Chapter Text
One can only wonder how badly one dumb decision can fuck up your life. Husk should have never picked up that stupid bottle it did him worse than it could ever do good.
It all started when his best friend, Shizu, got with a guy Husk could not stand. The guy was nothing short of an asshole but somehow Shizu saw the good in him, Husk wasn’t sure where that was. Husk got into a fight with him and the bastard forced Shizu to cut off Husk. Losing his first and best friend sent Husk into a spiral. Instead of talking anyone, even his parents, Husk drowned himself in alcohol and gambled what he had away. The one time he won a larger sum of money, Husk made actual use of it and bought a house, one with a shop on the ground floor. He opened a bar for the people lost to the alcohol like him. As he fell deeper and deeper to his problems, Husk shut out the last people he loved, his parents. They never stopped trying to help their son but you can only do so much for someone who doesn’t want the help offered.
The first good decision came when Husk got a call at 2 am from an unknown number. It was Shizu and she needed help. Husk never changed his number in hopes she would call. Husk helped her and the two boys she had along the way. Having her back in his live was the first step in healing – she nudged him to drop the gambling. Somehow, he managed that with her help.
Now Husk, age 34, was no stranger to people falling asleep in his bar. Many drunks tended to fall asleep but this was a new one. The man was just closing up for the night, Shizu was in the back prepping things in her kitchen – Husk was not allowed near the stove, when he spotted something on the couch in the back. A person? No they’d be too small to be here, a dog?
Husk walked closer and eventually saw what it was, or rather who it was. A child, no older than 3 was sleeping on the couch. Husk tries to remember if anyone had brought a child in, but no. No one did, at least no one did so openly. Husk would never let a child, especially one this young into the bar.
He kneeled next to the couch and woke up the kid. They slowly opened their eyes, looked around and started to cry. Husk acted faster than he had expected to, not with the amount of alcohol in his body. He had gotten used to children because of Shizus boys, his nephews he corrected himself. Husk began to comfort the child and they slowly calmed. Only a second after she stopped Shizu had come in running. Motherly instincts she claimed.
Husk tried to give her the child, but the second they left his arms they cried again.
“Looks like she chose you.”, joked Shizu.
“Chose me?”
“Yeah, look at her.”
Husk looked down, the small girl looked almost peaceful in his arms, nothing compared to the crying mess she was a few minutes ago.
After a long back and forth, Shizu told him to go upstairs and sit with her while she closed up and went home to get some old clothes from her boys. Good thing she kept those around.
As Husk sat on the couch in his living room, he looked at the girl, now asleep in his arms.
She chose you.
The words keep repeating in his head over and over again.
At the same time, he couldn’t help but wonder how someone could leave a small defenseless child in a bar. The way it looked to him this was deliberate. No even half decent parent forgets their child. If Husk were to ever see them, even if they were to get their daughter back, he’d deck them in the face.
When he was sure she was fast asleep, Husk gently placed her down on the couch, his nicest pillow under her head and pulled the blanket over her body. Just then the urge for more for a break come in. He eyed the alcohol on the table and reached. He stopped himself and looked at the girl.
He pulled out his phone and dialed a number he didn’t think he’d ever dial again. He called his parents. His mother picked up before the phone could even ring twice. He didn’t let her get a word in.
“I need help.” Was he said and his mother promised to be on the way.
A little after that call Shizu walks in, she made sure the take the spare key when he left, and saw Husk in the kitchen, dumping every drop of alcohol he had in his place down the drain.
“What are you doing?”, she asked as she put the clothes her boys had grown out of years ago on the counter.
“Getting sober.”
“Sober? You? Why?” It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy he was, she was just confused. What had driven him to finally stop?
“She needs an adult that isn’t a complete fuck up and she decided I’m that adult.”
You chose her. That was all Shizu could think. They had chosen each other. Shizu moved to help her brother. How did he fit that much alcohol in his tiny kitchen?!
Shizu was downstairs dumping the empty bottles into the bin when a familiar voice called out to her. One she hadn’t heard in years.
“Shizu?”
She turned and it was Husk’s mother, Amara, his father, David, just behind the woman. Shizu hadn’t seen them since before her ex made her leave.
“Did Henry call us because you came back?”, David asked. He and his wide refused to call Husk by the nickname everyone else used.
Shizu hugged them, they were the closest thing she ever had to parents and until now she didn’t know how much she missed them. But her emotions were secondary right now, there was a child that needed help and a new dad that wasn’t sure how to what was ahead of him. She ushered them inside and explained it all. Husk wanting to finally quit drinking but also the little girl upstairs that decided Husk is her new favorite person.
A few days go by, Husk left Shizu to work in the bar and didn’t even set a foot near the alcohol. His mind was actually way too busy to even think about any of that. He was running from one place to the other. He was to take the girl, Crymini she had told them when she was awake, to CPS and there was so much work after. Somehow, miraculously he got custody of Crymini but then he had to buy so many things, furniture, toys, clothes, everything. Heck, he had to childproof his home. Luckily for him he wasn’t alone. Shizu was only a few streets away with her boys and his parents moved into the empty flat just above his.
One quiet night when Crymini was asleep in her new room, Shizu and Husk were sitting at the dining table, coffee in hand. Husk looked at the coffee in his hand and a distant memory come back to him.
“Remember that dream he was as kids?”
“The café?”
“Yeah, let’s do it. Together.”
A few months later the Magic Kat Bar had turned into the Magic Kat Café and now had a pair of co-owners instead of one man owning it all. This was their dream, after all.
Over the years everything started to fall into place. Husk became sober, Crymini loved her new and improved family and they were happy. Turns out all it took for Husk to turn a new leave, was becoming a dad.
A great one even, Shizu decided.
She had seen the way Husk shed a few tears when Crymini called him Dad for the very first time. The little girl wanted to show him the picture she drew, a tuxedo cat with bright red wings.
“That’s you, Dad!”, she proclaimed.
“It’s perfect, Crym.”
Shizu noticed the slight strain in his voice he was holding back the tears of joy. She called him a crybaby after that.
Shizu herself wasn’t any better, she adored the little girls just as much as her dad did. She wasn’t above tears when she called her auntie.
“Thanks, Auntie!”, she yelled as she ran off again after Shizu had given her a muffin.
“Who’s the crybaby now?”, Husk teased her.
“Shut up.”
Cryminis new grandparents were much the same. They adored their little girl. She may not be Husks by blood but the old couple couldn’t help but notice the similarities between their boy and his little girl.
Even her new cousins, Shizus boys, where amazed by the little girl. The three of them hit it off from the second they met. Their parents and grandparents could only wonder what kind of mischief these three will get up to as they get older.
Today, almost ten years after Husk found Crymini, the café was running smoothly and all of them where happier than ever.
“I’m off to school!”, Crym called as she ran past Husk, but not before snagging a muffin from the counter of the café.
She was 13 now and Husk couldn’t be prouder of his little girl, even if she wasn’t all that little anymore.
Just then Husk noticed a new face walking into the café. He knew all his regulars, nice perk of not being drunk all the time, you remember your customers. This guy was new. He’d remember someone as tall and pretty as this one.
“What can I get for you?”, Husk asked.