#chatzy | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

xdarkhowlx · 1 year ago

Text

Raiju, where the hell you been, loca?

TIMING: Shortly after the cemetery incident with Van and Nora. LOCATION: Midnight Drive-In PARTIES: @xdarkhowlx and @bountyhaunter SUMMARY: Kyle and Daiyu try to enjoy their movie. They're interrupted by a real-life Pokémon. CONTENT WARNING: gun use

The mere idea of a Twilight marathon was enough to gain Kyle’s attention. The viewing being at Midnight Drive-in only piqued his interest further. An emo cinema icon, in an iconic format. What more could he ask for? Of course, he had to be parked behind the one truck to block his view. The owner of the truck sat atop the vehicle instead of inside, which put her at just the right height to obscure his view. At first, he decided not to say anything. He figured out quickly that if he leaned out his window a little, and craned his neck, he could see much better. This was fine for a while, but his favorite scene was approaching and he was beginning to get a crick in his neck. He debated just moving his car, but that seemed inconvenient at best, not to mention inconsiderate. He weighed his options briefly, before deciding he had no choice but to ask the truck owner to move.

With a drawn out sigh, Kyle stepped out of his Jeep and approached the truck parked in front of him. “Hey,” he called, trying not to interrupt the movie for anyone. “Could you maybe actually get off of your truck? I can’t really see past you, and the baseball scene is coming up.” A stranger on their truck would not ruin the scene for him.

—

Maybe it was sad, how big an accomplishment this was to Daiyu. But she’d never done something like this — a neighborhood initiative. Most of the time her ‘initiatives’ involved causing a ruckus and accidentally lighting a trash can. Besides, she never tended to tie herself to places and so to organize something like this rather than just watch the bad movies at home was something. But it had been a funny idea that had snowballed into something real and now here she was, sitting on top of her truck cross-legged. She wasn’t doing it to be rude — she just wasn’t thinking.

So when someone approached her about it and she was pulled out of her focus on the movie, she felt the urge to apologize and then, immediately after it, the inner demand that she shouldn’t. “Can’t see it well through my window, though,” she said simply, giving him a glance before looking up again. In the distance the sky rumbled. Whether it was another quake, the movie’s audio being very good or a storm coming, she didn’t know, but it barely mattered. Something tugged in her stomach and she wondered what it was – this guy, or one of the other people surrounding them. She couldn’t go a day without having something in her body go off, though, so she tried to ignore it. She was here for the movie, not for her hunting instincts. Daiyu sighed, straightening her legs and sliding down her window onto the hood of her car. The window held, much to her relief. (She had wanted to look cool and totally had.) “There. Better? Don’t wanna ruin your Supermassive Black Hole needledrop.”

—

Can’t see it well through my window, was a flimsy excuse in Kyle’s eyes. He frowned. “Better clean your windows, bestie,” he said. His ears pricked at the sound of thunder. He hoped it wouldn’t be a storm. His dad complained when he came home smelling like wet dog. On the other hand, that would make for a wicked cool backdrop for the rest of the flick.

Kyle’s smile returned at the Supermassive Black Hole comment. “Hey,” he said, raising his hands in mock defense. “You can’t tell me it’s not the most iconic scene in the first movie.” He shrugged, looking from the stranger to the screen. “Alice and Jasper in the baseball scene were a crucial part of my bisexual awakening.” Looking back to the stranger, something clicked for Kyle. “Hey, aren’t you the one who, like, organized all this?” In the distance, thunder rumbled again. Maybe that background storm would pop off after all.

—

She glared at the other and his unwarranted advice. “Clean your own windows,” she retorted, which made no sense but was still a very good comeback. Better than pointing out that she was in the forest a lot and that keeping her windows clean was a sisyphean task. She didn’t know what the word sisyphean meant, anyway.

Daiyu let out a chuckle. Even if this person had come to complain, he made a good point. “It absolutely is. Banger soundtrack, Alice being an icon, et cetera. I’m not going to lie, I know Vic is a villain and all but she was a crucial part in my gay awakening.” She shot a look at the screen, where Esme was talking to Bella. It wasn’t very important. “Hell yeah I am. I also organized the thunder, actually. Talked to the weather gods and everything to make it fit the mood.” She hadn’t, but she liked having bragging rights. As if on cue, there was a flash of lightning. Two seconds, and then a roar of thunder. “You’re welcome.”

