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Usually, Gatlon City was never this hot. They were used for cold winters, but not too hot summers. Nova hated this type of high temperatures, she despised the sweat and heat that came within. It put her in a bad mood and everyone knew that Nova in a bad mood wasn’t good news.
Even though she tried to dress with a big shirt as always, today the temperature was too high, so she didn’t have another option rather than use a top. She didn’t like to show off too much skin, the girl wasn’t used to it and it made her uncomfortable. However, Nova guessed that in the Everhart's house, she felt comfortable enough to wear it.
After Supernova, as people liked to call it, Hugh and Simon took her under their wings. The teenager at first thought that it was only because of pity. And that, in a couple of months, they would kick her out when they realized how disgusting the things that she had done. To her surprise, that moment never came. On the other hand, the dads of Adrian seemed to turn more and more softer with her every day that passed.
At first, Nova couldn’t understand it. They should feel betrayed, angry, displeased with her. They shouldn’t be treating her as another of their children. She blamed herself for everything that happened and the girl thought that everyone should blame her. How couldn’t they?
Nevertheless, after some serious chats with Adrian and her therapist, she was starting to understand that maybe, only maybe, not everything was her fault. It didn’t become easy to look at the Everhart’s family eyes, but at the end, she started to loosen up around them.
Feeling hungry, Nova left the basement where Adrian and her slept and she went to the kitchen. When the girl entered the room, she observed that Hugh, Simon, Ruby, Danna, Oscar and her boyfriend were there too. She wasn’t planning on coming across with all of them.
Suddenly, Nova felt too aware of her own body. The girl knew that she had a good body and that she shouldn’t feel uncomfortable with it as none should. Yet, the brunette couldn’t avoid it. Growing up with Honey prejudices didn’t help at all.
“Nova!” The female observed how Adrian’s eyes seemed to glow when he saw her and the girl let herself smile at the sight, a warm feeling settling down in her chest. Though, that disappeared when she saw how the smile of Adrian became grimaced when he looked at her body.
Nova's hands started to shake. Hugh and Simon were looking at her with their eyes widened, as if something with her body was completely wrong. The trio of friends were looking at her disturbed. Her breath became heavy. Yet, she scolded herself. She couldn’t get so worked up by some simple glances. Calm the fuck down, Nova.
“Is something wrong?” she asked and the girl clenched her jaw when she realized how her voice wavered. Realizing his mistake, Adrian immediately got up and sprinted into her direction.
“NO! I mean, no love. There’s nothing wrong.” he replied, taking her cheeks with his hands and kissing his forehead. Nova relaxed her tensed shoulders. But, remembering the looks that they gave her, the girl shook her head.
“Are you sure?” The girl’s voice was soft. Adrian bit his lip and Hugh was the one that answered her.
“Can we talk for a little bit, Nova?” he inquired, smiling softly, with his typical calm voice that managed to make everyone feel safe. Nova gulped, nervous again. Had she done something wrong? She couldn’t remember. Maybe they were finally fed up with her. Maybe this was the moment in which they threw her out of the house.
God, where could she go? Ruby’s house could be a good option. Danna was a big no. Even if they had forgiven her, she knew that the Monarch held some kind of remorse against her. But Oscar’s might be better. He probably wouldn’t ask questions and that was Nova needed.
“…Nova, Nova, listen to me.” Adrian was talking to her. She focused in his voice, going back to the reality where her boyfriend was looking at her with an expression thick with unease and worry. “You didn’t do anything wrong, okay? They just want to talk. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, love.” Nova knew that. But her mistrust for everything didn’t let her think about that.
When she calmed down, Adrian walked with his arm around her hip to one of the chairs in the dining table. He sat down and then he invited her to sit in his lap. This was something normal of them. Nova would usually feel safer hearing Adrian’s heartbeat, which made her know that he was alive and kicking.
After settling down, she realized that the looks that Hugh and Simon were giving her weren’t of disgust or repudiation. Their eyes were full with concern. Just like Oscar, Ruby and Danna’s
“Where did you get all those scars, Nova?” Hugh went directly to the point. Simon elbowed him. Yet, Nova liked that about the Captain. The fact that he was someone straightforward helped her anxiety. The girl observed her own body with all her scars and she chuckled, relieved that everything was about this.
