Hi everyone!

SUPER SUPER IMPORTANT THAT YOU READ THIS:

Major content warning for this chapter!!!! Thank you as always for reading but if you are triggered by the topics listed below, please skip this chapter - it is the flashback of Thea's past with Adrien.

Though an essential part of the story (and though there isn't anything explicit that is referenced), if you do not feel comfortable, please skip. And not to worry, I will summarize it in a less triggering way at the beginning of the next update for anyone who chooses to skip this chapter.

Thank you for your support!!!

Love, luckycharms <3



!!!CONTENT WARNING!!!

This chapter contains triggering content such as violence, bullying, racism, trauma, and sexual abuse/harassment. Please be mindful of these triggers if you wish to read this chapter.



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Thea's first interaction with him was during the first week of classes at the Aiverian National University. It was a Thursday. She was in a class of nearly a hundred students, only thirteen of them were Elorian and only three of those Elorians were girls.

It was in that first Thursday class that Adrien and his friends had come and sat behind the Elorian girls who had banded together, including Thea, not for any reason except that they were late to get there and the only available row of seats were at the long desk right behind those girls. Adrien sat directly behind Thea.

It was a three hour politics class that droned on and on and on despite it only being the first lesson, and it was at the two hour mark that Thea felt someone lightly tug at her hair. She ignored it the first time, figuring it was nothing, but when it happened a second time, she turned.

She hadn't noticed it earlier, but her long hair, knotted up in a half ponytail, was pouring onto the desk behind her, invading into the space of the boy who sat there.

But what surprised her was that Adrien was leaning forward, his face resting on the palm of his hand which had its elbow propped up on the desk. He was feigning writing in his notebook when in reality, he was running his fingers through her hair.

In both panic and embarrassment, she pulled her hair over her shoulder, making the boy look up at her with just his green eyes, and when their eyes met, she gave the boy an apologetic smile before turning to face the front again.

As she told the story to Rue now, however, she remembered that despite the small smile that grew on Adrien's face when he looked at her, her first feeling, her instinct, was fear.

Deep down, she must have known from the beginning that this boy was not good news.

She should have trusted that instinct.

He continued to sit behind her every class for the weeks that followed, his fingers touching her hair whenever they had a chance. She wasn't necessarily bothered by the touching, only finding it to be mildly strange, and though his smile seemed kind whenever their eyes met, they never spoke to one another... at least until she stepped out of a professor's office after a short question session, and bumped into him.

"Theavi, right?" He asked. He had a charming, boyish smile with messy brown curls that made him look rather handsome. Once again, she felt a little frightened by him... but she simply thought that it was probably his looks that intimidated her. She always found herself intimidated by handsome boys, usually not able to look them in the eyes. She blamed that part of her on Aaryan... the most handsome boy she knew who, at the time she thought, felt she wasn't worth his time once they were in highschool and surrounded by prettier, more popular girls. "I sit behind you–"

"Yes, I know," she smiled at him. "You... touch my hair."

He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, looking embarrassed. "Yeah, sorry about that. I shouldn't have done that."

The look of embarrassment calmed her down a little... it made him seem more human.

"It's hard to keep my hands away though," he continued, "I've wanted to tell you that you have beautiful hair."

Now Thea felt her cheeks warming. She struggled to get her thanks out, stuttering a little.

Adrien seemed amused, smiling a crooked smile before holding his hand out. "I'm Adrien," he said. "Political Science major."

Thea looked from his hand to his face and after a moment of hesitation, she relaxed. "Theavi," she said as she took his hand and shook it. "Journalism and communication."

And that was how it started.

It started off with the two of them just being friendly with each other. Smiles when they passed each other on campus, sometimes short conversations, other times longer ones. What Thea hadn't realized at the time was that almost every single time they had an encounter, Adrien was alone, or at the very least, out of the sight of his friends. Or maybe she had realized it... but chose to ignore that fact at the time.

Whatever the case, within a month and a bit from their meeting, he was trying to find a means of being alone with her, and soon after that they were sneaking kisses in quiet corners of libraries and late in the evening after long study sessions and in abandoned, empty areas of the campus. It was always a secret, but it was still nice.

