[Samuel x Roman]

h u g o

When Hugo came home that day after he had told Letha abut what was going on at home he had been terrified. Somehow he felt like his mum would know and hurt him. But she didn't, well she didn't know but she still got angry at him for being so out of it an unfocused. But it was all as things usually were. Until the next day when a police car parked on the street next to the house and the police officers came to arrest his mother. Following was probably one of the longest days of his life. It was just so scary and he couldn't stop crying and suddenly it felt like the entire world knew what had been going on.

It wasn't until the afternoon he found himself in the calm and quiet behind close door. But not in his own house, but in Letha's. Her daddies were going to look after him for a while, he didn't know them super well but they were really kind to him and he honestly felt more safe with these two strangers than he had at home.

Letha's house was really big and it felt kind of empty when not everyone was there. It's not like his own house had felt large or anything, it had always been just him and his mum, but their house was a lot smaller. Thinking about home made his stomach twist into a knot. It was weird, he had dreaded coming home from school every day but he'd miss it. He wouldn't really get to live there again he was pretty sure. Social services and Letha's daddies were talking about how he was going to stay with Letha's family until they could track down a home for permanent placement, which meant that whatever that was was going to be his new home. Where his mum wouldn't be. Which was both good and bad. And also scary because what if the other people were terrible too?

"Okay, " he said, his eyes not looking up from his feet, he did believe Roman he was just kind of scared "...Thank you," then he was quiet because he didn't know what else to say or do. Then he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, he flinched a little at the touch, hopefully not visibly, but he did.

"Do you want to be alone for a bit?" Samuel asked really softly. Hugo kept staring at his feet, he didn't know if he wanted that, "we'll be in the other room if you need us," But Hugo wasn't sure if he would actually go to them if he needed something, they had done so much for him already, but he also felt like maybe he would need something so he gently shook his head, "you wan't us to stay," Samuel asked, and Hugo nodded, "maybe we could help you unpack?" Hugo nodded again.

And so Samuel and Roman showed him where he could put his clothes and his things so he wouldn't have to live out of a suit case. Hugo was grateful and quiet and soon enough they were done at which Samuel gestured for Hugo to sit down on the bed, the bed that would be his for a little while now, it seemed, and Samuel sat down next to him, "how are you feeling,? he asked.

Hugo didn't reply at first but then he burst into tears again, just small and quiet sobs, which was pretty telling of what he felt, which was not good. Everything was horrible and he both wished he hadn't told Letha and that he had told her much sooner and he didn't know how to express that because he didn't know Samuel and Roman no matter how nice they were.
 
r o m a n
Roman could feel his parental instincts kicking in as he and his husband helped Hugo unpack. There was not even one centimetre of him that was not one hundred percent willing to do whatever he could to take care of this child. It was like the moment he had signed that contract, he had become not just a temporary guardian, but a temporary parent.

Roman didn't particularly care for the circumstances under which the abuse occurred. He didn't care what Hugo's mother had gone through to make her turn out this way. Nothing, absolutely nothing, excused how she had treated her son. Roman was determined to show Hugo the care and nurturing he had been robbed of while he was staying in their home. Roman had always vowed that the Hemlock-Ortega household could be a safe place for their children's friends, and that if they ever needed support or a safe place to sleep for the night, they were more than welcome to come to them. Hugo was absolutely no exception to that rule.

The taller Hemlock-Ortega husband diligently helped the small boy unpack, showing him different drawers into which he could keep his clothes. He also went down to the linen cupboard and brought out lots of spare blankets and pillows to put on the sweet child's bed. Then he grabbed a spare toothbrush and a new tube of toothpaste from his and Samuel's bathroom cabinet and put them in Hugo's bathroom. Then they all went to sit down on the bed again.

When Hugo begun to cry, Roman wanted to wrap him in a hug and tell him everything was okay, but he couldn't do that. They didn't know each other very well and he didn't want to overstep any boundaries. Instead, Roman decided to rub his shoulder a little, and speak in a soft voice.

"It's okay,"
Roman said softly. "I know it's scary but you're safe here. And you can cry as much as you want. We don't judge here." Roman reached down and gently wiped some of the tears off his cheeks. "Hey, how about we get your favourite takeout for dinner? And we can go downstairs and eat it and you can meet all the animals. Does that sound good, buddy? What would you like?"
 
h u g o

Hugo sniffled a little more and shrugged. It was nice that they said it was okay to cry because Hugo couldn't stop. And it was nice of them to want to get him the take out he wanted. They were too nice and he wished his mum could be more like them but she wasn't and that was why he was there in two stranger's house.