—

Oh, so it was like that. “My windows are clean,” Kyle contested with a grand gesture at his clean, albeit cracked, windshield. “I just can’t see through people on top of trucks.” He wasn’t actually upset, mostly inconvenienced. His car didn’t have the height benefit of a truck. If he sat on top of his car, he figured he probably still wouldn’t be tall enough to see.

“You’re into gingers?” he said, sounding critical. After a moment’s pause, he nodded in approval. “Good taste.” The well timed thunder sent a shiver down Kyle’s spine. “Wow, impressive.” He gazed up at the sky, half expecting the rain to start, too. “You’ll have to show me your raindance, eh? Teach me what the weather taught you.” Glancing back at his car, Kyle started to excuse himself back to the movie, but he was drowned out by another rip of thunder. He could almost feel it in his chest. Another flash of lightning arched across the sky and connected with the ground somewhere in the distance. He could almost see where it flickered just beyond the farthest cars from where they stood. It was too close for comfort. Kyle let out a whoop. “Your storm is shaping up to be something.”

—

“Mine are clean too,” she retorted easily. She was very good at these kinds of endless exchanges, the back and forth, the yes-no, did not-did too’s of the world. Spending a youth with two older siblings did do that to a person. “Well, you should get x-ray vision, then. Next time, that is. I’m down now.”

Daiyu wondered if he’d slam her for liking the villain as he critiqued her. Logically, she should despise Victoria the most — she was the kind of vampire that required putting down by slayer or even a skilled ranger. But she’d liked her, because it was all nonsense. “Yeah,” she said, nodding fervently. “I’m known for my amazing taste, you should follow me o—” Her self promotion was cut in half as the lightning crashed through the sky again. She looked up, impressed at what the sky was capable of. “Damn.” She was a little impressed with herself before remembering she hadn’t actually caused the storm.

As her eyes traveled from the sky to the screen something caught her eye. It was lightning, but not quite in the way lightning tended to travel. It was like a ball passing past the treeline behind the screen. Another roar of thunder crashed through the sky and this time there were no flashes of light in the sky — just the creature. “Shit.” Daiyu glared at the creature, then rolled off her truck and rushed to her passenger seat door and swung it over. She eyed the other person from the other side. “Hey, yo — you should get the fuck out of here.” She pointed up. “Weather. Bad.”

___

“Then why— y’know what? Forget it. Thanks for moving.” Kyle wanted to argue back, but there was no real point to it. He could already tell he was being wound up just to end up chasing his tail. Metaphorically, of course. “I’ll work on being a little more Clark Kent and a little less Lois.”

Kyle followed the stranger’s gaze up toward the sky as the first couple notes of Supermassive Black Hole began. Shit, he was gonna miss it anyway. “Woo, good job on that timing,” he said, cracking a smile and taking a few steps back. But the mood had changed suddenly. The stranger was distracted. Her focus was elsewhere. Again, Kyle tried to figure out where she was looking. He could see that flickering lightning low at the ground again, but this time it was closer. As he was urged to leave, he didn’t look away from it. The lightning seemed to bend around something; it was vaguely animal shaped, and coming closer.

“What the hell?” he thought aloud. He looked between the electrified animal and his new acquaintance. She looked tense, maybe even a little worried. “What is that? Is that like—like a generator? A power box? Should I call the fire department? I mean, I can—“ He was cut off by another rip of thunder, with no accompanying lightning. The beast seemed to light up brighter at that and Kyle stepped around the truck to stand beside the other movie goer. “This might be outside of the fire department’s jurisdiction,” he posited.

—

Once, a long time ago, Daiyu had asked her father if she’d been named after raiju. He’d not liked the question, as it was his late wife who’d chosen their youngest name. Besides, the idea that a ranger’s name could be inspired by a beast was absolutely unacceptable, and he’d made that very clear. That hadn’t stopped her brother from calling her one, especially when she was throwing a tantrum. Storm’s coming!, he’d yell, mimicking the sound of thunder.