And though, at this point, she had found out that this Adrien Karney was, in fact, the son of the notorious Jakob Karney... Thea couldn't imagine that Adrien was anything like his horrid, murderous father. How could a boy who wanted to kiss her, an Elorian girl, be anything like their racist, evil father?

Adrien was always so kind to her... at least, that's what she thought.

Despite everything she knew now, one of her favorite memories was when she was rushing down the halls to a class she was late to and Adrien, who was with his friends, had just turned the corner and spotted her. When she passed him, going in the opposite direction, he stepped away from his friends and grabbed her arm before pulling her into an empty classroom.

He held up her wrists in his hands as he kissed her, and though initially she had tried to fight him off, not wanting to be more late than she already was, she found herself enjoying kissing him. So she let him kiss her, letting him wrap his arms around her and pull her close.

It was when he pulled away, however, that he told her he wanted her.

He told her that he wanted to be with her.

She was ecstatic. She liked him, after all, and so she said she felt the same way. They wouldn't have to be so secretive anymore, and the thought of that thrilled her.

After her response, he smiled a sweet smile and kissed her again, deeply but gently, before pulling away and speaking up, his eyes still closed. "There's one thing though," he said as he pressed his forehead against hers.

She waited for him to continue.

"People can't know," he opened his green eyes and looked at her. "People can't know about us... this would need to be a secret."

Thea remembered her heart sinking as she pulled away. "W–why?" she was frowning. "Because I'm Elorian?"

"No," he answered quickly. "No, it's not that... not that entirely."

She cocked her head to a side and waited for him to explain.

"My father," he said. "My father can't know I'm in a relationship. Let alone in a relationship with an Elorian girl."

Her brows rose slowly.

"He's the Premier, Thi," he explained. "His reputation matters to him more than anything–"

"So you being with me would make you look bad, which in turn would hurt his reputation?" She was crossing her arms and frowning. "Why ask to be with me then?"

"Because I like you," he insisted, reaching out and grabbing her by the elbows to pull her close again. "I want to be with you and I don't want my father to ruin this for me."

She remembered staring at him for a long time, her mind racing with thoughts. That seemed to make sense... and he said he liked her... that was all that mattered, right? It made sense that he would want to protect their relationship from his evil father.

She spent some time trying to make sense of it all before finally giving in.

She trusted him.

She believed his words.

And so despite the fact that they were in a relationship, the secret kisses and meetups continued. Behind closed doors he loved her and kissed her and made her feel wonderful... everywhere else though, they were strangers.

It was... exhausting.

The riskiest thing they had done was simply Thea being invited to Adrien's home near the campus. It was a gorgeous manor that he had all to himself and though Thea was concerned by the sight of all the maids and armed security guards, Adrien had assured her that they knew her as being here to work on an assignment with him... and even if they assumed otherwise, they were in his pockets.

They were loyal to him.

She found that to be an odd thought, nevertheless, here and there he would invite her to join him at his manor, where they would have some time alone to talk or study or kiss. Nothing more than that ever happened, Thea was now thankful, though that wasn't to say that there were never any attempts made by him to take it to the next level. Yes, their relationship did progress very quickly, but they had only known each other for about three months now and Thea didn't feel ready for anything other than kisses.

Despite this, generally her time alone with him was welcomed and she enjoyed it.

At least until the day things began to change.

It was on an evening that Adrien had invited her over.

She was on his bed, flipping through books to make notes for a paper she had to write, and he was sitting just behind her, bored and running his fingers through her hair as he often did.

The room was silent except for the sound of pages turning and papers rustling and soon, the bored Adrien leaned forward and pressed his lips against the curve between Thea's shoulder and neck.

She laughed and shrugged him away. "Don't distract me."

He rested his forehead on the spot he had just kissed, his short curls tickling her neck. "I'm bored," he repeated for the hundredth time. "Why are you always studying so hard?"

She continued to flip through her book, skimming the pages. "Because my skin and hair and eyes and sex makes me have to work a hundred thousand times more than most others for people to even think that I might be smart," she responded.