"It's okay Hugo," Samuel assured him since he hadn't given a valid response, "look, I know it can be hard to trust people and I know things are really scary right now, it's okay to feel that way just like it's okay to cry. But sometimes just focusing on the small good things can make things just a little better, and just a little better can be enough sometimes. So we'll have something nice to eat, and try to make the best out of the situation, okay?"

"...Can we have pizza?" he asked, not directly acknowledging what Samuel had said even though he had appreciated it.

"Of course we can," Samuel smiled and Hugo tried a small smile back. He hadn't had pizza in ages. Maybe things didn't have to be completely bad, just because he felt sad.
 
r o m a n
It saddened Roman immensely to even begin to imagine what this beautiful little boy had gone through. He couldn't comprehend how anyone could hurt their own children, but here Hugo was, both mentally and physically battered to a point where Roman wasn't even sure if the damage could be fully repaired. But he was going to try. Hugo was not his son, but Roman would be damned if he let this kid leave his house without being happy and cared for.

So, they ordered pizza, ate it in the living room, and introduced Hugo to all their many pets. Roman let him pick his favourite to sleep with him in his bedroom that night, because he knew that animals could be quite comforting to a distressed child. And Hugo absolutely needed all the comfort he could get.

That night, after London and Evan had dropped their four kids off, Roman and Samuel sat them down and explained to them the situation. Of course their four lovely kids were understanding and offered to help in any way they could. Roman was incredibly proud of them.

When he and Samuel were saying goodnight to Letha, she had tears in her eyes, and Roman asked her why. "They're happy tears, Daddy. Because I know I did the right thing." And that was the exact moment where Roman knew without a shadow of a doubt that he and Samuel had done the right thing too.
 
e m m a - m a r i e

Sometimes talking to Harper didn't feel like talking to a guy in Emma-Marie's opinion, not in a bad way, it was just that Emmie felt that she could just talk to him openly without feeling like he would say or do something annoying. Like tell him she thought a boy was cute and ask him of his honest opinion without him starting to scream about it being gay for him to comment on another boy's appearance. He was just mature like that. At this point some boys in her year was actually starting to catch on and get a little closer to his maturity level, but the thing was that Harper was younger than them, and he had never been annoying about things in that way, and that was one of the many reasons Emmie cherished him so deeply as a friend.

So when she had found herself talking about cute boys with her girlfriends from her year that morning she had no problem transferring that topic of conversation when she found Harper to hang out with him over lunch. Maybe it was a silly to gush over boys, but it could be fun too. One of her friends had actually mentioned Harper as being cute, but Emma-Marie had promptly decided not to tell Harper that because it felt embarrassing to let him in on that part of the conversation, in that sense she was being a little immature but it didn't rally affect anyone else.

"--so Jenny totally thinks Lucas Davis is one of the cutest guys in our year, I think you've met him once, he's the tall blond guy," Emmie-said, she was keeping her voice on the lower side, they were hanging out at their own table in the cafeteria, just the two of them today, because sometimes they had lunch all by themselves. She doubted anyone was listening in, but she honestly didn't speak very loudly anyways, she had never been big at talking in public spaces, "But I kind of definitely think Amar Bansal is the cuter one, do you know who he is? he's in my year and we don't really hang out so, "
 
h a r p e r
Harper knew a lot of his male friends would be uncomfortable talking about cute boys, even with a girl, but it had never phased him. Why should it? What was wrong with Emma-Marie expressing her interest in particular boys she found attractive? But there was still a small part of him that felt a minor twinge of confliction.

He didn’t know why he felt this way. It wasn’t as if he thought there was something wrong with it, but there was something inside of him that was trying to tell him something else about the whole thing. It was ... it was as if instead of just agreeing that the boys were cute for the sake of conversation with Emmie, he was agreeing that they were cute because he genuinely felt that way. But he didn’t know what that meant at all.

“Amar is cute but Lucas is way cuter,” Harper expressed. They were sitting on the edge of the oval eating their lunch. Harper popped a strawberry, thankfully needle-free, into his mouth. “But you know who’s way cuter? Me. I am the cutest ... fuck, I sound like my dad.”
 
e m m a - m a r i e

"yeah you do, please don't ever try that again," Emmie laughed, and also casually refrained from agreeing with Harper by telling him he was cute. It'd probably just go to his head if he was adapting his dad's attitude. It was nice though, how he really hadn't made a big deal out of the subject, and told his opinion even. Not many guys had the guts to call another guy cute.