“The scars? Just training.” she replied, shuddering. It wasn’t the complete truth, but it wasn’t a lie either. Nova thought that everyone would seem alleviated after her words. However, they seem to be much more concerned now. The girl couldn’t understand why.
“Training? Not like battle scars?” Adrian’s tone was full of confusion and concern at the same time. Nova raised her eyebrows.
“Battle scars? I mean, yes, some of them. But most of the scars are from training.” Nova insisted. There couldn’t be anything wrong with scars from training. Right?
Right?
Hugh sighed, but Simon was the one who talked.
“Nova, it is not normal to get scars like that while training.” Nova titled her face to the right, confused. What did he mean?
“What? None of you have scars like this from training?” she asked and all of them appeared to be almost hurt at her question. They shook their heads and Nova started to understand that it might be something wrong with her scars. Ruby now had tears in her eyes. Oscar put his arm around her. Danna seemed tense. What was happening and why did Nova seem to be so out of it?
“With whom did you train, Nova?” Hugh asked, carefully. Nova’s body fell still. Adrian, feeling how tense she became, kissed her shoulder and he started to rub her thigh. At his touch, the girl chilled out a little bit.
She didn’t want to talk about Ingrid. Even if it happened months ago, it wasn’t easy. The event totally traumatized her and she only assumed that when her therapist told her. However, she felt as if she owed it to the superheroes. So, she decided to talk.
“Most of the time Ingrid. Sometimes Honey, when she needed to let some stigma go. Phobia if he was frustrated, but that only happened two or three times.” Adrian's body tensed when he heard Phobia’s name and Nova felt guilty. The girl couldn’t believe that she had considered that villain family. Just like Ace.
“None of them were made by Leroy?” Hugh said with narrowed eyes, as if he was holding himself. Nova saw protectiveness in his eyes.
“What? No! Leroy never harmed me on purpose. I mean, I got some scars from a couple of experiments that we did together, but they weren’t really harmful.” Simon and Hugh sighed in relief and Adrian’s body lost some of its tense.
“Nova, you have to understand that being harmed like that while training is not normal.” Simon trailed off once again. Nova frowned. What was wrong with her scars? They were from training for God’s sake, there was nothing wrong with them. And with her training either.
“I don’t understand what is wrong about this, guys.” she replied, trying to keep her patience. This wasn’t the first time that something like this happened. A couple of weeks ago, when she broke a plate cooking, she expected to be screamed at. But when Hugh and Simon only laughed, saying to her that Adrian had broken almost ten of them, she realized that they weren’t going to do that to her. And she couldn’t understand why not.
“At what age did you start to train?” Ruby asked her, with a tight-lipped smile. Nova twitched her mouth, thinking.
“Probably when I was eight or nine. It wasn’t long after Ace had died.” Everyone tensed up once again and this time the girl almost screamed. She was getting frustrated with the situation.
“Nova.” Oscar talked this time. The girl looked at him, questionably. “We started to train when we were fourteen.” Nova raised her eyebrows, surprised. At the age of fourteen?
“Is not normal for a little kid to train and less if it leaves them so many scars like the ones that you have, Nova. We understand that you didn’t grow up with the most kind people in the world, but training a little girl is not something that they should have done.” Hugh was the one who said this to her. Nova scratched the back of her head, now becoming more discomfited. It was true that growing up with the Anarchist was not one of her best experiences, but she didn’t think that it was that awful. I mean, how different could it be growing up with superheroes?
And besides, she didn’t have a disgusting childhood. The girl had good memories with the villains, she considered family because of something. And furthermore, they had to train her. After all, they were all villains, Anarchists. They didn’t have anyone to defend them besides themselves; they had to be prepared for anything.
But before Nova could protest once again, Adrian won her with a comment that she didn’t see coming in the slightest.
