Momcomesfirst - Little Puck - The New Family -2... -
Elara stepped between them. "Let's all just calm down. Puck, you can be very emotional. Derek, did you see the puck?"
"Mom," Puck said, not breaking eye contact with Derek, "tell him to give it back."
Something inside Puck snapped, but not into anger. Into ice. He had always believed in the rule of three: Mom, then him, then the world. But the rule had changed. Mom came first, yes—but not for him anymore. For Marcus. For Derek. For the illusion of a perfect home.
Derek finally looked up, his eyes flat and amused. "How should I know? Maybe the ‘new family’ ghost took it." MomComesFirst - Little Puck - The New Family -2...
"No." Puck’s voice hardened. "I left it on the mantel. Right next to the clock. The same place I’ve left it every night for ten years."
That was the trigger. The phrase "new family" dripped from Derek’s mouth like poison wrapped in honey. Puck felt the old, familiar heat crawl up his neck—the same heat that got him benched in peewee hockey for checking a kid who’d called his mom a name.
Puck paused on the porch. He turned back just once, not to look at Derek, but at his mother. "You always said mom comes first," he said quietly. "But I thought that meant you'd come first for me. I didn't know it meant they'd come first over me." Elara stepped between them
"The puck. It’s gone."
The trouble started with the thermostat. "We’re a family now," Marcus had declared on day one, "we compromise." Compromise, Puck learned, meant that his mom’s art studio got moved to the cramped attic so Derek could have the guest bedroom for his "study sessions." Compromise meant that Puck’s weekly Dungeons & Dragons nights with his friends were replaced with "family bonding" dinners where Derek scrolled through his phone and Marcus critiqued Puck’s posture.
Derek shrugged, a theatrical, innocent gesture. "Nope. But I did throw away an old, rusty piece of metal from the mantel yesterday. It looked like junk. I thought it was from one of Puck's weird toys." Derek, did you see the puck
The room went still. Marcus lowered his paper. Derek didn't look away from the screen, but a smirk flickered at the corner of his mouth.
"Little Puck," Derek mocked from the sofa, "running away to find his magic puck? Good luck."
That was the final betrayal. Not Derek’s cruelty. Not the lost puck. But his mom’s silence. She didn't defend him. She just looked at Marcus, then at Puck, and said, "He's right, honey. Maybe this is a good thing. A fresh start. The new family needs new memories."
Marcus set the paper down with a deliberate rustle. "Puck, let's not make accusations. Things get moved. This is a busy household now."
The rain swallowed him whole, and for the first time in two months, Little Puck smiled.