But whatever kinship she felt with the beasts was ignored in the face of the situation at hand. There was a storm. There were multiple people sitting in metal cars that would become death traps if touched by the raiju. There was the baseball scene still playing, too — and she couldn’t even give it her full attention. She pulled a crossbow from under the passenger seat, grabbing a set of bolts with her other hand. The human – was he human? – was talking and Daiyu popped her head up, staring at him.

She wasn’t very good at this. “Do not call them,” she said. A firetruck was an even bigger death trap. Water would make everything worse. She’d gotten electrocuted by a raiju before – years and years ago – and she didn't recommend it. “You need to – fuck!” She cursed, realizing the impossible way the cars were parked as she glanced around. Daiyu felt frustration rise, the white hot anger that so often cradled her but also sometimes rendered her useless. She could not give into it now, with all these people. (Maybe the person in the woods was right, maybe she was a protector – or wanted to be, anyway.)

She glanced at the screen, where Edward was running through the forest. The raiju seemed bothered by the noises. Dread rose. She threw a look at the other person. “We need to take it out. I need to – you should —” She was no good with words and just started to make a run for the creature, synchronizing with the Cullen’s as she left her car door open, leaving her arsenal open for the picking.

—-

Watching from across the truck, Kyle tossed his hands up defensively as the crossbow was withdrawn. “Easy, cvpon,” he said. “Maybe we should just chill out with the weapons. What are you gonna do? Shoot the electricity? Fuck’s sake.” If he wasn’t supposed to call the fire department, what was there for him to do? He glanced around at the cars surrounding them. Maybe someone had a fire extinguisher in the boot of their car. His new acquaintance cursed and he snapped his attention back to her. All he’d wanted to do was watch a classic film from the comfort of his car. Now, he was caught up in something he didn’t quite understand.

Coming to this town had been one strange experience after another. Goo, and crystals, and werewolves—now a trigger happy Twilight enthusiast going after a moving ball of electricity. Kyle opened his mouth to protest further, but before he could get much out, she was running off. “I just don’t think— wait! Wait, where are you going?” He cursed under his breath and ran around the truck to at least close the door. What he found inside wasn’t exactly expected. There were knives and ammunition of a few different calibers, as well as a hunting rifle sitting ripe for the taking. Kyle looked over his shoulder at the stranger running headlong into battle, then to the screen where Jasper and Alice whisked Bella to safety. Wouldn’t that be too easy. He glanced back at the stranger, then the rifle. “Fuck.” He grabbed the rifle, fumbled with ammunition, and took off towards the electrified mass.

“Hold up!” Kyle called. He was immediately shushed by fellow movie goers as he dashed between cars and called out again. “I’m coming with you!” He flipped the bird at a particularly upset man in a Kia. “Don’t yell at me, I’m trying to save the day, bruh!”

—-

It was good that humans didn’t know about all the shit that lurked in the shadows. Real good, as it meant they got to live life in ignorance without worrying about being eaten by werewolves or vampires or being trapped by weird grass or sand. Daiyu envied them sometimes. But right now, she thought regular humans were very annoying. None of them were seeing the ball of lightning as a threat and worse, the guy who did see her shooting into action telling her to chill.

She didn’t have the time or tact to explain the situation, which was why she just ran. She tended to hunt alone, anyway — and maybe this time it would be with an unwanted and annoyed audience, but hey. She wasn’t going to see all these cars go bzzzt with electricity and the people’s skeletons light up when they did. If that was even real. The guy was following her and at least it confirmed something: he was the cause for the tug in her stomach.

Fucking awesome. A shifter was helping her kill some beast.

“Alright, okay, cool, that’s awesome and also great!” Maybe the shifter knew something about raijus. Or maybe he was just … stupidly brave. Which Daiyu didn’t want, because those were qualities she liked in people. She ignored all the protests from viewers (even if it was very nice that people were this passionate about Twilight in 2024!) and jumped on the hood of one of the cars in front to get a good look. She whipped her head around, her ponytail smacking her in the face. “Do not get too close.” She noted the rifle – her rifle – in his hands. Well, good. As long as she got it back. “It’s gonna shock you if you do. Yeah? How’s your aim?” She whipped her head back, the cacophony of sound – movie, yelling moviegoers, storm, someone eating popcorn with their mouth open – made her dizzy but she tugged at the sound and made it one large hum of noise as she attempted to take her aim.

