AN: I really wanted to write a little bit of a larger backstory as to how and why Richelle lives with Natalie so you get a cute (and angsty) little 5+1 and an entire chapter from Natalie's POV. CW: implied/mentioned ableism, internalized ableism.
1. (2005)
Her little sister is five years old the first time she says she wants to live with her. They brush her off at first, what little kid doesn't wish they didn't live at home at one time or another. But then she has a meltdown at the prospect of leaving.
"Hey Kiddo," Natalie pulls her sister into her lap. "Can you breathe with me?"
"I don't—I don't want to—I don't want to go home," Richelle says through sobs. "I want to stay with you."
Natalie looks over at their parents because she has no idea what to do. Apparently they think she wants physical help because her dad starts to make his way towards them, probably to grab Richelle from her lap so she shakes her head and holds her sister tighter. She doesn't know how to help her sister at the moment, but she knows dragging her out of her apartment kicking and screaming will definitely be the wrong move. She continues taking exaggerated breaths, hoping Richelle will copy her and start to calm down. It takes a couple minutes but Richelle's breathing finally evens out a little, and even though Natalie can tell she's still crying at least she's not gasping for air anymore.
"Why don't you want to go home?" Maybe it's the wrong question to ask with their parents standing right there but she's not really sure what she's supposed to be doing.
Richelle buries her face further into her chest, "'Cause you aren't there."
When she moved out a few months ago she wasn't thinking about the effect it would have on her little sister, the little sister that was always in her lap or somehow in her vicinity. If Richelle didn't have school the next day she'd offer to let her spend the night, but as it stands she doesn't know how to convince her to go home with their parents.
"How about I pick you up after dance on Friday?" Natalie chances a glance at their parents, hoping they'll go along with this. "Maybe we can have a sleepover."
Richelle looks up at her, cheeks tear stained, and her eyes red, but she's no longer crying. "Really?"
It's not a tactic that's going to work forever, but if promising her sister that she can spend more time with her gets her to go home without her, it's okay for now.
2. (2008)
By the time Richelle is eight she's spending the night at least once a month at Natalie's apartment, always on a Friday night because Sunday morning is for church. And after some non-stop chatter about her friend Noah from dance Natalie organized a mini movie night for them in her apartment. Apparently they've known each other for quite a few years but when Richelle brings over a weighted stuffed leopard he gave her, ("It's a snow leopard Natty," Richelle corrects every time she calls it a leopard) she knows Noah must be one of her best friends. Natalie has her suspicions as to why exactly it is that Richelle needs a weighted stuffed animal in the first place (and why she's so obsessed with dance and leopards), but she's not going to step on her parents toes and suggest it.
Even though Natalie organized the movie night for Richelle and Noah she can't say no when her little sister drags her over to the couch and demands that she join them. Even as young as her sister is already extremely aware of how she acts in front of other people. So it's another check in Noah's favor that Richelle feels comfortable enough around him that she doesn't hesitate to crawl into her sister's lap. Richelle doesn't have a lot of friends, there's a couple other kids from dance that Richelle would probably say she's friends with if Natalie asked, but Noah's the only one she's met.
"Do I have to go home?" Richelle asks when Natalie tells her that Noah's mom is going to drop her off when she comes to pick Noah up later that night.
"I think Mom and Dad probably miss you. And don't you want to sleep in your own bed and not with me?" Natalie is a little concerned how often Richelle wants to be at her apartment and not at home. Although truthfully she wouldn't mind if her sister wanted to spend the night again but she knows there's no way their parents would allow it.
Richelle shakes her head, "Your bed is better, you have more blankets." Natalie knows it's not the real reason, but if it makes her sister feel better to tell herself that, well she's not going to pry.
"How about I give you one of my blankets. Would that make your bed better?"
When she goes to her room to grab a blanket off her bed she overhears Noah ask Richelle why she doesn't want to go home. Apparently he has older brothers and he "can't imagine wanting to hang out with them".