“They are not all from training, right?” Adrian inquired in a whisper, close to her ear. Yet, everyone heard him. Nova pressed her lips together. She hated how good the boy had become at reading her. When she was Nightmare, these things didn’t happen. Before she could defend herself, the grip of Adrian’s hand in her thigh tightened and the female knew that she wouldn’t be capable of lying again. Not with Adrian in the room.
She cursed how soft she had become for the boy. Damn you, Adrian Everhart.
“And what if they aren’t?” she asked with her teeth clenched, crossing her arms, more defensive. Nova couldn’t avoid it. After so much time with her walls so built up, it wasn’t easy to let people in as if it was nothing. It wasn’t easy to let people see her weaknesses. In the past, they wouldn't be allowed under any circumstances. But the past is the past, as her therapist said to her once.
Adrian’s breath hitched, with all his muscles tensed up. Nova could feel it. She felt too how the tension in the room became higher and how Hugh was really close to getting up. However, Simon had a firm grip in his arm that wouldn’t let him move. Nova observed how now, Ruby was crying in Oscar’s arms, and how Danna was looking at her with pity. Pity. What the hell was going on?
“Did the Anarchist abuse you, Nova?” Hugh finally asked the question that everyone wanted to ask. Nova’s eyes widened at the words of the man and she couldn’t hold a hushed laugh. Abuse? No. They are wrong. The Anarchist didn’t abuse her. They were her family, fucking hell.
“What the hell is wrong with you? They didn’t abuse me.” she replied with her nose crackling up and her eyebrows furrowed, looking at him as if he was a mad man. Hugh shook his head, apparently defeated. But they weren’t aware of the fact that Nova didn’t actually know the signs of abuse. She couldn’t know.
Ruby was the only one who seemed to think about this option.
“Do you know the signs of abuse, Nova?” she asked softly, getting closer to her with her eyes reddened. Her voice trembled a bit, but only a little. Nova looked at her with her eyes narrowed. She wanted to say yes. But she actually didn’t. She didn’t know. The girl never had the time to look up what were the signs of fucking abuse. Not like she had many people to ask for either.
“No, I don’t.” she hissed, avoiding everyone's glances.
“Did the Anarchist ever hit you on purpose Nova? Maybe when they were angry or frustrated?” Nova almost laughed again. You couldn’t live in the same place as Ingrid if you never were a victim of her anger. But, Nova suddenly realized that it might not be the most normal thing in the world.
“Maybe.” she mumbled, not wanting to admit it aloud. The tension in the room only increased.
“Did they ever blame you for things that you didn’t do? Did they ever humiliate you? Did they make you feel insecure? Did they force you to do things that you didn’t want to do? Did they-” but before she could follow, an exasperated Nova interrupted her.
“Fine, okay, I understood, you made your point.” she replied, overwhelmed. There are some things that Nova had assumed that were normal, but that maybe they weren’t. That it may be normal only if you grew up around villains. Or it would be better to say; sick people. Yet, the superheroes shouldn’t be this surprised. She grew up with a girl that could make everything explode with anger issues, a man who never lost the opportunity of telling you the things you fear, a mentally unstable woman that depended on her bees. They couldn’t expect her to have a perfect childhood.
Nova realized that she stayed silent for a couple of minutes now. Everyone was looking at her expecting something. The girl felt how her hands started to shake once again and she grabbed them and forced them to stay still. Yet, two hands took them, grabbing them softly, intertwining their fingers. Nova knew that they were Adrian’s. The girl bit her lip before starting to talk.
“This one.” she signaled her biggest scar in her stomach, that was at least 5-6 cm long. It seemed to be deep and Nova felt chills through all her body remembering it. “It was made by Phobia. Is one of the worst that I have. Phobia was usually a composed person, you didn’t even see him many times in the day. I remember it was night. I was really hyperactive, so I decided to run through the railways for a while. The Anarchists were already used to hearing me at night and I guessed that they wouldn’t mind,” Nova gulped. “Phobia appeared out of nowhere. He seemed really agitated, something weird in him. When he heard me running, he suddenly screamed at me, demanding me to stay quiet. Me, not having the most calming personality, screamed at him asking what the hell was wrong with him. He didn’t take my outburst well. When I realized what he was doing, it was too late. He had already cut me in the stomach with his scythe. There was so much blood. I remember that the only thing that I managed to do was scream really loudly. Leroy was the first one that came out.” Nova bite the inside of her cheek. “He was screaming at Phobia. I had never seen him so livid. It was really scary. When he realized that I was still in the floor, bleeding, he took me to his wagon, where he patch me up.'' When Nova finished, all the people in the room were looking at her with big eyes and some of them had their mouths opened in surprise. The girl hated it. So, before anyone could say anything, she followed.
