Matters of the Heart (Rucas Adult AU)

Chapter 1 - The Beginning of Everything

A/N: I had plans to write something else in December, but it turned out that this story, which was supposed to be a oneshot for @ILoveReytonAndRucas spiraled out of control and turned into an actual full length story

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They had moved around a few times growing up, it had been him, his mom, and his sister Maya, going from state to state. It started just after he had turned ten, after his step-father had beat him one too many times, except this time his mother found out and she was furious. The man never laid a hand on her before, but that day he had hit her so hard that she cracked her skull on the counter, before he had turned on Lucas and broke his arm.

His sister had been at a neighbor's house, when the police went to pick her up, Lucas and their mom were in the hospital getting treatment. The police took a statement, and his step-father had been arrested. This was Maya's father, not Lucas's but neither of them cared because they both hated him. Maya had only known because she had been hiding in the closet during one of her father's drunken rages. Lucas had made her promise not to tell because they didn't have anywhere to go, and he was doing it to protect their mother.

"But Lucas," Maya had said that day crying while he tried his best to treat the wounds. The man never hit anywhere that would be noticeable to anyone, so his clothes covered the bruises, the cuts could be explained as if he were just playing with his friends outside, but the bruises had marks that looked distinctive to the older man.

"Not a word Maya, I don't want momma to get hurt," he said trying his best not to cry.

That had been one of many days where Maya had helped him hide the bruises, to help around the house when he could barely lift his hands. Lucas always made sure to put himself between his step-father and Maya so that she was never hurt.

The day they ended up in the hospital, with the police asking a million questions, that was the day his mother heard everything that had happened. She had been working double shifts since the end of summer because she wanted to save up for the kids to have a good holiday season. It was the reason she hadn't noticed what had been happening.

"I feel so stupid, I should have known," his mother said as tears stained her face. She watched in horror as she saw the bruises on Lucas as the doctor's examined him that day.

The police took statements from all three of them before speaking to his step-father, the man swore that he didn't do anything, even with the overwhelming amount of evidence against him. He screamed that Lucas and Maya had both lied about what had happened, but in the end the police and the courts made sure that he would end up in prison. Their mother moved them three times before they settled down, the first place was his grandmother's house in Arkansas, but Lucas kept quite for a long time. His mother was afraid that he wasn't making friends because of what had happened. In middle school they moved to Texas and lived with Pappy Joe on his ranch, they only moved afterwards because his mother had worked on her degree during those years and had gotten a job in New York.

Lucas also knew that it was during this time that his step-father had gotten out of prison, Lucas had just turned sixteen when they moved to New York, Maya was fifteen, and they were hiding in plain sight in a way. The city was so big that it would be impossible for the older man to find them. His mother changed her name to Hart, Maya did as well but Lucas kept his biological father's last name, Friar. There was a restraining order on his step-father, so that if the man so much as stepped into the city he would be picked up by police.

Their lives moved on from there, Lucas and Maya became friends with Zay and they all started hanging out every single day. But Lucas still had some anger left over from what had happened, over how he couldn't protect his mother or his sister. There were days where he got into fights at school, others where he tried his best to keep his temper from becoming too much. His mother worried that all of that time her ex-husband had beaten him, had had a harmful effect on Lucas.