Morning came Tuesday (the day after Roma picked up Ophelia) and I heard an unfamiliar engine scream into the drive way. I sat on the couch, hugging my knees to my chest in an attempt to feel some warmth. When the knock came, I sluggishly stood up and my lips scrunched up, in hatred of what I was about to do. I slowly pulled the door open about halfway and stood so that only half of my form was exposed.

“Hey Vee, ready to hit the road? I’ve got a hell of a surprise!” he said cheerfully, but his smile faded quickly when he saw my face. “Vee, what’s wrong?”

“I, uh... I can’t ride with you today… or tomorrow… for a while actually,” I said quietly, and held out for him his white and red racing jacket and starch white helmet.

“Vinyl, I asked you to hold on to that,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “What’s going on? Why can’t you ride with me?”

“It’s a… girl thing?” I said hesitantly, hoping he would take my pause as embarrassment. “Yeah, like, I’m on the cycle...”

“You’re lying, Vinyl,” he said sternly, causing me to flinch. “You had yours a week and a half ago.”

“How could you tell?” I asked quietly.

“I live with three women; I can tell. Now tell me what’s really going on.”

“I can’t,” I whispered and clenched my teeth.

“Why not?” It was less of a question, and more of a demand, like he were addressing a delinquent child.

“You’ll hate me…” I said as my face started to twist in grief.

“I would ne—”

“Don’t you lie to me!” I snapped, feeling the tears pool up around my eyes and flung the door wide open. “I can see it your eyes, Roma! You’re so full of hate and if I tell you what I did, you’ll let it all out at me!” I nearly screamed, feeling my heart start beating faster as it sank lower and lower.

My eyes widened in shock as his left palm came crashing across my face, sending me stumbling back a few steps. “Full of hate?! Of course I am! Why the hell wouldn’t I be?! But you’re fucking retarded if you think I’d EVER direct it at YOU!!!” he shouted, before turning away and walking towards the black motorcycle sitting in the driveway. He turned back briefly like he was going to say something, but he didn’t. He just grit his teeth, got on the bike, spun out in a donut, then dashed into the street, nearly hitting a cream colored sedan. I flinched, as he burnt out again and ran the stop sign at the end of the road.

“What have I done?” I asked quietly, feeling the stinging patch of red skin on my cheek, before collapsing to the ground where I quickly began sobbing into my hands.

Roma wasn’t at school. And it didn’t go unnoticed by the Rainbooms. Rarity and Pinkie in particular kept casting hateful glares in my direction. All day, I kept my face down and didn’t look back at them. I was scared, to be sure. I thought something had happened to him, and that they knew about it. The crew was concerned about him too, so I told them we had a fight. They said they understood.

When free period came, I found myself absentmindedly wandering towards the arbor, it being my last sliver of hope that I would see him. But he wasn’t there. Of course he wasn’t there. He hadn’t been at school all day, so why would he be there?

I was, however, met with five very angry looking girls, one of whom bore straight hair instead of her normal cloud of pink and another of whom wasn’t even close to Roma, as far as I knew.

Pinkie, Sunset, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Derpy all stared viciously at me, and I almost recoiled in fear.

“Um… Hey,” I said weekly. “Have any of y—”

“What did you do to him?!” Pinkie shouted, grabbing a hold of my collar, and pinned me against the column closest to me. “Why the hell was he so upset when he called me?!”

“W-we had a fight… I lied to him and he saw through it.” Suddenly I was no longer against the column. I found my face slammed into the black dirt. As I spit soil from my mouth, I was rolled over and Pinkie sat on my chest with her fist held above her.

“Why?! WHY WOULD YOU LIE TO HIM?!” Her scream was punctuated by a severe punch to my cheek, followed by the taste of iron flooding my mouth. “He!” Another punch. “Trusted!” Punch. “YOU!” There wasn’t another punch, as Sunset and Rarity had pulled her off of me. “You BETRAYED him!!!"

“I know…” I whispered, letting the shame fill my voice as I stood up. “I… I did… exactly what he was afraid of…”

Fluttershy stepped forward and brought her hand backwards across the same place Roma had, causing me to fall back down. “I thought you would be different. I thought you would be the one to fix him. I thought you could help him! Roma wasn’t the only one trusting you; we were too! I was trusting you!” I was shocked to see her raise her fist and deliver another punch.