—

The closer they got, the more the creature took shape. Kyle figured it mostly resembled a dog, you know, if dogs went Super Saiyan. That would be a show he’d watch. Dragon Ball Z, but they’re all dogs? Focus, Kyle. He could daydream about anime when he wasn’t in imminent danger of being barbecued. He came up next to Daiyu, mouth agape as he looked at the dog. “I’m gonna have so many questions after this,” he whispered, glancing at Daiyu. He didn’t know if the dog could hear them, but if its hearing was anything like his, it definitely would.

“Don’t get too close, don’t get shocked, don’t die. Got it,” Kyle replied. He didn’t want to take his eyes off the ball of lightning, but it was getting hard to look at, like looking into the sun. He blinked hard and steadied himself. He drew the rifle and scoffed at the question. “How’s my aim? You think I would pick up a gun if I wasn't pretty confident I could use it? I’ll follow your lead.” He had hunted back in Canada with his cousins. He knew how to take down a deer, or any manner of wild fowl, and even coyotes if the situation called for it. This was probably like coyotes, if the coyotes could decimate the power grid. Simple.

After a moment, he looked at his new partner in crime—or maybe partner in justice was a better title. “I’m Kyle, by the way. I just figure we should know each other’s names in case we, y’know…” He made a cut throat gesture paired with sound effects.

——

At least the shifter was down to clown — or, like, kill a raiju. Even if he didn’t know what it was. Daiyu tried to shrug off the comment about having to explain what was going on, as that was the part of hunterisms she was worst at, but she offered a quick look and a random thumbs up. “Gotcha!” Which was not a promise or an agreement, but just something to say so she could go on with her purpose.

Which was … what, exactly? Hadn’t she decided to make her code be as simple as the local bounty board? To be moved by money, not by considerations of morality or heroism. Still — even if she wasn’t going to catch any coin for this, could she just let the people die? It wasn’t something worth pondering about. It was simple. Almost as simple as picking a random bounty from the board and going for it so she could pay her rent. These people were in death traps without knowing it. Daiyu wanted to watch her movie without people dying.

“I don’t know, people are pretty stupid when it comes to guns,” she responded, before offering her name as well: “Daiyu! You’re a —” She changed her mind halfway, deciding it better to not ask what kind of shifter the other is. “Not going to die.” She swished her head towards the raiju, squinting one eye close and taking aim. Soon enough her finger pushed the trigger and her bolt shot towards the lightning creature, piercing its hind thigh.

—

Kyle was satisfied with the thumbs up as a clear promise to fill him in if neither of them died. He was pretty sure that the stranger–Daiyu, as she identified herself–knew what she was doing. Otherwise she was doing a damn fine job pretending. The thought gave him a moment’s pause. Was she pretending? Was Kyle about to be on the bad side of killing a creature like him? The thing didn’t seem to have any sense of rationality, as it was actively walking into a minefield of sitting duck humans. But then, Kyle couldn’t call himself rational when he shifted. He had never taken issue with hunting before. Each animal gave its life for the greater picture. That was simple. It was nature. But where did he, a werewolf, fit into the greater picture? It was never something he’d considered.

As the creature’s leg was struck, a shower of sparks burst around it. He flinched, abandoning the existential crisis for later. It would keep him up every night this week, but it wasn’t important now. The sparks and crackles from the beast reminded Kyle of a transformer exploding. Like live wires, the beast writhed in pain for a moment. In that same moment, the storm above them roared some of the loudest thunder he had ever heard. It left his ears ringing. Werewolf hearing be damned. The creature recovered itself, and charged in their direction. Beginning to back up, the rifle snapped up as Kyle reflexively took aim. “Aim where they’re going, not where they’ve been,” he murmured to himself, and lined up his shot. A crack rang out, and another shower of sparks rained down around the animal, halting its approach. He breathed a steadying sigh, and smirked at his new accomplice. “Nice to meet you, Daiyu.”

—

Frustration rippled through her, a familiar yet always unpleasant sensation, as her bolt did not pierce the creature through the heart or head but rather its legs. It was fine, she could have just used the immobility to fire another shot. But there was an audience, kind of. There was a hunting partner, which was really not her speed. And the hunting partner – Kyle, the shapeshifter – had a gun and that guy managed to get the killing shot in. The sparks were a welcome distraction, though, a large rain of them sprinkling around the screen. And then, it was done. No more sparks, no more rumbling thunder that came from the creature — just a still corpse.

