Found Family (HoO, Mortal AU)

EPILOUGE P1

Six years later.

[DREW TANAKA]

One of the hardest parts of being aromantic and asexual was the fear of being alone. Everyone was going to get married and have a family. Drew wasn't. At least that's what she thought, before she found a group of girls who had a house in Georgia. A few of them were on the aro/ace spectrum, but a lot of them just chose not to get married.

She was a bit worried about moving in at first- a lot of the girls were a good bit older than her. They welcomed her with open arms, though. How did she find out about the house? Well, the 'leader' was her ex-boyfriend's sister.

"Drew," Thalia smiled. "You made it! It's great to have you here."
She never really knew Thalia, she'd only seen her on Instagram or heard about her through Jason, but she was exactly how Drew expected. Short black hair, almost 30 years old, but didn't look a day past 18. She wore a leather jacket and had electrifying blue eyes. She smiled, though.
"Yep!" Drew attempted a smile. She was never that good with new people. "Thank you for having me."
"Our pleasure," Thalia stepped aside. "Come on in. Welcome to your new home."

There was a group of girls standing in the entrance, some looking down from upstairs. About twenty of them. What was living with twenty girls going to be like? Terrifying, but super fun.
"That's Hylla, your friend Reyna's sister," Thalia pointed to Hylla. "Pheobe, Hunter, Bri, Kinzie, Lulu, Otrera, Doris, Naomi, Celyn- okay, this is a lot of names. You'll get the hang of it eventually."
"Uhm, cool," she nodded, all eyes on her. "I'm Drew Tanaka, uh. Yeah. Nice to meet you."
Suddenly one of them- Kinzie- grinned. "New member. This calls for a celebration!"

• • •

Almost twenty four years of searching. Searching for somewhere to belong. And she found it. Drew Tanaka found a home with people who accepted and would grow to love her. 'Romantic love is the strongest' people would tell her, saying she would 'outgrow' her feelings. They were wrong. Any love could be the strongest and her feelings were not going to change anytime soon.

"Oh, yeah, Drew-" Thalia walked into Drew's bedroom, two letters in her hand. One was addressed to her and Hylla, the other to Drew. "You got a letter. I think it may be the same as the one Hylla and I got," she winked before leaving the room. Drew didn't know what that meant, but she opened the letter anyway.

[CONNOR STOLL]

When he was in his junior year, Malcolm Pace had asked him to prom through a book. When Malcolm gave him the second book in the series, Connor highlighted some words then dogeared the pages, knowing Malcolm would freak out, trying to fix them. That was before he realised that the words highlighted asked him to be Connor's boyfriend.

They continued the tradition- sending each other tiny messages through that book series. On the fifth of May, the final book in the series came out. Connor bought two copies. One normal one. Another one that was specially edited.

[TRAVIS STOLL]

His little brother had always been an undercover nerd. Travis proposed to Katie straight up. But she said no the first two times, so he gave up. Then three months later she asked when he was going to ask again, so he did, then and there. This time she said yes.

They bought a bungalow with a big garden- basically the only thing Katie wanted was a garden. It practically became a home to Cecil, Alice, Julia, Connor and Malcolm, too. Neither Katie or Travis minded (apart from when Cecil would leave his things EVERYWHERE. That got annoying.)