honor and the right way to be a Kight. There's an ultimatum. Leave the baby with Parson Cham or leave the only form of family she has left. The hardest choice of her life is made and that's how she finds herself on the porch of the one and only Teddy Ursa.

Little Aeson is in a basket, with a stuffed koala bear, staring back at her. She watches him for the next five minutes, staring into those pretty eyes that belonged to her blood. Love adorned to her face as she gives her baby a soft caress of the cheek, hearing him laugh in that bubbly way that only babies can make. There's no one outside the home, but she's not sure if anyone is ever home. It's a cool day, but not cold enough to be a problem for her baby girl. She whispers soft words to her little Aeson.

"Y-You'll be safe here. They'll take care of you. You'll grow up with your father. I'll miss you. I'll miss you more than the world, but..."

Fingers hold onto his tiny hand, letting tears fall from her eyes.

"I have to do this. Please. Understand. I-I know you'll grow up to be strong. Stronger than I'll ever be. You'll be loved there. You'll be okay."

The letter is left tucked into the side of the blanket. Words scrawled onto paper, telling Parson Cham her emotions and the truth. Silently, she holds her girl close before she sets him back into the basket, setting everything up on the porch. Silently, she knocks with a heavy thud against the door, making sure someone knows there's a child there. It's silent for a moment before Aeryn hears steps. She rushes to the side of the home watching from the edge.

Teddy Ursa is the the one to answer.

Eyes filled with confusion staring down at the baby before he lifts the basket up carefully with so much experience that it's almost like whiplash to Aeryn how much happier her baby girl will be there. Teddy Ursa reads the letter calmly before the demeanor changes. His stance goes from calm to threatening, but the hold on her girl is enough to know it's still loving. Aeryn watches as the door closes and her tears continuing to make her realize it's done. She would go home back to being a Kight.

Alone.

All that's left is the whisper upon her tongue feeling more like poison than before.

"I-I love you."