Daiyu was still for a moment, disregarding Kyle the shifter and staring at the dead body before sliding down the hood of the strangers’ car. She patted it awkwardly before approaching the beast. If she was a hunter with a code to protect humans and keep them ignorant – which she wasn’t – she should get rid of the body. She gave a something to Kyle, though she wasn’t entirely sure what it was. A scowl, a grin, a smirk. “Yeah, man, that was a great shot. Nice to meet you.” He got the killing shot. He had her gun. And she’d … really made a mess of whatever it was she’d tried to do here. She extended a grabby hand. “Can I get that back?” The rifle, she meant. “So you … whatever. I’m gonna clean up.”

—-

He followed Daiyu to the dead beast, approaching it cautiously. It was certainly dead, but Kyle wasn’t sure if it still held a charge. “Sorry to steal your shine,” he said, passing the rifle back as asked. He couldn’t tell exactly what emotion she was feeling, but he got the impression that it was directly linked to the final blow. “My family is big on hunting. I’ve been going on hunting trips practically since before I could walk. I know my way around a rifle.” Maybe his experience would assuage whatever emotions were going through her head. He wasn’t some inexperienced punk rolling in off the street. He was a well-versed punk.

Looking over the body, Kyle grimaced. Up close it looked even more like just some unfortunate dog. Again, that guilt he’d never felt before tugged at his stomach. Was he so much different than this dog? “Okay,” he said, turning his attention on Daiyu. “Now is the part where you answer my questions. Like what the fuck just happened? Do you do this often?” Having just handed the rifle over into her hands, he shook his head. “Scratch that last one, I don’t need to know. How did you know what that was?”

—-

She wanted to burst out laughing at the notion. Not that Kyle the shifter was apologizing for stealing her shine, as that was very bothersome because she felt very seen, but that he said that his family was big on hunting. Daiyu wondered what that meant, but didn’t want to pry. She didn’t recognize the other and that meant she hadn’t seen him on the board, which meant there was no good reason to pry. “Oh, awesome. Yeah, my family’s like that I guess too, you know? Hunting elk and pheasants and stuff.”

She took the gun back from him. It was getting harder and harder to ignore all the sounds around them so she trudged forward towards the dead creature. It looked almost like something normal, but she knew better than to just leave it there. “Well,” she said, “We just killed a lightning creature. That could have made all these cars go –” She made a crackling sound with her mouth, followed by a booom. “Oh, I just know. You know? Some people know how to do math. I know how about weird shit.” Like how the other person was a shifter. “Like you and anyone else in this town doesn’t.” She slung the rifle over her shoulder after flicking the safety on and then crouched down at the raiju. “We should get it away from here.”

—-

“Yeah, elk, deer–hell, squirrels if you can get ‘em.” Kyle nodded in agreement, bonding over their shared hunting skill. He wanted to tell her to not let her nerves get to her next time, genuinely wanting to be of assistance. But something told him that would not be received as intended, and he was okay letting it drop. “I used to go out with the uncles, and then my cousins when we were old enough. Family traditions and whatever.” He waved his train of thought away with his hand. This was a stranger, and she didn’t need the specifics of his upbringing. Especially when he had more questions.

He looked from the carcass to the cars, nodding slowly. As he’d pictured in his head, it would be absolute chaos, carnage, and bloodshed. “Good thing you were here, then,” Kyle affirmed. “I might know how to use a gun, but you provided it for me. Which brings me to another question; why are you driving around strapped like that? You get in trouble a lot?” It was another question he didn’t really want the answer to. He was connecting some dots, and the image he was piecing together unsettled him. What if she killed all sorts of creatures? What if she found out he was a werewolf? Would she kill him, too? Or did he need to present himself as a threat first? Those questions he left unsaid.

Kyle wanted to protest to her that he knew more than he let on. But to do so was a tricky needle to thread, so he simply nodded. “I’m learning.” It was the truth. He’d learned about werebears, and maybe cemetery spirits. He’d heard talk of vampires and zombies, though he hadn’t ascertained if those were real or not. Now, he was learning about real life Pokémon. Kyle crouched beside her, looking down at the sad little coyote. It was much less threatening when it wasn’t actively sparking. “You need help carrying Jolteon here?”