“Fluttershy, calm down!” Derpy was behind her in an instant, wrapping her arms around her torso, prompting Fluttershy to calm down a bit. “Baby, please... I don’t like it when you’re like this. It scares me.” And… I did not see that coming. At all.

Rarity released one of Pinkie’s arms, causing Sunset to put the newly deranged girl into a full nelson. “Vinyl, Roma was positively distraught when I spoke to him…”

I was offered a hand by her, which I gladly took, and she lifted me off the ground with little trouble. “Okay,” I said, brushing myself off. “But what can I do? I doubt he’ll speak with me.”

“He will. I’m taking you over to his house, and you two are going to sort this out, like the adults you are,” she said sternly, giving me more than a little reason to fear her.

“When?” I asked, already knowing, and absolutely hating, the answer.

“Tonight, after the boutique closes.”

“Alright. But why are you here?” I asked, pointing to Sunset.

“Because, no matter what happened… I… I never… Damn it Pinkie! Stop struggling!” She punctuated with a brutal head butt, causing the pink girl to go limp in her arms. “Huh, I can’t believe that actually worked. But like I was saying, no matter what happened between us, I still care about him and I want him to be happy.”

“Oh…” I had nothing else to say, so I just walked away, feeling so many angry eyes on my back.

The drive was a quiet affair. Rarity no longer seemed upset at me, but worried. I hadn’t been to Roma’s place, but she had, and the stories she told me were frightening.

“Vinyl, I’m going to warn you, they aren’t exactly… normal. They’re all odd in their own way, especially Romany. If she assumes you and Roma are a couple, she is going to be furious.”

“Why would she be furious?” I asked, a little concerned at the direction the talk was headed. “Unless they like…”

“Not quite. But Roma tends to play the overprotective big brother and as a result, Romany has a sort of… brother complex,” she said, blushing as she continued, “It’s kind of adorable, sometimes.”

“Okay, what about the others?”

“His mother, Tragedy Heart, is a brute. She’s uncouth and aggressive, a far cry from the rest of the family.” She paused, biting her lip, before resolving to continue. "Dahlia Heart, his niece. She’s just… bizarre. Out of the three women, she is likely the most unstable. Something about her parents… I have no idea what happened.”

“Out of the three women? What about Roma?" I asked, turning to look at her. Her eyes narrowed and her grimace tightened.

“I’ve never seen anyone as unstable as that man.”

I stared at her in disbelief. “Whoa, hold up. I thought you guys were friends?”

A haughty laugh flooded the car and Rarity was forced to pull over until she could settle down. “Of course we are! But do you think for a moment that means that I’m going to sugar coat it?" I nodded. "Well, think again! That man is a monster, plain and simple. I’ve seen him angry and it is not pretty. That little slap he gave you? It’s nothing compared to what he did to Sunset!” She finished and continued her mad cackle, and I just stared at her in fear.

My world was becoming much darker than it had been a few weeks ago. I’d never seen Rarity like this. I’d certainly never seen Fluttershy make a fist. I’d even been beaten up by Pinkie... And now I was finding out that Roma had taken vengeance against Sunset! What the hell was going on?!

Roma’s house was a simple, suburban colonial with grey walls and a black door.

Its colors made it feel depressing, with it being as dark out as it was.

As I stood at the front door with Rarity at my back, I held my hand up, terrified to knock. Who knew who would answer the door? His sister? Mother? Niece? Him? The thought of being in such unfamiliar territory frightened me.

“Knock!” Rarity hissed from behind me, causing me to jump and instinctively slam my knuckle against the door. I quickly knocked two more times, a little softer, and turned to glare at Rarity. “Oh don’t give me that look. You’re avoiding the situation. Hello Dahlia.”