Emmie reached over to steal one of Harper's strawberries and the looked out over the area, and then she spotted someone. She didn't know his full name but knew his first one was David. He had the most gorgeous curly hair, a light dust of freckles over tanned skin and also, as most girls who knew of him tended to gush about, the prettiest green eyes. You couldn't really see that last part from where they were seated but Emmie followed him with her eyes for a moment before deciding to point him out to Harper with a discrete nod.

"You know him? David? He's a year above me, like everyone adores him, he's really gorgeous. And everyone's been saying he's really nice too so that's a nice bonus"
 
h a r p e r
Harper looked up in the direction Emmie was indicating, and his eyes landed on the guy in question. Harper's own eyes suddenly went a little wide, and he couldn't stop himself from letting out a soft little, "Wow."

The guy, David, was absolutely gorgeous. Harper didn't think he had ever seen a prettier guy in his entire life, at least not in person. This guy looked like he had just walked right off the pages of a fashion magazine or something like that. Harper almost couldn't believe that someone so attractive could exist.

But then he caught his own line of thought and blushed bright red. When the hell had he started thinking like this about other guys? Harper looked away from David, somewhat embarrassed, and put another strawberry in his mouth to mask it. He had absolutely no idea what had come over him, and he didn't know how to feel.

"Um, yeah, he's alright."
 
e m m a - m a r i e

Harper's reaction was really not expected. Before it had just felt like he had been indulging her in her silly gossip about which boys she thought was pretty but this reaction felt different. The little wow he uttered sounded so genuine, and the way he looked at David was in a way that was more star struck than she had seen him look at any girl, maybe even more than when he gushed over Helena Bohem Carter. Though that was hard to beat. And David was really gorgeous, so technically it wasn't weird that he reacted that way, if it wasn't for the fact that Emmie was fairly certain that even the most mature boy wouldn't get lost for words when they saw another attractive guy. Unless he maybe also was into guys.

Emmie shot Harper a suspicious look as he blushed and dismissed David by calling him alright. This could really mean nothing, but it could also mean something. Emmie knew for a fact that Harper had liked girls in the past. Or at least she thought he had. Maybe he liked boys too. That would be alright, Emmie just hadn't really considered it before now, and maybe that was wrong of her. She shouldn't go around assuming things.

"I mean understatement of the century, but you're entitled to your opinion," Emmie sad and bumped her shoulder gently into Harper's. She wasn't going to press him on this, but she doubted she'd be able to completely ignore it and not wonder a little what this all meant.
 
h a r p e r
Harper would like to pretend that Emmie hadn’t noticed anything, but he wasn’t stupid. They were best friends — Emmie could probably read him better than a children’s book. Maybe that was a good thing, though, because she could possibly have a better idea of how he was feeling than he did.

Because Harper had no idea what he was feeling or why he was feeling it. He knew that he had gotten butterflies in his stomach looking at David — and he knew what that usually meant when someone felt like that. But that couldn’t be him. Could it?

Harper knew there was nothing wrong with boys liking boys. His own parents were men in a same-sex relationship. But he had always liked girls. And he had never felt like he had liked boys before. His dad had described himself as always having liked girls and guys. What was going on with Harper then?

“Do you wanna do something on the weekend?” Harper asked Emma-Marie to change the subject. “See a movie or something?”
 
e m m a - m a r i e

Harper moved on from the subject fairly quickly, and not very discretely. Emmie wasn't about to comment on it, just like she didn't want to press him on his reaction. Maybe if he reacted this way again, but for now she wanted to be respectful of her friend's feelings.

She threw a final glance David's way, he had caught up with his friends and they were walking off. She could kind of believe that he was gorgeous enough to warrant a reaction and wow even from the straightest of guys. But that still left Harper's avoiding of the subject. She wondered if it was because he hadn't known what had happened himself or if it was because he didn't feel like he could tell her. She leaned on the former, though, they tended to tell each other everything sooner or later so she felt like she would have known by now. Especially since Harper would know it was okay, given what his family looked like and everything.

"Sure, a movie sounds nice, there's been some stuff I wanted to see," Emmie said with a small smile. She didn't know entirely what this all meant, but she hoped Harper knew he had her full support no matter what.
 
h a r p e r
Harper wasn't trying to keep anything from Emma-Marie. He just didn't know what to tell her. He had never felt like this before and he didn't know what it meant or how to process his thoughts. Perhaps it would be beneficial for him to talk to his dads about it, but he didn't want to ask them anything until he understood his own feelings a little better.

"Cool. I'm free Saturday."
Emmie was such a good friend. Harper had no idea what he would do without her. When he figured out what he was feeling, she would be the first to know. But for now, he resolved to just push it all into the back of his mind, because he didn't know what to think and he didn't want to let this confusion weigh down his whole day.

