part one: new beginnings
prologoue

ten years previous

"daddy!" ten year old Arya Masen screams, watching as police men beat her father with their nightsticks in their front yard.

the girl and her twin brother were walking back from what had been a normal day at school. they had just turned the corner to their street, their faces lighting up at the sight of their small blue house before turning to ones of horror as their eyes landed on the spectacle in the front yard.

"daddy!" She screamed again, trying to run towards her father. Before she could make it more than two steps however, she's lifted up into the air by a pair of beefy arms. The smell of alcohol filled her nostrils as she kicked and screamed some more, watching as a hand shot out to yank her brother back.

She knew by the smell that this man was their uncle, and that only terrified her more. Their uncle David was not a nice man, especially towards them, and she was reminded of that as the front door of his even tinier house is slammed shut.

"Stop your hollering, girl!" The man growls in her ear, dropping her gruffly on the couch. She can see the commotion out the window though, and opens her mouth to scream again. Before she can, she's suddenly slumped on the floor, her vision going black.

Henry instantly jumped in front of his sister before David could back hand her again, his head turning to the side sharply as he took the next blow.

"Henry!" Arya had screamed, cowering in fear as her uncle took a menacing step towards her. He seemed to change his mind though as he glanced out the window. They were beating her father on the sidewalk.

"Shut her up, boy." The man says, pointing at his niece before rushing back to the front door and into the dead yard.

As soon as the door slammed closed Henry rushed to his sister. The boy was older by only minuets, but often acted as if he were older by years. "Sh, Arya." He said, holding her. He was trying to stop her sobbing. "It's okay.. it's okay. i'm going to get us out here," He had said, his cheek still singing as he held her against him. "I promise.

And that was a promise that Henry kept, in fact, it was the only promise he kept that he'd ever made to his sister. Ten years later he even made it happen.

They left in the early hours of the morning, shortly after their uncle had fallen asleep -and long before he would wake-, a beer can clutched in his fist while he was sat in front of the crappy old television set.

"Would you let me drive?" Arya asks quietly, whispering even though they were already in their fathers beat up old car -the thing was a relic that needed a lot of work done, but it was the only thing they had left of their father and the twins loved it-, terrified that her uncle would hear her voice and wake up. She took Henry's face in her hands as he shoves what little belongings they had between them into the back seat, she brushed her thumb over the still forming bruise around his eye. "I wish you would have let me take it.." She says, her mind flashing back to earlier in the evening, when she'd gotten in to it with their uncle. He had seen her acceptance letter for a nursing school down south in los angeles, and then he'd found their rental agreement for the small apartment near the university hospital, where she would be working and going to school at.

He questioned her about it, and when she refused to answer he'd started yelling at her about it. She had started yelling back, and she was more than willing to take the blow he was about to dole out, but Henry had run in from the garage, picking a fight with him to turn the anger onto himself.

Henry had dragged her to their room after that, locking the door behind him and told her to start packing. "We're leaving, tonight." Was all he said, stuffing their clothes into one bag while she grabbed all of their more personal items. They had acted as if things were normal when they all sat down for dinner.

"You may be an annoying brat," David had said in between inhales of the lasagna she had made and sips of his beer. "but I got to hand it to you, girl, you're a damn good cook. You almost give your mom a run for her money." Henry and Arya had shared a look then, it wasn't often that their uncle brought up their mother, but from what few times he had they had managed to put together that their uncle had been in love with their mother, and it seems that she had maybe even loved him back until her father had come back from the navy and swept her off of her feet.

Henry shakes his head, giving her a sad smile. "You didn't deserve it." He says, sticking the keys in the ignition and giving them a turn. Thankfully, the dying motor started up without any problems or backfiring.

"Neither did you." She replies, scooting over so she was no longer in the middle of the bench seat, but near the passenger side. She turned the old crank, rolling the window down to let the cool early morning air breeze through the cab.

Henry doesn't say anything, but starts to pull out slowly. "Besides, you're a shitty driver and i'd like to get there in once piece." Arya shakes her head and laughs, smacking his shoulder lightly. He pulled out into the road, and drove down to the end of the street. Turning onto the road that would take them to main street, and then out of town, he turned to his sister, feeling as if a weight was lifting off of his shoulders as the street they had grown up on was left in the rear view. "Here's to some New Beginnings, Arya." He says, as the looking at the Golden Gate Bridge in the mirror as took the first highway entrance that he knew would take them to the Pacific Coast Highway, he thought she'd like the scenic way better.

Arya decided that she would miss this city -despite all of the horrible things that they had grown up with- and looks at her brother with a happy smile. "Here's to New Beginnings, Henry." She says, the pair link pinkies for a second as a reminder of the promise they had made to each other -to thrive and be happy, and leave it all in the past- before they left.

♥️♥️♥️
hi it's finally here and im honestly so ready for my twins and zak you have no idea you guys !! as usual id like to thank nicki for being the greatest pal, and for enjoying everything that I send her and not telling me to stop bc like,, let's face it i spoil a lot of juicy shit and send her some shitty versions,, ily bby