Adrien chuckled, putting an arm around her and pushing her down onto the bed. "Sex, huh?" He asked as he got on top of her and kissed her lips and then moved down to her neck. "I can think of a few things that your skin and hair and eyes and sex makes me want to do." His lips were against her skin as he spoke, making a shudder run through her, and though the feeling of his warm breath against her was almost immediately intoxicating, she had to push him off.

"Stop it," she said, giggling. "You can do things to me when I don't have an essay to write... when you don't have an essay to write."

He groaned as he rolled his eyes. "Thi, that's basically never. You're killing me."

She laughed before leaning forward and pressing her lips against him. "Unfortunate."

He sighed against her lips, though smiling, before rolling off the bed. "I'm going to the bathroom," he said, straightening up. "You've left me a little... stiff."

She scrunched her face up, feigning disgust, as he gave her a crooked grin before he turned and made his way into the bathroom that was attached to his room.

Chuckling to herself, her heart feeling light, she went back to her essay, only to be startled by the sound of his bedroom door flying open and smashing hard against the wall behind it.

She sat bolt upright, looking at the door and expecting Adrien's father... who else would barge in like that? However, it wasn't.

Standing at the door, shouting Adrien's name like a madman, was his friend, Cartian, followed by another friend whose name Thea didn't remember.

Cartian cut himself off and looked at her with wide eyes, and though Thea wondered if she should be worried, she really wasn't. Carti, as everyone liked to call him, was incredibly nice. He was a boisterous and friendly boy who got along with everyone except the professors, seeing as he didn't do quite well in school.

Carti was one of the Aiverian boys she wasn't afraid of.

He had always been nice to her, she would even go as far as saying that they were friends, seeing as they spoke here and there and she had even helped him with his writing a few times.

Whatever their relationship was, however, the sight of Thea sitting on Adrien's bed would have been a shocking one, seeing as though he was close to Adrien, even he knew nothing of the two.

"Thea?" He looked confused. "What are you doing here?"

She stuttered a little, lost for words. "I, uh–"

"We're working on a project," she heard Adrien say.

His voice filled her with a sense of relief, however, she remembered the moment she turned and looked at his face clearly, even as she spoke to Rue. She remembered the look on his face, his darkened eyes, his cold expression, his hardened jaw as he stood at the door of the bathroom, his hands in his pockets.

He looked... dangerous.

She thought maybe she was imagining it, turning back to look at Carti for a moment before she started to quickly close the books in front of her. "I was just about to leave, actually," she said as she packed everything away. She then slid off of Adrien's high bed before rushing to the door, smiling at Carti.

When she was behind the two friends, she turned to steal a quick look at Adrien, hoping maybe that he would give her a quick smile or wink or something... but he didn't. His expression was cold.

She walked home, trying to make up an excuse for why he would have been upset with her after his friends showed up so suddenly. Her conclusion was that the explanation was simple, really. If his friends had barged into the room only minutes before, they would have walked in on Adrien on top of her... their secret would be exposed... of course Adrien would have been stressed out.

Once he's settled down, he'd be back to normal.

But he wasn't.

It was almost as if, after that close call with his friends, he was engulfed in a sense of paranoia. The secret kisses and meetups stopped almost entirely after that. At times he wouldn't even look at her when she walked by and if their eyes did end up meeting, he would look away immediately, his expression changing entirely.

Sometimes, if they ran into each other in the halls and they were most certainly alone, he would be the old Adrien again. Other times, he would go as far as accusing her of making it too obvious that they knew each other... that they were together... despite it not feeling at all like they were together.

Thea had nearly had enough of it when one day, she made a trip to the main campus library to return a few books and pick out some new ones. The moment her eyes fell on Adrien, who was with his usual group of friends, his expression became cold as it always did now, before he turned away.

She ignored him, making her way through the library shelves to get what she came to get, however as she searched the shelves, her fingers grazing against the spines of the books as she searched, she felt an arm grab hers and spin her around.

The move was aggressive enough to hurt her, and when she saw that it was Adrien who the arm belonged to, she felt her eyes widen. "What–"

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" He asked, his green eyes cold and angry. "You're trying to make sure everyone finds out–"

"What are you talking about?" She tried to pull her arm away.

"Why are you here? Are you trying to ruin everything?"

She gawked at him. "Adrien, I came to exchange a few books! I have papers to write."

