Ty was nervous. His newly found niece was visiting him from Montreal for a week. She had texted to tell him how excited she was, as she had never been to The United States before. He was nervous about a lot of things, but mostly about how his boyfriend was going to react. Jan was not very good at using tact. The last thing he wanted was for Ethan to feel like she wasn't accepted.
He had already told everybody that she was transgender. His uncle Jesse hadn't told him much about her history, only that Ethan felt like a girl, so they let her be a girl. The hair though had been a wig. Ethan had been growing out her normally dark locks and liked to experiment.
He also didn't know much about the process. He barely understood his own bisexuality. Regardless, she was his family and no matter what, he believed in her.
Waiting at the airport he rocks back and forth on his heels as the people begin to come through the gate. When he sees his niece, he smiles. She practically runs toward him to throw her arms around him. He can't help reciprocating.
"Was your flight okay?"
She nods, looking up at him with complete admiration.
"The flight attendants were really nice. They kept checking on me. I mostly watched a movie though so it went by quickly."
They walk to the carousel where the bags are circulating. Ty can't help noticing that a few people were staring at them. In his honest opinion, Ethan didn't look like anything other than a normal twelve year old girl, but there were some bigoted people that could spot even the slightest detail. For Ethan, it was her build. She was broad chested, her face was more sculpted like the males of the Charon line and the start of puberty had her developing an Adam's apple.
Ty ignored it all, and focused on how happy he was to have his niece her. He was more focused on her meeting his "pack" as he had called them.
Not wanting to frighten Ethan, Ty had borrowed Lora's car instead of his motorcycle.
"So how is school?" Ty asked as they pulled out onto the road.
Ethan shrugs. "It's alright. I find it boring mostly."
"Boring?"
"You know, like I catch on to things really quickly so while the teacher is explaining things, I have already figured it out. So I get bored. Gramps already tried to get them to skip me ahead but schools aren't allowed to do that anymore. There is this stupid thing where they think I am not mature enough to be with older kids. It's dumb."
Ty hated hearing that they were holding Ethan back. She was obviously smarter than the average kid but once again society was to blame. They were more worried about mundane things then actually allowing kids to blossom.
"What about Private school?"
"We can't afford it and the money uncle Jesse makes disqualifies us for assistance."
Ty wished he made more money. He would send some to get Ethan the education she deserved. He also felt a pang of regret. For not knowing this incredible kid her whole life. Not that it was his fault. He did find himself angry with his father. All that time and he couldn't mention that he actually had another family?
"Uncle Ty?"
Ty breaks from his memories to see that he has pulled into his parking spot. The two story condo building that him and Lora lived in was well maintained. With only eight total units, it made it something of a community. But he had been on autopilot the whole time and hated that it could have potentially led to an accident.
"Right. We're here."
He smiles at the young girl and gets out of the car. He takes her suitcase from the trunk and she follows him.
"This is a nice building..." she says as she climbs the stairs behind him.
"You were expecting a dump?" He smirks and Ethan giggled.
"No..." she blushes and in that moment he sees his Dad. How funny it was that certain genetic traits get passed down through generations.
"Come on silly."
When they open the door, everyone's heads looked up to see the pair enter. The small dinette table was filled with snacks with Valora at the helm of it. Aron immediately stood from his place on the sofa. His best friend Effie smiled, nodding in approval but the person he was most worried about was the man with a mound of food atop a paper plate. He doesn't even look up from his plate.
"Everyone, this is Ethan Caron, my niece."
Valora is the first to cross the distance.
"I am happy to meet you dear."
Ethan's face lights up. She then hugs the older woman which surprises her completely.
"Uncle Ty told me so much about you. Thank you so much for letting me stay here."
Valora shrugs it off with a trademark blush before she made the rounds and then stops, sitting down on the couch opposite Fenris’ chair. He looks up at the girl only briefly to ask, “What?” with an bit of food still in his gobbler.
“K...” Aron says in a harsh whisper. “Talk to her...”
“Why?” He goes back to eating. The young girl doesn’t seem phased at all by his lack of interest.
