...Houtei...

Name:
Houtei

Gender:
Male

Age:
40

Race:
Elf

Physical Description:
Pale, long red hair, amber eyes, tends to wear a leather jacket, headphones and his house key around his neck

Personality:
Protective of his mother, as he's had to take the place of his father as the 'man of the house' While he is skeptical of his father and his intentions at first, he quickly warms to him when he shows his willingness to give his own life in the place of hers. Loves his own mate and daughter more than anything, and his daughter is the only person he'll see for the first month or so after his mate is murdered.

Story:
Childhood:
Houtei was shaking in fear as he hobbled up the garden path to the front door. What would she do this time? He couldn't handle it if she went to the school again. They didn't do anything anyway, and it only got so much worse. The other kids would just pick on him even more for going to them for help. Or worse, she might go to the police again. But what would they do? They would just sit there, laughing at her. He knew what they really wanted from her. Houtei reached the door and picked up the heavy knocker, letting it fall with a loud bang. It was less than a second before his mother opened the door. Her eyes widened when she saw the state he was in.
"Houtei, what happened?" She asked him desperately as she locked the door behind him and guided him into the kitchen, sitting him down in a chair and going to the medicine cupboard to get some bandages and ointments. Houtei didn't bother answering her question. She already knew the answer. It was the same answer it had been every day for the past three years. Ijimekko.
"This has got to stop." His mother said as she washed the bloody mess on his forehead and rubbed some ointment into it, wrapping a bandage around his head. "That boy is out of control. He can't keep doing this to you."
Houtei looked at her with frightened amber eyes.
"Mummy, please don't go to the school again." He begged her.
She frowned at him.
"Why not?" She asked him. "Something has to be done about it."
Houtei shook his head.
"The school don't do anything." He pointed out. "And it only gets worse after you've told them."
She sighed.
"Well how about the police?" She asked him. "Would you prefer it if I went to them again instead?"
"No!" Houtei yelled. "Please, don't go to them! They're disgusting! I know what they want from you!"
His mother looked at him desperately and held him tightly against her, running her fingers through his long red hair.
"All right." She promised him. "No police. But something has to be done about it."
He gave her a desperate look as he hugged her back, praying that she would never let him go.
Teen Years:
Houtei held the head phone tightly against his ear, letting the loud rock music drown out what his teacher was saying to the class. It was only about two minutes, however, before the headphones were ripped off of his head and dropped on the table in front of him, and he found himself looking into her angry face.
"Leave the music and listen, Houtei." She told him. "This is your last warning."
There were a couple of snickers around the room and Houtei turned the music off with a sigh, putting his headphones and mp3 player away in his bag as the teacher returned to the front of the room to continue.
"As I was saying." She said. "We're going to be joined by a new student today, so I hope you'll all be especially nice to him." She beckoned to someone outside the room. "This is Ijimekko."
Houtei raised his head at the name, his eyes wide. The boy who had just walked in was looking right at him with an ugly smirk.
"Is there anyone in here that you know?" The teacher was asking the new boy as Houtei felt himself having a panic attack.
"I know him." Ijimekko replied, nodding towards Houtei.
"Perfect." she replied. "We have an empty seat right next to Houtei, you can sit there."
Houtei made a point not to even glance at Ijimekko as he sat down next to him, completely ignoring him. The next few hours were agony as he sat through the lessons, and as soon as the bell rang for break he was up and out of the classroom. He sat down behind the shed and put his headphones on high, trying to ignore the feeling of dread that had settled in his stomach. He wouldn't tell his mother about this. She would just worry. She had enough on her plate already, he didn't need to add to it. He was old enough to deal with his own problems.
He hadn't been sitting there for long when for the second time in the past two hours he had his headphones being ripped off of his head, only this time they weren't dropped in front of him. Ijimekko held them away from him as he inspected them, and Houtei jumped to his feet.
"Nice headphones." The other boy said appreciatively as he looked at them.
"Give them back." Houtei replied angrily. He tried to snatch them back, but Ijimekko held them high above his head, and Houtei cursed the fact that he was still waiting on his growth spurt. "Come on, give them back."
"Or what?" Ijimekko threatened. "You'll go crying to your mummy?"
Houtei glared at him.
"They're mine, give them back." He told him angrily.
Ijimekko laughed.
"They're mine now." He replied. "You don't think so? Then I'll beat you up again, just like I did when we were kids."
"I think you'll find that harder to do now than you did when we were seven." Houtei replied angrily. "I'm not a scrawny little runt anymore."
Ijimekko stared at him as he looked around at the layout of the things behind the shed. The gap between the shed and the school wall was narrow and the walls were tall. There wasn't much room to manoeuvre in here. There was nothing he could do, there wasn't enough space. He would have to try something else. He lowered his head submissively. It wasn't much, but it satisfied Ijimekko enough that he lowered the headphones. Houtei didn't even hesitate before he grabbed the headphones from his hands and kicked him in the stomach, sending him sprawling. He jumped over him and made a run for the school building. He headed inside and hid in the library until break was over. When the bell rang he went back to class to find an angry looking teacher and a satisfied looking Ijimekko.
Uh-oh.
Adulthood
Houtei ran round the corner and hid behind one of the bins, where he sat still, panting as he watched around for any sign of his pursuers. His mum would kill him if she knew he was in trouble again. And with the same man. Again. And what about Gale? She would make herself sick with worry if she found out about this. And if they weren't careful it would start to affect little Bree as well. He could hear Ijimekko yelling at the men who were working for him, ordering them to find him. They wouldn't follow him if there was anyone around. The only place like that that was anywhere near to where he was was the cafe where his mother worked. He didn't have any choice now. He glanced back over his shoulder at where Ijimekko was shouting out orders. They were moving away from him down the street as they searched, for whatever reason. Now was his chance. Houtei jumped out from behind the bins and took off down the street in the direction he'd originally been going. They'd seen him, they were chasing after him, yelling, but then he was there. He tore open the door and ran inside, letting it slam shut behind him. He looked around him, searching for his mother, and his eyes widened. She was there, only...
He'd never been happy when a man had shown any interest in dating his mother, but so far she hadn't seemed to be interested in meeting somebody new. And yet here she was, pressed up against the wall by some tall man with long silver hair who had his arms around her and his mouth against hers. At any normal time he would've tore this man off of his mother in an instant, but he was made to hesitate now by the fact that his mother was responding to the other elf's kiss passionately, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
"Mum?" He asked uncertainly. This drew his mother's attention, and she pulled away from the strange elf, who gave him a questioning look as a light blush coloured her cheeks.
"What's going on, Suki?" The elf asked her, looking between the two of them uncertainly.
"Um, Lys?" She muttered quietly, "You know I was pregnant when I left?"
"Yeah." He replied, realisation dawning in his face.
She sighed.
"This is Houtei." She told him. "Your son."