"And you chose to come when I was here?"

"How the hell would I have known that you were here? We haven't spoken in days," she hissed back. "And let go of me! That hurts!"

Her words and her glower seem to snap some sense back into him as he pulled his arm away, revealing the skin that he was previously grabbing to be reddening from his touch. Thea brought her arm to her chest, still glaring.

"You're right," he said. "I'm sorry–"

"Sorry? Adrien this is too much. I can't–"

"I know," he grabbed her upper arms, gently this time. "Thi, I'm sorry. I'm acting insane... my father came to visit and he was saying things that made me... it made me think he knew something."

She shook her head. "That doesn't give you an excuse to treat me like this–"

"You're right," he repeated, before pulling her into a tight hug. "I shouldn't have accused you."

She wanted to pull away, but she didn't. Instead, she let him knot his fingers in her hair and kiss the top of her head.

"I won't let it happen again," he said, pulling away and looking down at her. "I promise, Thi."

Her brows were furrowed.

She knew now that even back then, deep down she didn't believe him. Once again, she should have trusted her instincts, but when he dropped his head down and kissed her lips before apologizing once again.... she tried to force herself to believe him.

His grip on her that afternoon actually bruised her a little in the area's where his nails had dug into her skin. She tried not to think much of it though, hiding it under her sweater. because as he had promised, he went back to acting like the old Adrien... at least, for a few days.

Then, it was back to paranoid Adrien.

The accusations happened some more and she would argue back but it seemed useless... for a while he seemed certain with himself that Thea was plotting to ruin him, and then he would apologize to her, and tell her he was wrong. The constant back and forth had made exam season rough for Thea, and though she and Adrian had another spat before her last exam, the semester ended off okay for her.

And once the New Year hit and her classmates decided to throw a New Years party, Thea was reluctant to go. She hadn't spoken to Adrien since their last fight, so she was feeling their distance growing, especially since she went back to Abureth to visit her family for a short time before returning after New Years. However, her friends had convinced her to go, especially since Thea knew she needed to relax a little too.

She knew Adrien would be there... it was a party hosted by some rich girl whose family everyone knew were close with the Karney's... so to try and save him the trouble, she avoided him at all cost, not even looking in his direction.

However, seeing each other was inevitable.

It was late into the party, majority of the guests drunk or drugged up or whatever the case, that Adrien's eyes met hers, and as she expected, he didn't look pleased, his jaw hardening and his entire expression darkening. She was mostly sober, only having a single drink the whole night, and from the looks of things, Adrien looked drunk.

That should have been a warning sign in itself.

Though she continued to try to avoid him, at some point, she suddenly felt him standing close behind her. "Meet me in the room all the way down the hall upstairs," he muttered before walking off, pretending still to not know her.

Thea's frown deepened. She didn't want to go meet him. Not when he was being a jerk.

But she felt angry and annoyed and ignored her own judgment and went, deciding that this was all too much and she was tired of this. She had decided to call their relationship off. She had had it.

She made it to the empty bedroom first, and as she waited, she looked out the window, watching crazy, drunk boys do dangerous stunts on their motorcycles on the lawn outside as the girls who were watching them squealed.

Thea grimaced.

This was not her kind of party.

Then she heard the door click shut.

When she turned, Adrien was standing with one of his hands on the doorknob and a glass of what looked like whisky in the other. He looked at her with lowered brows, a shadow cast over his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

Thea rolled her eyes, though noticing he was slurring his words a little. "I came with my friends."

"Why?" He approached her. "You don't even like these kinds of parties." He was right about that, and her hesitation was enough for a flash of anger to pass through his expression. "How many times do I have to tell you that if people found out that we–"

"You're the one who's risking people finding out, Adrien," she snapped back. "You've asked me to come here into a room alone with you! Me being at the same party as you isn't going to do anything, but being alone in a room with you might!"

"Why are you making things so difficult, Thi," he asked, pacing back and forth now. "All I asked you to do is stay away–"

"No," she said, firmly. "No, I'm tired of you blaming me for being difficult when you're the one who's putting unreasonable rules on this... whatever this is!" She waved her arms around in frustration. "I'm done with this, Adrien!"