But in the back of his mind, he knew he could only avoid thinking about this for so long.
 
e d e n

Eden had, over the last couple of months, gotten a little more comfortable with high school. It was his second year now and he was all in all feeling a little better about it. His papa had helped him figure things out with the people who were picking on him and they had since laid of quite a bit. Not completely, but it was bearable and Eden was honestly feeling like he was building up a bit of a thicker skin to it.

That didn't mean some days weren't worse than others though, especially when Stella or anyone he knew wasn't around because that was when they could get away with it. Honestly, Eden had figured out by now, even though he didn't talk al that much to people other than Stella and her friends if he didn't have to, that Zeke and his small gang of guys weren't all that popular. People tended to not enjoy being around people who were complete assholes. But people who were complete assholes didn't seem to possess the capability to realize that and thus Zeke liked to act like he owned the school. Especially when he and his friends cornered people in an empty hallway.

"Please just stop," Eden pleaded quietly. He was standing with Zeke's hand on his shoulder, pressing him against a locker. Eden wasn't trying to wriggle ut of it because it was probably pointless, he was short and not strong and Zeke was taller and a little bulky.

"Or what, are you going to go cry to daddy again?" Zeke said with a smug grin, his dumb friends chuckled alone.

"Yeah and you'll get expe--" Zeke pulled him closer and then shoved him back against the locker.

"What are you going to tell him? That you didn't like being compared to a girl?" Zeke sneered, he clearly didn't like the actual threat of being tattled on, "You're the one choosing to look like one. You can't get upset just because we accidentally mistake you for Stella sometimes," Eden couldn't respond to that, he looked down on the ground to hide that his eyes were getting watery, the idea of actually going to someone and telling them he was getting upset because some guys were teasing him about looking like a girl sounded embarrassing, he shouldn't even get as upset by it as he was, and maybe he wouldn't if Zeke wasn't keeping him stuck and forcing him to listen, "hah, look he's crying again, stop being such a pussy Eden, we're just telling you the truth."
 
m a r i s o l
Marisol Rosales was a generally pleasant individual. She had grown up in a nice house with a nice mother whom she was very close with -- her father had died when she was little, and it made her sad to think that she had never gotten a chance to know him. But that didn't stop her from being happy, nor did it prevent her from being nice.

Marisol was the kind of person who wholly believed in the sentiment of 'treat people how you want to be treated'. That was why she tried to be nice to everyone. But when she saw someone being bullied, that sentiment went right out the window and she immediately got very angry. She didn't like it when people deliberately made other people feel bad.

Which was why, when Marisol rounded the corner on her way to the art room to see Zeke and his cronies picking on some poor Year Eight kid, Marisol didn't hesitate to step in.

"Hey!"
she shouted, going up to Zeke and pushing him off the other boy. Marisol was quite a short girl, standing at only five-foot-two, but she packed a lot of fierceness in her tiny body. She was a serious tennis player, and was thus fast and strong. She had tanned Latina skin and artificially dyed bright pink hair. Today she wore a black lipstick and a purple smokey eye, and she always had a collection of aesthetically pleasing enamel badges on her school sweater.

"What are you doing, Zeke? What did he to do you?"
 
e d e n

Clearly Zeke and his gang had not expected their harassment session to be interrupted because when it was a murmur of "oh shit" and variations of it spread among the boys, and Zeke turned to see who it was, looking almost scared until he saw who it was. It was a girl Eden didn't know, but he had seen her around because she was hard to miss. She looked kind of like the kind of person Stella would hang out with but he also knew that she didn't hang out with this particular girl. Stella had friends in the years above them, but Eden had seen most of them and she just wasn't a part of the gang.

Eden didn't really know what to do in this situation. On one hand this was his way out and he could ask her to help and get a teacher, on the other he didn't want this to become a huge deal, and he didn't want to plead a stranger for help anyway.

"My locker's around here, he's the one who walked past, so we stopped him for a chat,"
Zeke said, calmly, but stared right at the girl with an almost furious expression, "We haven't done anything to him, he's just being a baby" he continued and Eden could feel him push him a little more against the locker, but Eden tried not to show it. It was stupid but he also didn't want to be perceived as a baby. Though he supposed he was already failing, given that he was at the brink of tears.

"Why do you care anyways?"
Zeke continued, "Just don't bother us and we won't bother you, okay?"
 
m a r i s o l
"I care because you're picking on him for no reason and he doesn't deserve that," Marisol said firmly. She couldn't stand Zeke and his friends, she couldn't stand people who went out of their way to hurt others. She knew that a lot of bullies had things going on in their home lives that made them act the way that they did, but in her opinion, that was no excuse.