“The one that I have in my back, at right.” she got up, turning around and signaling it with her hand. “It was made by Ingrid. Almost all of the scars were made by her. Most of them were training, I swear. But this one is one of the few that weren’t made while training. As you already know, Ingrid was really short-tempered. And she had a really big pride. So, when I grew older and I started to win in the duels that we had, she began to get angry at me. One day, it was all too much and after we ended with our training, she made a bomb exploit a centimetre besides me when I was walking to my wagon. Her excuse was that I should be prepared for anything at any instant. Since that moment, my paranoia has worsened a lot. It’s one of the reasons why I always seem to be so jumpy and tense.” Nova never saw so many murderous looks in some superhero’s faces at the same time. If she hadn’t grown up with villains, it could have scared her.
“I got a few from Honey as well. The worst is the one in my left leg, in my thigh,” she lifted her shorts enough to leave the scar in everyone's sight. Some gasps were heard in the room. The scar was horrible, now that she actually observed it. “You know, usually, bees don’t actually leave scars. However, Honey could control more than a thousand different types of bees. I remember the day, it was our third anniversary of our,” she sighed. “their defeat. Honey always seemed to be much more emotional on this date. We never talked to her these days. Yet, that day, she asked me for an opinion of a dress that she had made. I told her that I like it, because I genuinely did. She thought that it was sarcasm and that I was making fun of her. So, out of anger, she sent a couple of her bees to bite me. I can’t remember much of the moment. Just that it hurt like a bitch and that I passed out some minutes after they bite me. I was in bed for days. I don’t know how many.”
Nova hated pity. She expected everyone in the room to look at her like that. Yet, the prodigious were glancing at her with sadness. And anger. The girl gulped, becoming aware of all the secrets that she just revealed. She had refused to tell all of this to her therapist. But with them, with the people that were the closest thing to be her new family, it was easier.
Adrian got up and he walked in her direction. When he was close enough, the boy cupped her cheeks with his hands. Nova leant in his comfort, as she always did.
“Nova.” he softly said, tilting his head trying to meet her look. Nova pouted without realizing when he angled her face to look at him. His eyes were warm, they were looking at her as if she was the only thing that mattered in the whole world.
“It’s okay.” the girl smiled but Adrian shook his head, his glance suddenly hardened.
“No. It’s not okay, Nova. You have to understand that.” the brunette bit her lip before answering.
“Maybe I deserve all of it, you know?” she couldn’t stop that comment. After everything that she had done, maybe she did. Nova was completely convinced that she deserved everything bad in the world. The guilt was too much and it was usually the reason why she had these thoughts. Adrian’s eyes widened when he heard her.
“Fuck no, Nova.” he hissed and after making her look straight into his eyes, he started to talk. “listen to me very carefully, Nova. You didn’t deserve any of that. And you don’t. You shouldn’t let anyone treat you like that. What they did was horrible and there is absolutely nothing in the world that might make you deserve that, love. Nothing. I need you to understand that.” Nova couldn’t.
Right now, she couldn’t. But maybe, in some time, with professional help, she might be able to understand it.
“You didn’t deserve that Nova. None does.” Danna actually said and that made Nova’s head spin around, actually surprised. “Don’t look at me like that. Yes, you did awful things and yes I still don’t enterally like you, but that doesn’t mean that I think that you deserved all that suffering.” she seemed actually convinced that what she was saying was totally true. At this, Nova let herself smile, thankful.
“Thanks. To all of you.” she mumbled, a little bit shy. And, for the first time in her whole life, she let herself completely relax in Adrian’s arms, feeling safe and secure.