Adrien stopped walking and looked at her. "What did you say?" He asked before chugging down the last of his drink before setting the glass down on the dresser. "What do you mean you're done?"

"I mean I'm done with you," she said. "I don't want to be with a boy who wants to hide me away. I don't want to be with someone who wants to keep me a secret!"

Adrien's eyes widened before narrowing again. "What?"

"I don't need to deal with this, Adrien," she said, starting to walk towards the door. "I have better things–"

She was cut off when Adrien grabbed her. She was used to the grabbing, so she was about to yank her arm away but before she could, he jerked her back so hard she felt her shoulder pop before he grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her against the wall.

Thea's eyes were wide in shock. "Are you crazy?"

"You're going to end things with me?" He asked, the smell of alcohol strong on his breath. "You're the one who's crazy."

Thea didn't know how to react, simply gawking at the man, and when he pressed his lips against hers and kissed her, probably expecting her to let it slide as she had in the past, she found herself freezing for a moment.

She didn't understand what was happening.

All she knew to do was to push Adrian away and glare at him. "Stop it," she snapped. "I want to go–" She was cut off when Adrien grabbed her neck with one of his hands before kissing her again.

She was scared now.

If she wasn't scared before, she was now. She was starting to get incredibly frightened.

When she pushed him away for the second time, she knew she had to leave. Whatever it was she had known this boy as, he wasn't that right now. He was drunk and angry and paranoid and she couldn't be here in this room, alone with him.

She tried to run to the door but he grabbing a fistful of her hair, swung her back and threw her onto the ground, causing the breath to be knocked out of her before he got on top of her. For a moment, her voice wouldn't come out, and as she flung her arms at him, hitting him against his chest, he grabbed each of her wrists with his own and pinned them down over her head. He bent forward and pushed his lips against hers as she tried to fight him. "You're being an idiot," he said when he pulled away from her. "You can't end things with me."

Her breathing was quick and panicked. "Adrien, please," she tried. "You're acting crazy. Get off of me."

"You're the one who's making me act like this, Thi," he responded. "You can't end things with me. Do you even know who I am?"

She started crying. "Adrien, please," she repeated. "You're hurting me! You're scaring me!"

For a moment, he hesitated. It seemed as if for a moment, he realized what he was doing, loosening his grip on her arms. It was just loose enough for Thea to yank them away and push his palms into his face, hard.

The move hurt him, making his head snap back while her nails scratched into his neck, but it wasn't enough to get him off of her. Instead, it made him angrier. "Fuck, Theavi!" He snarled as he used all his strength to press his forearm into her neck, choking her. "I'm nice to you for a little while and now you think you're better than me?"

She was scratching at his arm, shredding his skin with her nails but he was too drunk to seem to even notice. The pain she was feeling, on the other hand, was excruciating, and she was beginning to see patches of black in front of her eyes.

When her body was exhausted and her flailing settled, on the verge of passing out, he let go of her, letting her cough and breathe as he grabbed her wrists again, held together above her head with one of his hands. "I'm Adrien Karney," he said, angrily. "You do what I tell you to do. If I want you, I get you, whenever I want, do you understand?"

He didn't wait for her to respond. Instead, he ripped her blouse open, revealing her bra and causing her to start a new round of screaming and sobbing before he pressed his lips hard against hers to try and silence her.

She fought him as hard as she could, though everything was hurting and made worse when she felt his tongue against her skin. She couldn't see anything as the tears blurred her vision while streaming down past her temples, soaking her hair, and though she fought, he was much too strong. With relative ease he managed to get her skirt well above her waist while she still continued to fight, and though she continued to scream and cry, he began to unbuckle his belt.

Suddenly however, there are arms underneath his armpits and Adrien is yanked off of her.

Thea is still sobbing as her body shoots up, and she dragged herself to the other end of the room until her back hit the wall. She pulled her torn blouse around over her chest before she wiped her tears away and looked in Adrien's direction.

He was fighting against Carti, who had a firm hold of his drunk friend. "What the fuck, Adrien?" he snapped. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Let me go, you son of a bitch!" Adrien shouted.

