Sunshine on Leith (David Tennant Fanfiction)

Chapter One - Cherry Bomb

I woke up early this morning because of a nightmare that kept repeating itself over and over again, since I was little. Heavily breathing, sweating and even shaking, I leaned my full bodyweight, well at least everything above my hips, on my weak arms, wondering if they'll collapse. What a great dream to start a day, I thought to myself, as I wiped a strand of my sweaty hair out of my hot face. Why didn't this terrifying memory finally disappear already? I was tired and sick of it. After all, it's worse enough having to experiance it once.

I should consider my life as perfect. I finally moved out of my parents house, who were and still are constantly fighting over everything but I felt so bad for leaving my two younger siblings there. They called me at least twice a week, if they locked themselves in a room again because they were scared of our alcoholic father. Apparently it got worse for them after I left, since he couldn't let his anger out on me anymore. I normally was the one coming into their room - Elijah (12 now) and Ethan (14 now) were sharing a room at that time - and comforting them, when my Dad was drunk again and threatening not only our mum but me as well, what had gotten worse after I outed myself as trans. He drilled into me that I'm still a girl and that my „stupid identity problems," as he called my „condition", won't ever change that. My mum and my little brothers were very supportive and helped me a lot, for which I was very grateful.

I got my brothers to listen to music with noise canceling headphones and dancing to it, every time there was a fight. We especially liked „Cherry Bomb" by the runaways, because it was fun and made us smile every time we heard it somewhere. It was our special song. But we also listened to Queen a lot. My brother's favorite song has always been „We will rock you" of corse. Mine was and will always be „Good old-fashioned loverboy" and whilst they were fascinated by Freddie Mercury, I liked every member but especially Roger Taylor, since he was super attractive and talented.

But back to the moving away thing. My mother country is Germany but my heart always desired Great Britain, so I moved here when I was 22 years old - all by my self in a different country - after my father finally agreed but only after I made him a huge promise. The ring on my finger - it was a purity ring - was a reminder for me not to ever have sex under any circumstances, before I get married. Honestly it was pretty stupid because I wasn't even into that relationship stuff. I was getting along just fine by myself. I'm an independent man and besides, who said I needed a partner? I'm happy with my little crushes on fictional characters and middle aged actors and actresses. My number one at the moment is Michael Sheen and my favorite film with him in it is „Bright young things". I have only watched it once a few years ago because since then I couldn't find it anywhere.

London first appeared to be very scary but when I met my neighbors at a tiny party in our neighborhood, I found myself a really good friend. Her name's Ash, short for Ashana. We became close super fast and since then we have been inseparable. On the first day we met up after the party, she told me she was studying for her master of Criminal Justice, so she could become a police officer. But only after a while Ash trusted me enough to tell me the sad reason behind her dream job. She wanted to be a respectful police woman unlike the white cop who shot her black best friend for no reason at all. Well, he wasn't very cooperative but it's not like he did anything threatening or else. He was just reaching into his pocket to write his mum a What's-App when the officer turned around to get his ID checked. As soon as the Cop saw him moving, he shot him, not only once or twice, there were three gunshots into his chest. He didn't even consider looking twice. But the worst part of it all was that she was only fifteen and had experienced it all. With tears in her eyes she tried to stop the bleeding but the cop also threatened to shoot her if she didn't put her bloody hands in the air. The look on her face as she shared this story with me was heartbreaking and I've seen and heard a lot because of my job as psychiatrist.

The first thing I did this morning was checking the time. As I realized it wasn't even 6 am, I sighted angrily and let myself fall back into my pillow again to rub the tiredness out of my green eyes. With another sight a few minutes later, I sat up again and decided to take a shower, therefore I needed a towel and some fresh clothes, which I picked up soon after. I went under my shower, vibing to "Killer Queen" and let the hot water run over my head all the way to my feet. After I was finished, I put on a baggy and comfortable jeans, paired with a band shirt of Queen of course. I also put on a black belt with a silver chain on it on to hold my trousers. I put on some Eyeliner and a black bandana around my head to give myself a sort of 80s look. When I turned off the music, I realized my brother Ethan already called me two times while I was in the bathroom. Worried that it might have been something important, I immediately called back. As soon as he answered, I asked what's wrong but he and Elijah just sang happy birthday to me. I caught myself, nearly forgetting my own birthday.

"Danke," I smiled, what they obviously couldn't see.
"Thank you"

"Also, was ist für heute geplant?" Ethan asked me curious without responding to my thank you.
"So, what is planned for today?"

"Ähm... Eigentlich nicht viel. Vielleicht gehe ich mal zum Buchladen in unserer nähe und kaufe mir ein neues Buch. Ich werde auch Ashana besuchen. Was macht ihr heute so?," I asked them after I answered Ethan's question.
"Uhm... Nothing much actually. Maybe I'll go to the bookstore nearby and buy a new book. I will probably also meet up with Ashana. How about you?"

"Du immer und deine Bücher," Elijah replied amused and I knew he rolled his eyes right now. He always did. "Wir haben ehrlich gesagt nichts für heute geplant," he replied soon after.
"You always with your books." "We actually didn't plan anything for today."

I could hear a scream trough the phone but as I wanted to ask what's wrong, Ethan continued speaking. "Okay, wir wollten nur schauen, ob alles okay ist. Ich hoffe du hast einen schönen 25. Geburtstag, Bruder. Tschüss," he said in a rush.
"Okay, we just wanted to check on you. I hope you have a great 25th birthday, brother. Good bye"

"Danke, passt auf euch auf und wenn was ist, könnt ihr mich jeder Zeit anrufen," I reminded them like always.
"Thanks, look after each other and you can always call me if there happened something"

"Wird gemacht!" And with that they hung up the phone.
"Will do!"

The scream could have only been my dad, which made me furious. He really should stop drinking so much. Maybe I should talk to him and finally stand up, not only for myself but as well for my innocent brothers and my poor mum. I really was wondering why she was still with him. Probably because of the money. You don't make much money as a single mum, working as a maid and especially not if you have to pay all the bills and see that your kids have something to eat. She was dependent on him, wether she liked it or not.