I turned to look back at the door, only to find it open, with a young woman, probably a couple years younger than me, standing in it’s frame. She had long, white hair and the same pale skin as Roma, with the same bright red eyes. Those eyes seemed to be full of love and kindness, but they still seemed so cold. they didn't seem to focus on me, but rather, they bore straight through me. She was dressed oddly, her attire consisting of a long, flowing red dress, with one shoulder and a single long sleeve that billowed around her wrist. She was beautiful. “Um, hi—”

“You are the one who upset Uncle Roma? Plastic, was it?” she said sharply. She bore a peculiar accent. It was somewhat reminiscent of an Italian one, but there were traces of something middle-eastern as well.

“Um, close. It’s Vinyl… like a record?” I said sheepishly, taking a step backwards, only to find a slender hand between my shoulder blades.

“Right. I like records. They have that nice scratchy sound,” she said with a faint smile, the stepped back and waved a hand inside. “Regardless, come in. We are getting ready for dinner.”

“Do you mind terribly if we stay?” Rarity asked from behind me.

“Not at all, as long as she is here to make up with him,” she said, pointing a thumb at me.

“I am!” I said, a little too quickly, prompting the girl to smile widely at me and put her hand on my shoulder.

“Well, then come on! Uncle is in the kitchen!” she said, giving of a newfound air of exuberance, then pulled me forward into the building.

It hurt my eyes. It was all so bright and colorful that I had to blink a few times to get my vision to adjust. The sound of lively music flooded my ears. I found it charming, as the lyrics were uplifting, about singing songs in a crowd and looking forward to tomorrow.

We will dance through the night,
In the candlelight,
Warmed by the fires glooow,

We’ll drink a toast to tomorrow,
And one to days long agoooo!

I liked it; it was rustic and it made me feel like dancing… which is exactly what Dahlia started doing, giving a few twirls as she headed off into the kitchen. I looked around, failing to find the source of the music, until I spotted Rarity skipping merrily after Dahlia.

“Um… What?” I said, dumb founded.

“Oh, come now, Vinyl! A Heart dining is not something to miss, even amongst enemies! Liven up and dance!” she said, as a new song, with a quick tempo and a heavy bongo rhythm began, prompting a big smile to spread across her face. “Oooo I do love this one!”

I suddenly found both of my hands being grabbed, and I was being pulled into the kitchen, where there were several things going on at once.

There was a woman with black skin and red hair, sitting on a counter, strumming on a guitar. On the other side, a girl who looked to be a younger clone of Roma shook a tambourine furiously back and forth, while Dahlia began singing and banging on a drum that was tucked under her arm, and then... there he was.

Roma stood in a corner, sawing viciously on a violin, while the two youngest girls danced around the kitchen. He had the biggest smile on his face I had ever seen. Then he looked at me and his smile vanished.

The music stopped abruptly, and everyone’s eyes turned to me. “Um… Hi, Roma…” I said weekly, and cast my eyes to the floor. Oh God the floor was red! That is so unbelievably tacky…

“Not one, but two guests for dinner? Looks like the jam session’s cut short, girls!” Roma said, prompting a collective ‘aw’ from everyone gathered, including Rarity.

“You don’t have to stop on my account!” I blurted, then blushed when everyone started laughing. “W-what’s so funny?”

“Miss, Roma is the family cook!” said the girl who looked just like Roma. I assumed that she was Romany, especially after taking not of her left arm's cast.

“Thing is Vinyl, since you two came, I’ve got to cook even more. Not that I really mind, I enjoy cooking,” he said, pulling a smile back across his face.

“Sorry, should I leave?” I flinched when Roma scowled again. “I take that as a yes?”

“Vinyl, if you leave this kitchen, I’m going to bash you over the head with this violin,” he said, leaning back against the counter. “You came over, you’re here and you’re not leaving until… Where’s Rarity?” he said, suddenly looking around frantically.

The sudden screech of car tires drew our attention to the driveway, where an old, white Cadillac was pulling rapidly out of the driveway. Rarity stuck her head out of the window and hollered, “Sorry, but I have things to do! Good night!” She then ducked back into her car and took off.

“Well, I guess I’m staying,” I said quietly and turned back to Roma, who was pulling things out of the cabinets, drawers and fridge. I vaguely noticed that his family had already exited the room.

“Yup,” he said, and sat a large skillet on the stove. “Say, you like stir fry?”

