caffeinewitchcraft:

cinnamonisbark:

So imagine that this dude is a seventh son and he has six sons. Everyone is excited when his wife gets pregnant but it’s a girl. Thing is that the kid is trans and no one knows why they’re so powerful 

His name is Kaleb though no one knows it but him. His name sits high in his throat, ready at any moment to burst out, but it…doesn’t. It’s too big, too powerful, too personal when he doesn’t know what they’ll do with it. Or, rather, when he suspects what they’d do with it and is afraid.

“Kristine,” his mother shouts up the stairs, “you’re going to make us late!” There’s a smattering of laughter at her words, mocking and derisive, from his brothers.

Kaleb’s always the one to blame in these situations. A seventh son was supposed to bring the family luck, status and power. Instead, Kaleb was born with a vagina and the family’s six son streak came to a tragic end. The tragic part, they all seem to agree, is that Kaleb exists at all.

Kaleb looks into the polished bit of metal in his hands and takes a slow, calming breath. He watches his reflection breathe with him and pretends his hair is short in the blurry surface. “I’m a boy. My name is Kaleb. They can call me a girl, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. I’m a boy. My name is Kaleb.”

It’s a spell he casts every day, pretending as hard as he can that he has magic, that this will work. It’s more effective on some days than others, but the day he doesn’t cast it are the worst, hands down. Those days every time they look at him, every time he feels his dress brush his ankles, every time they call him she grates and sets his teeth on edge. Panic will well up in his chest and he’ll have to run to the forest behind their house where they can’t look at him, where can’t look at himself, and strip down so he can’t feel their perception on his skin.

He tucks the polished metal under his bed and rushes to the stairs, long strides eating up the ground quickly. It feels good to walk this way, without his hips swaying, and he does it as often as he can. “As often as he can” often means “where mother can’t see.”

Today they’re going into town for a marriage talk with the Mayor. Kaleb’s oldest brother, Jacob, is of marrying age and has his eye set on the mayor’s daughter. Kaleb’s already been told that the only reason they have to refuse Jacob’s suit is Kaleb himself. He’s supposed to be on his best behavior today and he intends to be.

Kaleb ignores his brothers as they yank at his hair, his skirt, as they blame him for everything from the mud on the road to the late hour. If he fights back, he knows he’ll be the one scrubbing pots and floors, not them. He knows there’ll be much worse waiting for him should the meeting not go well.

“Just behave,” Samuel, the second brother, tells Kaleb. He’s never actively hurt Kaleb before, but as the biggest of his brothers, Samuel is still a threat. “Or else.” 

Kaleb hopes it goes well.

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