She hangs back in her room to hear Richelle's response, "Natty lets me have happy hands and dance to the music in my head." She says it very matter of factly, no anger towards their parents for not letting her do those things, or gratefulness that Natalie does, just a fact of life that some things she's allowed to do with Natalie their parents stop her from doing.
3. (2010)
At ten Richelle is starting to get a little too big to easily share a bed with. Even if she's still pretty small she's mostly arms and legs, which usually end up lodged somewhere in Natalie's stomach at some point in the night. When she wakes up with a bruise on her hip though she knows that she should probably start looking for a bigger apartment. Officially the second bedroom will be a guest room, but since Richelle is the only guest she ever has it's really just a room away from home for her little sister.
"Natalie!" Richelle rushes at her when she enters Studio B at the end of her sister's J-Troupe rehearsal.
"Hey Kiddo. Ready to go?"
"Almost." Natalie watches as she runs back to her class to say good-bye to Noah and Ms. Kate. And grab the rest of her stuff that was abandoned at the sight of her sister. Richelle talks the entire ride home, telling Natalie all about her week at school and everything she's doing on J-Troupe and in all her other dance classes. "Wait, this isn't your building."
"I moved, remember? This is my new building." She looks back to see her sister anxiously shaking her leg and she realizes that maybe showing her new apartment to her sister for the first time on their sleepover weekend wasn't the smartest move for an anxious girl who doesn't like change. "Why don't we just sit in the car for a little bit, here in the parking garage so you can get used to it." Natalie moves to sit in the back seat and does her best to talk through the layout of her new apartment. "I was going to make it a surprise, but I think we've had enough surprises for today. Part of the reason I moved was so that you could have your own bedroom. So whenever you're ready we can go up and you can see it."
Richelle's eyes widen almost comically, and she starts excitedly shaking her hands, "Really?"
"Uh-huh, you have your own bed and a stuffed animal you can keep here. Do you want to go see it?"
Natalie laughs a little when Richelle nods so aggressively that she throws her head against the headrest.
Richelle doesn't even explore the rest of the apartment once she knows which bedroom is hers. She immediately launches herself onto the elevated bed, and lets out a shout of pain when she misjudges how tall the bed is and accidentally kicks it. It's not actually that tall, only about a foot and a half off the ground, but it is quite a bit taller than her bed at home or Natalie's bed.
"You remembered I like being up high! And I have a leopard! I love it Natty!" Richelle pulls the stuffed leopard that was sitting on her bed to her chest and rolls around on top of the sheets. "I don't ever want to go home."
4. (2012)
There had been a lot of back and forth but Natalie had finally gotten their parents to agree to full weekend visits when Richelle is twelve, provided she takes Richelle to church in the morning. She always makes sure it's the same service their parents would be at so they would have no reason to argue she hadn't actually taken her.
Except now it's the first week of summer and despite the fact that Richelle has been at her apartment since Friday night she doesn't seem all that inclined to want to go home Sunday night since school isn't looming over Monday. Unfortunately Natalie still has work in the morning and she's already pushed the boundaries by asking for the whole weekend.
"Is everything okay at home?" Natalie asks when they're sitting on her bed, after Richelle flung her backpack across the room to protest going home.
Richelle shrugs and looks down at her hands where she's tangling her fingers together. "They're not great," she finally admits. "Ever since we figured out what was wrong with me it's like they're trying to make me normal."
"C'mere." Even though her sister is really too big for this Natalie pulls her into her lap. "There's nothing wrong with you. Your brain just works a little bit differently from mine, and Mom and Dad's. You make connections that I never would've thought of, and you teach me all about dance and leopards. Did you know I didn't know leopards and snow leopards were different until you told me about it? And you're very good at remembering interesting facts. What was it you told me the other day? Something about jellyfish?"
That gets her to brighten up a little bit, "Oh, yeah, there's a species of jellyfish that just doesn't die! It grows up and then once it's fully grown it starts de-aging so they can only die if they get sick or eaten. Most of the time they get eaten though before they can start de-aging. But theoretically they can live for forever!"