—

Hunters were traditionally meant to keep humans safe and separate from the supernatural world, but the Volkovs had lost that traditional and honorable cause a long time ago. A higher purpose was so easily translated into something uglier — like the divine right of kings, for example. So Daiyu didn’t do this often and Daiyu didn’t fucking know what to do. Especially because this guy wasn’t human, or at least not fully, or not all the time. So what did it mean when he said he hunted with his family? Were they a bunch of sirens, chasing prey, or bugbears? Or did they hold up human traditions despite being something else? Or was he unfortunately cursed with a werewolf’s bite?

The thoughts were dizzying. “Yeah, same here. Hunting trips with the fam, what a time,” she said off-handedly. Daiyu glanced at Kyle, then back at the raiju. It would be little issue to carry it, with her hunter strength. Should she still be trying not to come off as a ranger, though? Or was that too little too late? She chewed on her cheek as his question bounced around her head. “Nah, I usually am the trouble.” Cheekiness seemed like a safe bet. “But yeah, whatever, I’m just someone who’s prepared for these kinds of things. I try to be more subtle about it usually, though.”

She took the hind legs of the creature, gesturing that he could take the other. A laugh left her lips at the mention of Jolteon. “Fuck.” She huffed. “That’s good. That’s — yeah, Jolteon, that’s right on the god damn nose. Let’s just take –” Her eyes scanned their surroundings, the angry people in their cars. It’d be best to store the creature in her car until she could find a proper way to dispose of it, but to walk it past all those moviegoers was asking for trouble. “Into the woods. Hide it for now.”

—

The mention of her own hunting trips brought forth yet another question that Kyle couldn’t keep from tumbling out of his mouth. “When you say hunting, you mean the elk and not these—,” he looked down at the corpse, but without a real word for it, continued unsure. “These…monsters, right? That’s what this is, a monster?” Yet another question he didn’t want the answer to, but this time the need for it pressed him on. “You know, since you’re so prepared for anything.” He gestured with his chin to the rifle she now held.

Kyle shouldn’t be prying, not here in the middle of a movie, not with Kristen Stewart monologuing in the background. But hunters were a fairly novel idea. He hadn’t thought they were real, just more fairytale fodder. Like werewolves. It felt stupid to admit to himself that he hadn’t once worried about being hunted down for the crime of being bitten. The very idea made the hairs on the back of his neck raise. It wasn’t something he’d had to consider. The apartment he lived in was above a cryptid-themed souvenir shop, which, conveniently, had a basement for mostly storage of old junk, tools, and broken mannequins. The basement did a pretty good job of holding a bloodthirsty werewolf, and his dad being the building’s super was just the cherry on top of his cover story.

Kyle tried to keep his tone and his expression neutral. He didn’t want the skepticism of being predator and prey to cross his face and give him away as he danced carefully around the topic. “Sorry, Jolteon,” he said, trying to break some of the tension as he took the front legs of the animal and hoisted it with Daiyu. “Can’t catch ‘em all.”

——

She stared at him, at his clumsy way of speaking, at the way he hesitated to name the raiju anything. Beast, monster, creature, pest, prey. So what was she supposed to say? That she hunted elk? She didn’t, she hated hunting regular animals. She found it — well, she didn’t try to pass judgment, as that started a whole moral debate in her head, but she found it something. “I mean, this is just a coyote with sparks,” she quipped. Daiyu lifted the creature up, wanting to tell the other to fuck off, but here she was. Doing teamwork again. With a shifter, again.

She could feel it rise within her, the clumsiness. Her father hated this about her, the way she had no control over the things that came from her mouth. Not just because she was vulgar, but because she was too forward. Daiyu tried to press her lips together, to keep her from blurting something out, “But yes, a monster. I hunt monsters. What are you?” Her eyes slanted upwards and she cursed herself inside her head – something she did very commonly – before starting to move. She didn’t owe the other secrecy, because he wasn’t human, but she did owe herself secrecy, didn’t she? But it had to be clear by now what she was.

The pokémon references didn’t help. It made the other too damn likable. Daiyu kept trudging into the woods, the raiju swinging between them. (If pokémon were real, would she be hunting them? That would be really fucked up.) She grit her teeth and managed to not reply this time, for which she still cursed herself.