“Obviously she wants to know that guy her uncle is shagging....” Effie pipes in and once again Fenris is giving her cut eye over his plate of food.
Ethan, however, was a smart girl. “Did you maybe have any questions for me? Like if this is uncomfortable...”
Fenris shrugs. “No. No questions. Because I don’t care.”
“Jan...?” Ty starts but Fenris shakes his head.
“What? I don’t care. And she shouldn’t care whether or not I or anyone else does!”
He points in Ethan’s direction. His voice is starting to raise an octave and Aron takes a deep breath, preparing himself for the onslaught of a speech.
“It’s HER life so let her fucking live it how she wants. Fuck how anyone else feels!”
He then finally looks at Ethan, catching her eyes. His voice actually softens now though.
“Don’t let anyone give you the impression that their opinion of you means more than your opinion of yourself.”
The room is stone cold silent. Recognizing that silence was never a good thing, Fen goes back to his plate but not before patting the girl on the head.
“I do have one question though... Go grab me another bottle from the fridge.” He shakes his nearly empty bottle at her. She smiles wide and runs off toward the kitchen. Ty immediately takes the seat where she was just sitting and leans into him.
“Someone is so getting laid tonight...” He whispers it, very low so that no one else in the room could hear.
Immediately Fen starts choking on the piece of fried chicken in his mouth and Lora is rushing in concerned.
“Is it too spicy? IT’s too spicy, isn’t it... I shouldn’t have added that chili pepper...”
“No... Spicy...” Kristjan spits out before Ethan is handing him the bottle. Kristjan pops the top and downs the entire neck before his eyes stop bulging out.
“Chicken is good,” he says.
The room laughs.
After some reluctance from both men, Kristjan had decided to return home with Aron. Ty took a moment to kiss his lovers forehead. “Love you...”
Kristjan nods with a smile. Ty didn’t expect K to say it all the time in return but he had no doubt how he felt. One could even say that the large personality of Bobbie Dahl really had helped. Once they had all left, including Effie who was heading right back to the airport, Ty and Lora started in on cleaning up the plates when they are surprised to see Ethan helping to clear them in her pink and purple puppy Pyjamas.
“You don’t have to do that dear... you are a guest...” Lora tries to protest. But Ethan smiles and continues to help anyway.
“My grandparents told me that it’s respectful to at least offer to help, but there is a big mess and I think you both look kinda tired. So if I help, we’ll be done quicker and we can watch a movie.. Maybe?” she gives them both a dashing smile and Lora gasps.
“She’s just like you were at this age Ty. Are you sure it’s not your kid?” she laughs and Ty can only puff out his chest in pride. He wished he could have a child as fantastic as Ethan. He had accepted the fact that it was either Kristjan or kids and he wasn’t willing to give up K. Not for anything. So, he was perfectly content with his baby sister and Niece to spoil relentlessly.
***
The West-Ward Blogicles
Season 4, Entry #4 -- “The Journey”
“Well here we are Austin. Finally, we are facing each other one on one. This is how it should have been all along. No interruptions and no distractions but there is something that has been on my mind since last show. The way that Alex Jones was trying to push his agenda on you and Alicia. I get it. I even talked about the kind of fighter that Alex is last time we all faced each other, but do you really want to change how you do things? Things that have made you successful until this point?”
He shrugs his shoulders in question
“You have been a good champion so far. You seem to represent the same sort of values that I do. That gives me hope that not all the people in this business are about finding a weakness and exploiting them. That they are not about playing some psychological game of warfare. Yes, this is a type of war but it doesn’t have to be bloody.”
“As of right now, I have not seen your promo. So I have no idea if you are intending to take Alex’s advice. You don’t have to be enemies with everyone that happens to stand across the ring from you. There is nothing wrong with having respect for each other and their accomplishments. I know that you respect my journey as I respect yours. And I hope you don’t take it personally when I say that I am not stopping until I have what should have been mine a long time ago.”
He takes a long deep breath.
