His wasn't the biggest sob story of them all. Neither was Rosemary's. There were a lot of other lives that were more fucked up than their's was. Families who had more issues, more problems. There problems were simple. Dark and scary but simple. A few harsh awakenings but nothing uncommon in today's world. Being bullied and raped, that was a daily occurrence. Sad fact.
Humans were cruel. Vampires and werewolves. Sure, they could boast that they were better than human but there all still half human themselves. Nothing could cut that out. That was their curse. And their gift. No matter what they did, they would always have that small part of humanity in them.
Royce checked the squirrel's food, making sure it was full before finally closing the cage and standing up to move to the one on Charlie's other side. "I'm just lazy sometimes. I like to shorten names," he went on to explain, as if worried that he had offended her. He hated to do that, especially after she was going out of her way to invite him over (that made him a little giddy) for dinner. Him and Rosey. It was only half a date. Not really a date. No dating. The old guy had made that clear, hadn't he? Human. Werewolf. The two didn't cross together well.
His grin got bigger when she didn't completely dismiss the new nickname. Bending down to clean the new cage, he dusted off his old rag and started to clean the outside first. "Charlotte's a sweet name. I think it means 'strong woman', doesn't it?" He wasn't sure what the origin of the name was but it sounded French. The only Charlotte he knew of was in that book about a pig that he had read in one of his old elementary schools.
He did notice that she was hesitant and somewhat awkward with talking about her family. A part of him was guilty for bringing it up but he knew so little about her. What was the harm in hearing a little of her backstory? Her's couldn't be any worse than his.
She asked about his name, which was fair. He cringed but tried to cover it up by pretending to scratch his nose. "It's some kind of old English. I don't know what it means. Some variation of Rose, I think." No mention of his father, who had picked the name, or of his mother, who had wanted to name Tabitha if he had been a girl. Tabitha, for crying out loud. Thank the stars he was born with a penis. He could have been nick-named Tabby for the rest of his life.
She had talked comparatively a lot about her own name and yet he couldn't do the same for her? But there wasn't anything special about his name. Honest, it shouldn't be a big deal but he felt bad somehow for not including more. "Some ... people call me Roy. It's not as cool as Charlie," he tried to humor her with a smile but it didn't come out right. "My name's not special. What's in a name, anyway? What was it that the Shakespeare guy said? A rose by any other name, right? Though, I could have been a Tabitha and really, I think nature made the right choice."