—

More questions pressed to the front of Kyle’s mind. Why was she so hesitant to confirm his suspicions that this Pokémon-from-Hell was a part of the weird shit? He knew it was supposed to be left unsaid, (he had heard enough from his grandmother,) but they had clearly passed that point when they took it down. A coyote with sparks didn’t satiate the need to understand what he’d just witnessed. His thoughts were beginning to race as his mouth tried to form multiple questions at a time. How much of the oddities of Wicked’s Rest had she known? Would she have answers about werebears, too? Shit, did she know more about werewolves than Kyle? He thought of those questions as off of the table. Surely he couldn’t just ask–

What are you? The question hit him like a crossbow bolt of lightning between the eyes. Every hair on his body stood at attention. “Um.” He floundered for a moment, grasping for any words to respond. He almost tripped over his own feet and dropped the stupid–monster. If this dog was a monster, was that what Daiyu was looking for? For Kyle to admit to being a monster? Was that what he was to her? His stomach felt like a stone falling through him. “Could you be more specific with that, uh, question? Please?”

—

Her hunting training hadn’t covered this. Truth be told, her training hadn’t covered a lot of communication techniques, unless you considered the best ways to trick shifters or interrogation tactics as such. Daiyu felt frustration fly through her system, heard Vissa yell something about a storm coming as her face turned a little stormy. There was at least the creature between them, a good distraction from how the other fumbled with his reply to her forward question.

“Whatever,” she said, “I’m not gonna hunt you.” He wasn’t on the board. Besides, he’d helped. Her sister would talk this guy into the woods and prod and poke until he’d reveal his true nature and then slit his throat, to trick the shifter the way she’d been taught. But Daiyu didn’t want to hunt this guy, and it was only because he wasn’t on the board. No ulterior motive. It wasn’t because of the weeping heart in her chest that her sister Inna had chastised all her life. Just because there was no point in it. (The Raiju hadn’t been on the board, either, but somehow that distinction wasn’t made.) “But like … snake? Wolf? Bird? What are you?”

—

I’m not gonna hunt you, was all the confirmation Kyle needed. He was on the menu, so to speak. Maybe not to Daiyu, maybe not now, but to someone out there. It took him a beat to grapple with his new place on the proverbial food chain before he could get anything out. “Wait,” he said, immediately derailing once more. “There’s weresnakes and werebirds? I mean, fuck, it makes sense, you know, I’ve heard about the little people all my life, but I oonly knew about the bears and the wolves.” There were dozens of questions he had about the other shifters. Like, did the birds follow the same rules? Were they bound to the sun rather than the moon? Could you get bit by a snake and get turned into a snake? Even if the snake was venomous? Was it like Spider-Man, and the venom is what turned you into the snake? He set aside the questions for later (and maybe for Google).

Licking his lips and shrugging, Kyle replied, “I guess I’m the wolf variety.” He clicked his teeth and continued, “Shtah, I feel stupid being at a fuckin’ Twilight viewing and admitting this, man.”

—

Oh, shit. This was not the first time her big mouth had talked too fast and too much. Daiyu assumed that shifters all knew about each other, that they had some kind of big shifter text chain where they talked about eating humans and shedding issues, but maybe werewolves were excluded from that. “Yeah! Those totally exist too,” she said, nodding. It would be strange if lamia and sirens only transformed during the full moon, but probably better for society and humanity as a whole.

She let out a huff of amusement, looking over her shoulder at the drive in behind them as she kept walking further into the woods. “Nah, it’s cool. It’s fun. I like these movies ‘cus of it.” There was something about watching bad movies about the supernatural that made Daiyu feel comforted. It was why she’d watched all of the Vampire Diaries multiple times — but mostly just the first three seasons. “Little bit stupid for telling me though.” She dropped the raiju to the ground. “Kidding.”