“I have been accused of ‘not wanting it enough’ or not showing that drive. And to that, I say, bullshit. It’s all Bullshit. I have been getting robbed since the moment I stepped foot in this company. Before the ink was even really dry, I was sabotaged by Jon Dough when he got into that Roulette title match. I have been mostly sabotaged by myself though. I let my inexperience and my losses plague me into believing that maybe this is not what I am meant to be and that was like I said a few seconds ago... bullshit.”
“I have been standing around thinking that I have to prove myself everything I don’t succeed but I don’t have to prove anything. I prove my worth every single time I get into a ring. Win, loss or Draw. It’s not about how many wins or losses you have, it’s about your strength as a person. Your ability to be the face of a company and carry it. It is about showing everyone that you do not have to be HE-MAN to be a champion. I am not a prince. I am not the best there is, but I do think I am worthy of being the next SCW Heavyweight Champion.”
It is at this point that the audience will realize that Ty is sitting on a deck chair outside. He spins the camera around momentarily to show his niece in the pool belonging to his condo building. She waves at the camera and then Ty Flips it back to himself.
“With that said Austin, I am going to have to take it from you. Whether that means I have to pin you or make you tap out, I am done putting myself down. I am done comparing myself to others when there is no comparrison at all. We are two different men with different backgrounds who are both talented but not talented equally. Because no two men are identical. That’s why contests like this even exist. “
“Not to mention that my niece is going to be in the audience. A girl that I missed out on knowing for twelve years. I have no intention of letting her down. I want her to be proud of her uncle. To witness the first time he holds the championship. I am doing this for her and every girl or boy like her that struggles with thinking that the impression that the world has is the only one that matters. It doesn’t matter what anyone in this company thinks of me, thinks of my family or thinks of my relationship because it is mine. And there is nothing that anyone can do to change my feelings or how something is. So even if I don’t succeed today, I am still going to have my family and I am still going to have my relationship and best of all, I will still have my own self-respect because a title doesn’t make me who I am, I make the title what it is. And I want to make it great. I want to stand tall and know I have finally gotten to the top. “
“Honestly Austin, I don’t know your whole history. Everyone has struggled in their life and their own life is always going to seem worse than anyone else because you had to live through it. My life, with the exception of a few hiccups, has been pretty good. I can’t complain. And now, I have created a unique group of people that I call my pack, my family because it takes more than blood to make a family as you well know. This title... “
He pauses to gather his thoughts
“To be honest, before I had everything I do now, I really thought that the title was the greatest achievement. But that was a lie. My greatest achievement is the love I have amazed.”
“So I hope everyone, not just you Austin, see that in the end, winning this match will be the highlight of my career in the six-sided SCW ring, but in terms of my whole life, I still have years to create more and more accomplishments that I can be proud of. It is but one of many I will have. SCW has been instrumental in helping me come to this realization because without it, without me listening to my agent and signing, I would have never realized that this is what I should have always been doing. I would have never met my best friend. I would never have my wonderful partner and his brother... his whole family rather than have adopted me into their clan without a second thought. That... that is a real championship.”
“Winning this is going to be awesome and even more awesome to have my family surrounding me but I’m not just winning it for me. I’m winning it for everyone. This is what I have worked so hard for. What I want. It’s not to prove anything to any haters. It’s to show myself that this is what happens when you stay focused on your goals and put your heart into it. “
He seems completely relaxed. Not at all stressed or anxious about the upcoming battle.
“And now, I finally have the chance to have no doubts about my abilities. I know you will be a tough one on one. I would never dream of underestimating you. I want there to be no doubts when I win. I want to finally give all the fans that have supported me from day one, what they have been calling for this past year. A year Austin. That’s how long this journey has been. It’s about time that I stop dragging my ass, don’t you think? I hope that regardless of what Alex might have said to you, that you still think of me as competition. I want nothing more than to be able to shake your hand at the end. I am not like other people here. I won’t downplay what you have done. You were the first to beat the Great Fenris. That in itself is something grand. As much as you want this title and as much as you earned it, It’s my time to shine. You just happen to be who is standing between me and finishing my journey. Here’s to a good match Austin and Thank you in advance.”
There is a laugh in the background.
“Come on Uncle Ty... NO more work stuff!”
With that Ty smirks at the camera and, it goes to black.