Carti looked frantic, trying to figure out what to do. "Adrien, dirtying yourself with this Elorian bitch is not worth it," he said. "She's a fucking Crow, Adri, don't waste your time on her!"

If Thea wasn't in such a state of shock, his words may have actually hurt her. But right now, all she cared about was that Carti's words seemed to be working, making Adrien calm down, though his face was still scrunched up in a look of disgust.

But just as she felt a momentary drop of relief, she saw his other friends rush into the room, wondering what the hell was happening, only to be shocked by the sight of Thea on the floor, bruised, clothes torn and terrified.

The sight of the other friends made Adrien's expression change too. Almost instantly, he collected himself, yanking away from Carti's hold before looking back at Thea.

Her heart sank.

His eyes were dark and cold and cruel.

"This bitch has been trying to get with me since we worked on an assignment together," Adrien lied with a smirk. "She thinks she's good enough for Adrien Karney."

All the friends except for Carti laughed and Thea looked away, praying that if she just didn't say anything, they would leave her alone.

"I just wanted her to know what happens when you shoot your shot too high and forget your place," Adrien said. "I thought roughing her up a little would do the trick... but look at her face. She doesn't seem to care."

She kept her eyes down.

"I think I know a better way to deal with her though," Adrien continued, his eyes still burning into her. "Jol, go get me some scissors."

Thea's head shot up as the boy named Jol snorted before leaving the room.

"Adrien," Carti called firmly. "You've done enough, look at her, she's terrified."

Adrien ignored his friend and just as Jol returned with a scissors, Thea felt the blood drain out of her. She stood, trying to run but all Adrien needed to do was smile his charming smile and say, "hold her down boys."

The boy who stopped her, the boy who grabbed her arm and pushed her down onto the floor, at the time she didn't know. Now however, as she relived the story, she recognized him. It was Railand. Railand from Achlis.

No wonder he felt that he had a right to try and hurt her.

She tried to fight him off, but two other boys joined, holding her and giggling like school children, laughing as if this was a game they were playing.

When she looked up at Adrien, she pleaded with him to stop. She begged him to leave him alone. She tried begging Carti to help too but he didn't, he looked horrified, but shook his head before turning away. So she tried Adrien again. She tried apologizing, she tried admitting it was her fault, she tried to beg him to listen.

He didn't.

He was a completely different person... not the person she originally met. He was drunk and vile and cruel and he grabbed a fistful of her hair and used the old fabric scissors that was handed to him to cut it all off.

Thea was sobbing the whole time, trying to pull away though that just made it all the more painful. Her tugging caused strands to be ripped out from the scalp, her fighting caused Adrien to cut through her left ear, and by the end of it, when they let her go, she crumpled to the ground, warm blood dripping down the side of her neck, thousands and thousands of strands of hair all around her, boys still laughing as they left the room.

Adrien knelt down in front of her when he was satisfied. He grabbed her by the chin and lifted her head up so she would look at him. "Your pretty hair is all gone," he said, his voice soft but cold. "Good luck snagging and manipulating a rich politician's son without it."

And with that, he left too, shutting the door behind him.

She stayed on that floor for hours, sobbing until she couldn't sob anymore, unsure of what would come next.

Any time she would look up, she would see the hair everywhere and look back down immediately, praying that not seeing it would mean that it wasn't there.

She couldn't leave like this. She couldn't let people see her like this.

She didn't know what to do. She had lost too much that night... and for what? She still didn't understand why.

It was hours later that she heard the door open again, and when she looked up, terror on her face, it was Carti who knelt down in front of her. "Thea, I'm so sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry I couldn't stop him... when Adrien gets like that I..." He shook his head, before he threw a coat over her shoulders and pulled its hood over her head. "Everyone is either asleep or gone," he continued. "Come, I'll take you back to your hostel."

Thea couldn't remember how he got her to the car he drove and how he figured out where her hostel was and how he got her into it, but she was there and he didn't ask for any thanks. He just told her to ask him if she needed anything at all, apologizing again before leaving.

She couldn't remember what she was thinking at that moment and why she decided to do what she did, but she went to the phone in the main lobby of her hostel and it took her five tries to get her brother to pick up, and the second he did, she started sobbing quietly into the phone.