“Never had it. Ever since I was diagnosed, I’ve been eating low protein foods. Stir fry was never really an option for me.” I paused as he gave an affirming hum, then went about throwing a number of things into the pan. “Roma, why are you being so calm about this?”

“Blasé. I’m being blasé, because it’s happened before. Difference is, we’re going to work this out tonight,” he said, and turned the stove on. “I’m not going to lest this one fester up like a wound inflicted by a door.”

“Say what?” I said, blinking in confusion.

“My hands. When I had my casts on, I couldn’t wear bandages, so they got infected. They festered.”

“Oh! Dude, that was just... terrible."

"Yeah... did not think that one through."

So... you want to talk about it now?” I asked, leaning back against the table.

“No, we’ll talk after dinner, so we can be alone.”

Dinner was pleasant. And big. Like, really big. The stir fry was big enough to feed a small army.

“Come now, Miss Vinyl! Eat up! Put some meat on those bones!” Dahlia said, as she shoved the pan across the table to me. “You are like a skeleton!”

The family laughed and so did I, opting not to mention my sickness, for fear of spoiling dinner. “Oh yeah? You should see my roommate!” I said, scooping a second helping onto my plate. It was so good, I just couldn’t help myself. “She monstrously strong! Arms like a gorilla, and a temper to match!”

“Hey, I’m pretty sure Octavia would object to being called a primate!” Roma shouted happily as he accepted the pan from me.

“Well, what would you call her?”

He paused for a moment, thinking, before he raised the spatula over the table, like a sword. “She’s a giant Pangolin!” This statement elicited a groan from the table, excluding me, as Roma laughed hardily at his joke.

“What the heck is a pangolin?” I asked, earning another groan from the family.

“Pangolins are the coolest thing on the planet! They’re like ant eaters, but with scales!” he shouted, grinning from ear to ear. “We have a tree pangolin as a pet!”

“That sounds biza— wait as a pet? Is that legal?”

“We don’t know, but he’s damn adorable,” said Tragedy, scooping up a third helping of stir fry. "Dahlia rescued him in China and brought him with her."

"Rescued?"

"They eat them and use their scales for home remedies over there, even though they're endangered. It's sickening," Roma explained, scowling at the table. He suddenly lifted his face and forced a smile across his lips. "But enough of this depressing stuff!" he shouted, "Dinner is a time when the whole family is meant to smile!"

Romany stood up and pumped her fist in the air. "Yeah! let's all cheer up!" She went to lean on her broken arm, but the cast slipped and she fell face first onto the table, prompting everyone to laugh at her. Even she was laughing, despite her now-bloodied nose. I had a sneaking suspicion that her face plant was intentional.

I liked this family. They seemed to find ways to make each other smile. They were everything my family wasn't... I would've loved to be a part of this family.

I knew that couldn't happen, but it was still a nice thought.

I sat on Roma's bed, with a small curl of scales in my lap, which Roma had introduced as Heiwashugi, or Shugi for short. His full name meant ‘Pacifism’ in Japanese. At least, that’s what Roma had said.

Roma sat beside me, smiling at the little ball of scales, but that soon stopped, as he scooted back onto the bed and sat cross-legged. “So,” he said, leaning back, “Mind telling me what this morning was about?”

There was absolutely no point in waiting any longer, so I decided that the best idea was to just blurt it out. “I got off thinking about you.”

“Oh. I'm flattered. You know, the last person to tell me that was…”

“Sunset?” I asked, looking over my shoulder.

“Pinkie.”

My body snapped around, eliciting an annoyed squeak from the pangolin in my lap. “Sorry, Shugi.” I looked my host dead in the eyes. “So you’re telling me that Pinkie masturbates to you?”

“Dunno if she still does, but she did. Specifically, she masturbated to what I did with her.”

“Whoa Whoa Whoooa-hoooaa… you and Pinkie got busy?” I asked, shifting again, causing my little lap warmer to uncurl and crawl onto the bed. “When did that happen?!”

“In the summer between middle school and Freshman year. Just before the Sunset incident,” he said, his face turning a slight shade of red, though his expression never changed.

“I bet she was wild.” I reached over and held out a hand for Shugi to crawl up, which he promptly did. “I can’t imagine her being any other way.”

