It Will Be Better (Eddsworld X Child!Reader)

1.) Before a New Beginning

     You never really were treated like a child by your parents. There was just never any time for board games and movies or celebrations. No time to just frolic around doing who knows what, wasting as much time as you wanted. No, you were expected to always be on top of your studies. Every day you would learn about something new, never managing to quite catch a break. 

     One day your studies might have included learning about foreign countries.

     Another day, you might have learned all about the risks of addiction. Most things went in your home, largely because you were homeschooled. Although, a ten-year-old can only take so much when you're studying so hard and for so long. Some nights you would get barely a few hours to sleep and then, it was back to business, so to speak. Your mother was mostly in charge of your education, since she was the one who planned out your schedules. 

     While your father cared about your education, he was mostly in charge of teaching you how to be independent.

     Or, the fundamentals to being an adult, as he called it.

     Which usually meant leaving you to fend for yourself as he read his magazines and books. Most of the time, he just had you complete tasks around the house. However, your mother never protested his actions and seemed like she approved of them. For you though, after dealing with everything for such an extended period of time, your health started to gradually deteriorate. You started to feel like something was weighing you down. 

     Dizziness and headaches often accompanied the tiredness you felt throughout your whole body.

     At night, after straining yourself so much for the whole day, your mind tended to race with thoughts. As terrible as everything was, you normally never felt like you'd done enough. You needed something to keep your mind busy, because anything was better than hearing the nagging voices of your parents swirl around in your head. The bad routines you started lasted for a long time and every day you became more fatigued than before. You threw up sometimes and felt as if something was constantly compressing your chest; you just had to do something to busy yourself. 

    Your parents took notice of the curious behaviors you were exhibiting and never said anything, they just continued to expect the most of you.

     When they saw your lack of concentration, however, they were livid.

     "You need to pull yourself together, (Y/N)!" your mother pleaded with you one evening after you fell asleep trying to finish your work.

     "Push through it, (Y/N)! You're just making a mountain out of mole hill. Trying to get out of doing your work, how indolent," your father had replied, almost worriedly, when you explained to him that you hadn't been feeling well.

     Eventually, everything overflowed when you went to the mall one day. Your parents didn't trust you home alone anymore, at least not since they thought you were trying to get out of things. They still trusted you to keep up with them though, even if they seemed to be walking a mile a minute. You didn't remember much about the trip in general, but you did remember feeling your eyelids begin to droop. You tried rubbing away the sleep with your hands; you hated looking drowsy in front your parents.

     "It shows a certain lack of respect and discipline, (Y/N)," they had commented one time before, when you had looked just as exhausted.

     Your mind felt so foggy and your vision blurry. You looked around yourself and saw your parents going up the escalator to the next level of the mall. They looked as if they were galaxies ahead of you! You quickly ran over to the stairs and hopped on, setting your arm on the side to rest it. You felt like it weighed a ton, in fact, all of your muscles felt like they weighed a ton. 

     You rested your head on top of your hand that was already on the escalator and stared dreamily into space.

     How you wished things could stay like that forever. As your line of vision lingered on the ceiling, movement caught your eye. You peered up at the figures of your parents, watching as they exited the escalator and hastily began walking away. Panic crept through your body and your heart pounded in your chest.

     "I can't lose them! They'll be so mad at me and I've already frustrated them enough!" you thought, groggily.

     You tried to make a move to go forward, but you felt shaky everywhere and accidentally stepped sideways instead. Your arms flailed helplessly as you reached out, hands trying to make purchase on anything for support, but there was nothing. Nobody was even close enough to try and grab you either. The next thing you knew, you were tumbling off of the escalator, the cement of the floor rushing toward you. Your mind was panic-stricken, trying desperately to figure a way out of the situation.

     "Tuck in your arms! Flip around onto your shoulder! Block the impact! Do something, (Y/N)!" your mind howled at you.

     Instead of freaking out like your mind was, you just closed your eyes. You were so tired and sore. Besides, you only had a few seconds left before you would impact the ground, probably hitting your head. Then, your life would most likely drain from your body and you would be no more. You thought about what you'd accomplished today. 

     As much as you didn't like how working as much as you did caused you to act and think, you would "miss" it in some twisted way.

     Quieting your thoughts, you braced for impact. Ready to see if there really was another side to the world. Fortunately, the end never came, as you felt a strong pair of arms squeeze around you. The figure let out a grunt as they strained from the force of catching you, but they easily recovered and cradled your body next to theirs. You fell into unconsciousness, anyway.

     {*The photo from this chapter is provided by Dan Naden: Spinning hand-crafted, locally-grown stories of communication gold since 2007*} (This is the link to the website with this specific photo; along with a story that adds to it, might I also say that the photo is fantastic?)