"Why do you care so much about the girl anyway?"
one of Zeke's cronies guffawed. "You a couple of lesbos or something?"

Marisol narrowed her eyes at him. She hated homophobic people too. Why couldn't everyone just be nice to one another?

The girl turned back to Zeke, firmly shoved his arm off the boy's shoulder, then took the kid's hand and proceeded to lead him away. "Fuck off, Zeke, go pick on someone your own size," she shouted, sincerely hoping that he didn't pick on anyone regardless of their height or strength. Marisol didn't let go of the kid's hand until they were outside, behind the building where few people would see them.

She let him go, crossed her arms over her chest, and gave him a concerned look. "You alright?"
 
e d e n

Eden didn't think he had ever followed someone he didn't know so willingly as when the girl got Zeke of him and started to lead him away. Zeke protested a little before muttering something Eden couldn't hear, but which probably signaled that he was giving up. Eden didn't ask the girl to stop walking though, he didn't want to be anywhere close to Zeke. And it gave him more time to try to calm down and wipe his eyes as they hurried of. When they stopped it was the girls doing, not Eden's. He kind of just wanted to continue to walk and walk and walk so he didn't have to deal with this whole thing again.

"yeah, I'm fine," he said, his voice totally betrayed him though, it broke a little, and upon letting out a sound and trying to talk his lip started to quiver a little. He crossed his arms just like the girl head, but his action was much more protective, and he looked down on the ground to try to ide the fact that he didn't feel very fine in that moment. As much of a cry baby he was he didn't particularly like it when people who weren't his family saw him cry. He felt like it was caused things like what had just happened with Zeke to happen.

After what was probably solid minute or two of him collecting himself Eden dared to peaked up at the girl through his long lashes, "Thank you," he said, and he said it in such a way that there was no doubt that he meant it, because he did. Zeke and his guys didn't usually corner him like that, so he had no idea what would have happened if he hadn't gotten away.
 
m a r i s o l
Marisol was more than willing to wait until the poor boy got himself together. She couldn't imagine the kind of shit he had to put up with from Zeke and his friends. That lot just seemed to find specific people to pick on, and it made her really angry. It especially upset her because she knew for a fact that most of their victims were too scared to speak up, so they just got away with treating people appallingly.

While the kid was collecting himself, Marisol took a good look at him. He was a really pretty boy, his features adopting an almost feminine appearance with those angular cheekbones and long lashes. She could understand how, from a distance, he could be mistaken for a girl, but up close, it was very clear to Marisol that he was indeed a boy. Just a very pretty one.

Not that that meant much to her. Marisol was fifteen but she wasn't at the stage where she liked boys, or anyone, just yet. Her mother just said she would grow into it, but she wasn't so sure. Liking people just wasn't something she was interested in, a relationship wasn't something that she felt like she needed. But she was still just a kid, so she didn't really know.

"You're welcome. I'm always happy to shut Zeke up, he's such an asshole."
Marisol chuckled, then held out her hand. "Marisol Rosales. Hey, you're Mr Hemlock-Ortega's kid, aren't you? It's very nice to meet you," she said in Spanish.
 
e d e n

Eden reached out to take Marisol's hand and shook it. He wasn't really big on touching people he didn't know but shaking hands with the person who had literally saved him from his bullies, he could do.

"yeah I'm Eden," he said, then he actually registered that she had spoken the last part in Spanish. Growing up in a bilingual household meant a lot of switching between languages, and you didn't really always think of what was said in which language. But not that he realised which language she had used his eyes widened a little. In surprise, but it also filled him with some kind of warm comfort, because Spanish was familiar and reminded him of his family and it actually calmed him down a little.

"You speak Spanish?"
he asked, in Spanish, but somewhat tentatively, in case she didn't, that'd probably feel embarrassing.
 
m a r i s o l

"Yeah, I'm Colombian -- I was born there, we moved here when I was four," Marisol answered in her native tongue with a smile. She had some distant memories of her home country, and she missed the lovely place quite dearly. But she liked Australia a whole lot too. She especially liked it because it was hot and humid in the summer, just like the Magdalena Valley was back in her homeland.

Marisol could tell that Eden felt a bit better after hearing her speak their shared language. That made her happy. She hated to see people upset, and she was always out to try and make other people happy when they needed her to. Even if Eden was a total stranger, there was no difference there at all.

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. Marisol sighed, but looked at Eden with a soft expression. "Don't let those assholes get you down, okay? They're just pathetic losers who need to pick on someone else to feel special."