Chapter Text
Hordak paces back and forth behind a large cluster of foliage just off the trail leading into Thaymor. He has been doing so for the last 45 minutes. It had been over 6 hours since Adora had run off into the town to attend her first day of school.
Was this normal? Did it really take this long to teach children a simple science or arithmetic lesson? Had Adora gotten lost? Or worse, had she been taken? She was only 7 years old, maybe one of the townspeople thought it was unsafe for her to simply leave on her own.
Hordak had hated the idea of sending her into town. He was positive he could provide her a far superior academic education. But that wasn’t why he did it. He just wanted her to be normal, not an outcast like him.
Adora was human, like the majority of Thaymor’s population, which meant they would be more accepting of her. But he knew if she never interacted with anyone other than him, she would be just as socially impaired as he was. Meaning she would be ostracized like he was.
Luckily for Hordak, his horrible train of thought was derailed by a small 7 year old girl in a white shirt and black pants running down the trail leaving Thaymor. The laugh she gave as she switched between running and skipping erased all of his worries.
Hordak: “Adora. I was beginning to wo- grow uncertain of your return. Did everything go acceptably?”
Adora: “Yeah! I had a lot of fun. First the teacher, Miss Hilda, started by introducing me to the rest of the class. Then she showed me my seat. Then she…”
40 MINUTES LATER
Adora: “…and I got more math problems right then even the big kids in class, so Miss Hilda gave me this gold star.”
Adora pointed at her shirt to show off a small, wooden, five pointed star painted gold, pinned to her chest.
Hordak leaned across the table to pick up the plates from their evening meal, stopping to examine her prize.
Adora: “It was great. Thank you for taking me dad.”
Hordak flinched a little when Adora called him dad.
Hordak: “Adora, I have informed you before that I am not your father.”
Adora looks slightly sad and nervous as she looks back up to Hordak. Almost like she’s scared she did something wrong.
Hordak hates the feeling in the pit of his stomach such a look gives him.
Adora: “I- uh, um. When one of the other kids in class said their, uh, mom wasn’t actually their mom, Miss Hilda said that just because someone wasn’t related to you, it didn’t make them any less part of your family. I thought that meant we were a family. I’m sorry.”
Hordak feels horrible as Adora looks to be on the verge of tears.
Hordak: “One day of school and you are already teaching me something new. I guess we’ll just have to keep taking you back so we can both keep learning…daughter.”
The smile that grows on Adria’s face leaves Hordak with a sense of satisfaction that even praise from Prime himself could never rival.
Adora: “Actually, Miss Hilda was hoping you could come to class tomorrow to teach us about how you use all those mountain flowers and berries to make all sorts of helpful things.”
Hordak was caught off guard by that. He would occasionally use his lab to make simple disinfectants to trade with traveling merchants for metal and rare materials on their way in or out of Thaymor. But he didn’t know that the townsfolk knew it was him. He assumed they thought him a monster living in the mountains.
Adora: “But she said she knows you don’t like to talk to people so she doesn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
Perhaps Hordak had less to fear about Adora being ostracized like him than he thought. Especially if his antisocial, paranoid self was never ostracized to begin with.