She knew Theus probably did not understand a single word that was coming out of her mouth, but he was worried enough to take the last train from Abureth to the Capital and arrive at A.N.U. about five hours later, early, early in the morning.

When he saw her, she felt his horror, but he said nothing. He pulled her into a tight, warm hug and held her as she cried and shook as if she was freezing. As soon as the pharmacy's opened up, first thing in the morning, Theus left for for only a short while to buy a first aid kit as well as hair cutting supplies, and when he came back, he cleaned her up in, humming softly to try and calm her down– though her brother had the most beautiful voice, he had stopped singing years ago... but his humming was enough.

He applied ointments to her wounds and bruises, bandaged up her injuries and then used the hair tools to do the best job he could to clean her hair up. By the end of it all, when she looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes were swollen, her skin was darkened with bruises and her hair was a short bob, though uneven in some places.

She felt hideous.

She felt like a monster.

And though Theus stayed with her for the days to follow, reassuring her constantly that it would all grow back eventually... that what mattered was that she was okay... she felt like she had been destroyed.

She knew her brother was only trying to make her feel better, but he knew as well as she did the significance of hair to an Elorian woman.

Adrien knew it too. He knew what cutting her hair would do to her. Thea knew that this was why he even chose to do it... why he refused to just let her go.

He knew how important hair was to her people.

In Ancient Elorian times, women were the Keepers. They were the leaders in their families, they were the heads of their communities, they were respected and revered, partially because in old times, there was a belief that an Elorian woman's hair held the memories of their people.

Haircuts were only done ceremoniously, as if they were done wrong, the memories in that woman's hair would be lost forever. The ceremonies would ensure that the memories would be pushed up to the woman's roots and held there until the hair was cut, only being released when the cut was complete. They would ensure the safekeeping of that woman's history.

In addition to that, it was only done during special occasions, usually during significant life events... a month after birth to purify the child of the memories of past lives, the day of the first blood, marriage, after the birth of their first child, and death... death, to pass on the memories in that woman's hair to their eldest daughter or granddaughter or whoever came next.

Of course, these were ancient traditions, old beliefs that were now proven to be silly with science. However, despite this, despite knowing that their hair did not hold any memories, or any real power at all, for that matter, many Elorian women still cherished it.

It was a symbol of their heritage, of their history and beauty and strength.

Thea cherished her hair.

Her hair was important to her.

Her hair was a part of her.

And Adrien had taken it all.

He had taken away her history, her choice, her dignity, her independence, her love for herself. Simply because he was angry, he had ruined her.

He had taken her identity - even going as far as apparently having his friends burn the purse that she left behind. That meant she had lost her school identity card, which needed to be replaced with a new picture of her, her hair short and the photo becoming a consistent reminder of what had happened.

To make matters worse, she knew what the sight of her would do to her family.

Her brother was strong, yet she knew it took everything in his power for him to not find out who did this and murder them, and she knew he only held back because it would make Thea's situation worse.

Her parents, however?

Her grandmother? The elderly woman whose hair had not been cut since the birth of her last child. The strongest, bravest, most respectable woman she knew.

Thea knew they wouldn't be able to handle the sight of her. It would devastate them.

And so to avoid this, she did not go home for two years straight. She had to beg her brother to convince her parents not to come every time they wanted to, and though it was hard, he did it by coming up with every excuse in the book, and Thea suffered without them, refusing to see them until her hair grew back just enough for them to not notice it had been cut.

So Adrien had, inadvertently, taken her family away from her too.

She was alone for the next two years, spending every waking moment trying to get through her courses so she could graduate early, not wanting to be at that school anymore... at the school where everyone called her an Elorian whore who lusted after the son of Jakob Karney. The Elorian whore who was taught a lesson for not knowing her place.

And yes, her hair grew back, but if the stories and superstitions were true, her hair grew back heavy. All her happy, old memories gone, and in its place, the memories of Adrien and two years of suffering.

She didn't love her hair anymore.

But she kept growing it, hoping that one day, maybe once it was grown all the way back, things would go back to normal. She would be her normal self again.

That wasn't the case, though.

She would never be the girl she was before all of that.

It was gone with her hair.