“No, actually. She was in a funk that summer. I had promised I’d do whatever it took to cheer her up… That just happened to include getting laid,” he said with a smirk.

“I hope she was your first, at that age.”

“She was.”

“So, you’re cool with it?” I asked, holding my arm out, as Shugi hung off it by his tail. “This little dude is freakin awesome.”

“You clapping over me? Suuure. Just don’t make a habit of picturing me naked.”

I laughed, if only because I was uncertain of what else to do. I was glad he wasn’t angry. But even more so, I was glad I didn’t have to lie to him. Speaking of which… “Hey, Roma?”

“Yes?”

“Let’s make a promise, here and now,” I said as Shugi crawled around and nestled on my shoulder like a parrot. “Let’s never lie to each other. Deal?”

“Deal,” he said, holding out his hand, which I gladly shook.

“Okay, so what is Ophelia?” I asked, grinning at him.

“Nice try, but we aren’t quite to that point yet. Ophelia is special, and only certain people are allowed to see me play her.”

I sighed and pulled the little tree pangolin off my shoulder, then flopped onto my back, not realizing that it would put my head in his lap. I went sit up, but Roma's hand touched my shoulder, letting me know it was cool to stay there. I playfully lifted Shugi over me, level with Roma's face. “I guess that's fair. Say, can you take me home soon?”

“Sure, if you feel like riding a super bike at night without a helmet,” he said playfully and bopped Shugi’s nose with his index finger. The pangolin squeaked and reached out in a failed attempt to grab Roma's finger.

“As long as you don't go crazy. That reminds me, what happened to the Ninja?”

His face turned red, and he scratched the back of his head. “I uh…” He trailed off, waiting a moment before he swallowed hard, then continued, “I blew the engine out trying to get to the hospital to see Romany.”

“You really love your sister, huh?” I asked and sat Shugi down on my chest, where he curled up into a little spiky ball.

“It’s… complicated. See, when Romany was born, I was five, so I already had a grasp on the concept that I was going to have to be more responsible. When she was three…” Roma paused again and took a deep breath. “When Romany was seven, she got sick. Very, very sick. She almost died… and I was powerless to help. The thought of that happening again... just scares me. It scares me a lot”

“That’s so sweet. Rarity said you guys were close…”

“Rarity likes to call it a brother complex,” he said, grimacing. I could tell it bugged him, at least a little, that she referred to them in such a way.

“Would you do the same for me?” I asked, looking up at his face with a smile. “Would you ride like a lunatic to make sure I was okay?”

He didn’t hesitate in his answer. “Yeah, I think I would,” he said quietly, smiling back down at me.

After I dismounted the R1, I turned back to Roma and smiled, as he was doing the same. He still wore his helmet, but I could see under the visor where his cheek was pushed up by a cute, dorky half-smile. I stepped up close to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, and whispered to him, “Thank you.”

His only response was to wrap his arms around my chest(Cuz, you know, I’m short) and hug me back. We only stayed like that for a moment and that wasn’t long enough for me. But, I understood that I couldn’t be clingy. I had to pull back; I had to be cool. He let go and I quickly, though reluctantly, followed suit.

As he turned to leave, I felt something wet roll down my cheek, so I quickly reached up and wiped it away before he could see it.

As he rolled out of my driveway, I waved, smiling as he gave a kind of half-salute, half-wave, then took off.

Everything was going to be A-okay, I told myself.

Just... peachy.

… I didn’t believe that for a second.

Author's Notes:

So, our boy seems nice, but is he really? Everyone keeps calling him a monster, but is he? Are people getting tired of my frequent chapter breaks? That last one is probable! So, I'm going to take this in kind of a dark direction that a lot of you probably won't like too much, but I ask that you please be patient with me, it'll get cheery again soon. A big thanks to Indigenous for the continued moral support, it's been really helpful in keeping my inspired to write this story. *Squee!* Bonus points to anyone who can put a name and link to the song the Heart family was singing in the comments.

Edit notes: Changed sentence structure,
lengthened dinner discussion
had Vinyl put her head in Roma's lap
changed the age that Romany got sick
Finished editing.