LEO
It is safe to say that Leo was an expert at repressing his emotions. It got to the point that even he didn't notice when he was doing it. He had done it most of his of teenage life.seemed as if he always had. For a while he was quite a normal kid who got along with other kids and everything. That was all until his mother met Tafara Zijo. His mother had been alone ever since he could remember and even she was unable to remember who his father was ( a drunken encounter at a party when she was 18 that was also unfortunately her first time).
The moment she got knocked up is the moment her parents, Leo's evil grandparents had disowned her and she had been alone till he came along. It had always been the two of them against the world since his birth. His mother was a pretty woman but she was also the product of two parents with strict ideals that had ground away at her independence and individuality to the point that at her first party she got so drunk and the rest was history. She was sweet and not very outspoken and that monster used that.
It was around the time Leo was ten years old when they met. Her mother never had a real job because she never finished University with a baby and her financial support getting pulled. So that year she had been waiting tables at this coffee place that actually paid quite well because it was at this shopping district that was pretty fancy. They usually served a lot of business folk at lunch times since it was within a 15 minute drive from the business district nearest them.
So in he walked one day with these three sleaze-ball lawyers for their lunch breaks and then she caught their attention. You see waiters and waitresses are supposed to be natural flirts in such establishments because that way they can earn themselves some tips for the 'great' service. Not Sarah though. She was as sweet as usual but she was not overly friendly with anyone. These guy took it as a challenge. They tried their luck and when she asked to switch tables with one of her co-workers who was happy to oblige them, one of these guys wouldn't quit.
For the next three months he came in everyday and made his attentions quite obvious. She tried to ignore them at first, but unfortunately she was a single mother who had little romantic experience and he was a pro who had been around the block. So her indifference turned to being flattered and that in time turned into her own interest where she'd be waiting for him to walk through the doors each lunchtime. Finally she caved and agreed to a date. Poor woman.
Their first date was truly something to remember. He was quite a gentleman, opening her doors and pulling her chair. He was also the one who ordered her food and drink as well as paid for the meal all with a smooth smile on his face as opposed to the nervous one she had. He wined and dined her and he didn't even try to kiss her when he dropped her off. They agreed to another one three days later.
He was the picture of the perfect guy, although in hindsight the red flags were there for someone who could truly see them. When she told him she had a son and he was her greatest priority, Tafara took it in stride. He asked to meet Leo and when he did, he acted like the greatest guy. For a kid who had never had a male role model in his life, Tafara was awesome. He took to him so easily. They were hitched in 6 months after that meeting, 10 months from when he had first walked into that coffee place.
Before him, Leo had been a nice enough kid but then seeing someone make your mother so submissive that she won't even order a meal without his say so. To then beat her when he sees her getting the attentions of other men whether she is trying to or not. All the while he never touched Leo. That was until the day one of Tafara's cop friends told him that he saw his step-kid at the police station asking about abuse and how to stop it. He came home in a rage and beat Sarah bloody and when Leo got home from school he went in on him with a belt while his mother was unconscious on the floor.
The cries of her son woke her and as if she was possessed by something she stood and yelled like crazy, "Don't you touch my baby!" she ran to him in a moment of adrenaline and hit him with power that to this day can not be explained with her elbow and knocked him out. But the damage was done. Leo was passed out with blood flowing freely from his head. She knelt down and cried holding her baby.
One of their neighbours must have called the cops because they arrived and saw the seen of a battered wife, holding her unconscious son with the husband passed out close by. It would be nice to say he got what was coming to him. Unfortunately, although he was the shittiest of human beings he also happened to be an amazing lawyer and knew all the tricks dirty or clean to get off with a warning while the wife and child dealt with the aftermath.
After that they ran from him and tried to avoid his influence. Leo never made any real connections after that. He always kept everyone except his mother at arms length and an odd part of him arose. A slight disdain for everyone. They all seemed so fake and and extremely naive. So he simply observed them and lived in his bubble. He learned to repress and ignore. To roll with the punches and try to move on.
When the repressed feelings overwhelmed him, she could always tell. She would be there with a kiss to the forehead and a hug for him. She loved him with all her heart. And was the only solace in an otherwise crappy world. She was dead now and he had not gotten to say goodbye. He had filled his mind with the thoughts of survival or with training plans. All an effort to avoid the fact that he had not grieved for his best friend, his only friend. His mom.
He had repressed it all when some part of his mind saw the problems at hand and triggered an impulse to solve them. Then when they were solved he created a new crisis in his own head. The whole idea of the monster population growing enough to overwhelm their own settlements till they would be forced to truly go after the war zones entered his head. And once all the war zones were fully occupied he knew that the settled zones would be next. Humans were going to go extinct unless he did something about it.
He could not grow complacent. He had to fight, he had to kill. He needed to survive. 'BULLSHIT' some inner part of him kept muttering the word whenever he found his thoughts empty. If he chose to look inwardly long enough to be truly critical, he would find that he had divided his life as before and after. He was slowly limiting the number of times he thought of the before. In fact with his ability of hyper cognition, it became easier and easier to stop thoughts from wondering into the before.
He was slowly repressing his whole life, slowly repressing her. He did it so much that he barely noticed any more in the past and now he was doing it again. Bury, hide and repress.