Natalie squeezes her a little tighter, "See, you didn't even have to think about that. And you know, some things are going to be harder but that's not your fault. And you can come to me any time they do and I'll do my best to help you. I love you Riche, you're the best sister ever."
"I love you too Nat. I wish I could live with you." It's not the first time she's said this, but for the first time in a while Natalie thinks she really means it.
5. (2012)
A few weeks after her thirteenth birthday Richelle shows up unannounced with snow melting in her hair and off her backpack. Natalie had just been about to start dinner when there was a knock at her door. Initially she ignored it, living alone as a single woman meant she never answered the door unexpectedly, but the knocking gets more insistent so she checks the peephole and rushes to unlock the door when she sees her sister.
"Hey Kid," Natalie's trying really hard to not freak out because even though Richelle is at her apartment on a pretty regular basis now, she knows that tonight is a night she's supposed to be home. Richelle crashes into her and Natalie jumps a little at how cold her sister is. "What's going on?" Richelle just shakes her head and presses further into Natalie. "Do Mom and Dad know you're here?" Another head shake. "Ok, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to get you settled on the couch and then I'm going to text Mom that you're here." Natalie keeps talking when she sees her sister about to argue, "I won't make you go home, not right now, but if they don't know you're here, they must be worried about you, it's below freezing out right now, it's just so they know you're safe. How did you get here anyway? It's too far to walk, especially in this weather."
"I took the bus," Richelle whispers, not looking up. At that Natalie grabs a hoodie out of the closet in the hallway so her sister can change out of her wet, snow-covered one. The nearest bus stop is at least two blocks away. Then she grabs the stuffed animal Richelle keeps in her room, the leopard she gave her a few years ago, and a weighted blanket from the same hall closet before retreating to her room to fill their parents in.
Somehow neither of them noticed their thirteen-year-old leaving the apartment. "Don't use that tone with me Natalie, this is our annual Christmas Party, something you would know if you bothered to check your email, people have been coming and going all night," her mom had said when Natalie wondered about how they hadn't noticed their own daughter was missing. Especially since she had to have been missing for the better part of an hour. She's not happy when Natalie tells her that she's not going to bring Richelle home, not until the next morning at least.
"Are you ready to talk about what happened?" Richelle shakes her head and pulls her stuffed animal closer to her chest. "Okay, I'm not going to push, for the moment. But Riche, you can't just run away, what if I hadn't been home?"
Her sister shrugs and mumbles something she can't make out. And upon prompting repeats, "I probably would've gone to Noah's."
Natalie drops it after that, there's not much more to talk about until Richelle is ready to explain what happened. So they watch a few more episodes of Degrassi, her sister's latest obsession, and then Richelle abruptly turns the tv off.
"It was too loud at home, and there's too many people. I had class this morning and I thought that I could be in my room when I got home, but there were already people there. At first I was just going to sit in the hallway, but it was still too loud and I don't know. I just feel safe here."
+1. (2013)
Not even a week after Richelle unexpectedly showed up at her door, Natalie tried to figure out if Richelle actually could move in with her. There was a lot of arguing with her parents and more than a few times she cried out of frustration, but she finally got them to agree to it on a trial basis. They didn't think she knew what she was getting into, didn't she know that teenagers, and even preteens, are a lot of work, and Richelle is more work than most (Natalie rolls her eyes at that, her sister is autistic, and really if they just worked to accommodate that instead of trying to make her not autistic she would probably fight with them less). And sure, there was an adjustment period, figuring out how exactly to be responsible for another person for more than a couple weekends a month, but taking her in during the summer means that hopefully things will be a little easier once school starts back up in a few weeks.
But it's all worth it when, at the end of the month, she sees the look on Richelle's face, immediately before being tackled with a hug, when she tells her that their parents agreed to let her move in.
"Really? I don't have to go home?"
"Really. Welcome home Riche."
AN: Poor kid went through it this chapter. Made myself sad several times while writing this. Also, I got 90% done with this chapter and then realized my dates didn't line up with LitM so had to reconfigure every section except one. For clarification on the dates, Richelle was born in 1999, but her birthday is in November.