Chapter Text
Mieczyslaw Stilinski was only six, but as he so liked to tell anyone who would listen, he was not stupid.
He knew his mom was sick, even though his parents seemed to be trying to keep it a secret.
He knew his mom was always going to the doctor, he knew she took 'pills' that she was always telling him would help her 'feel better,' but they only ever seemed to make her worse.
Mieczyslaw knew a lot of things.
And what he didn't know, he learned very quickly.
He learned to stay very quiet when his parents were shouting about bills, he learned not to ask his dad about his mom anymore because the sadness in his eyes was something he hated even more than Jackson would shove him around, or take his toys at playtime.
He learned to stop asking either of his parents any kind of questions about going places, because they would only get this very sad look and say, "Mommy's very tired today sweety, maybe some other day."
Stiles always, always hated it when his parents were sad.
He wished they wouldn't keep it all a big secret.
It was beginning to make him a little angry that they thought he was too little to know, but mostly sad.
They were fighting again.
His mom had said something about bills. His dad said the money didn't matter to him, but even he knew that it really did and he was only six!
They kept arguing back and forth but as soon as his mom mentioned the hospital he was quickly sent to his room.
The little six year old hated when this happened.
He'd been sent to his room a lot lately.
Sometimes he thought about just telling his parents that he knew. But he didn't think that would really help all that much, especially with how sad they both looked just the other day after he'd told his mom he hoped she'd feel better after she'd coughed a lot.
She'd looked like she was about to cry.
So instead of letting his parents know that their secret wasn't as well kept as they thought, he decided he would do his best to be a big help instead of 'A big handful.' like his teachers and kid doctor always called him.
He knew that when adults said stuff like that, they were just trying to say he was trouble without him understanding. Mieczyslaw did not like that almost everyone thought he was 'A little problem,' as he'd heard one of his teachers put it.
So he resolved that from now on, he would not be a problem to his parents.
He would do his very best to do all his homework, to not ask so many questions all the time, to pick up all his things even without being asked, and to Never Ever ask if/why his mom was so sick.