—-

Fueled with knowledge, Kyle couldn’t keep his mouth from running. “You probably have so much knowledge on all this stuff, right? I mean, probably more than me. Definitely more than me.” That felt like a mistake to admit as soon as he’d said it. He didn’t want to come off as inexperienced or ignorant. Worse yet, he didn’t want to come off as a problem. “There’s no real guidebook for all of this. Lot of trial and error and error and error,” he amended with a toothy grin. “It’s,” he gestured vaguely to the space around them, “all about learning and shit, though, right?” Maybe that didn’t help his case, but he’d rather be somewhat honest with the hunter. She had given him her word. She wouldn’t hunt him.

“As far as werewolves go, it’s bad,” Kyle mused. He had a lot to say on the topic, but kept it succinct for now. His head snapped up at the joke threat, but he relaxed when he realized she wasn’t serious. Cracking a grin, he huffed a laugh. “Yeah, maybe. I don’t have much experience with, uh, hunters. That’s what you’d call yourself, right?” He looked down at the animal at their feet. He almost wanted to ask what Daiyu planned to do with the pelt, but it didn’t seem particularly germane, given the circumstances.

—-

If there was any way to appeal to Daiyu, it was by saying that she was better at something than someone else. And though this wasn’t something she was particularly proud of, it was still true. She was more knowledgeable than this stranger, “Yup! I know a lot. I’m pretty much a genius when it comes to this.” Compared to him, she certainly was. Compared to other hunters, especially her siblings … well, it wasn’t knowledge she’d ever excelled in. Reciting species’ weaknesses had always been something that tired her — she’d rather find out through just hitting them. “Guess you’re gonna have to find shit out, huh?”

It had to be hard to be a werewolf. At least most other shifters were raised amongst one another, were taught what they were and how they could use that against others. But bitten werewolves, they were just left to their own shitty devices. “Twilight’s a shit resource for sure. And um, yeah, yeah, hunters — maybe that’s coolest for you, right? Just stay outta trouble. Don’t eat people or whatever.” She considered their surroundings, the dead animal at their feet, and started to gather some twigs, sticks and leaves to cover up its white fur. “This one’s called a Raiju, FYI.”

—-

The urge to ask for more and more information wouldn’t die down inside Kyle. He didn’t want to come off as entirely ignorant, but the hunter said she was a genius when it came to this particular subject. “Alright, Encyclopedia Daiyu, I’ll have to have you teach me more about all this sometime,” he said, hoping she’d agree so he could flood her inbox later. “I think I have a lot to learn.” The admission felt like one of weakness rather than simple ignorance. The feeling didn’t sit well inside his chest. Exposing your belly to the enemy couldn’t be a smart move. He had to remind himself that she had said she wouldn’t hunt him.

The comment about eating people had Kyle grimacing. He had shifted a handful of times outside the safety of his building’s basement walls, but he hadn’t eaten anyone. Had he? The thought made his stomach do a somersault. “I’m good on the not eating people.” He followed the hunter’s lead, covering the animal’s corpse with forest detritus. “Raiju. Ha, kinda rhymes with your name.” He didn’t want to make another Pokémon reference, lest she think of him as a nerd. But there was a Pokémon based on the creature before them. “Real life Pokémon,” he quipped, unable to keep his mouth shut.

—

The concept of her – a ranger – helping a werewolf was absolutely beyond her comprehension. The whole situation was hard to grasp in general, what with her hunting this creature out of some kind of feeling of duty, enlisting a shifter for help and standing here, still and without action. Daiyu swallowed, shrugged, “Whatever, man,” she said, which was non-committal and not an answer at all to his non-question. She didn’t deal with unshifted werewolves a lot — the most she saw of them was when they were feral and wild in the woods.

She felt something press in her skull. A headache. A moral quandary that she didn’t have the tools to solve. These days those were the same. “Neat. I mean, that’s kinda … not cool, you know. Guess that’s gonna get you … targeted. Anyway.” She frowned at the twigs and leaves. “Maybe. I’m not a good — I don’t help people.” She poured some sand over the dead creature, let out a huff of air. “Yeah, it does. And yeah, it is. I used to wonder if the creator of Pokémon like, knew of these kinda creatures.” She started wiping her hands on her trousers, looking up. “Good enough, I guess. There’s still … movie left.” She’d get the creature a proper hiding place later. She held out her hand, though didn’t specify if it was to get her weapons back or to have it shaken.

—

Kyle got the feeling that maybe he’d overstepped some invisible line he hadn’t known was there. Maybe befriending a hunter was reckless, even when she didn’t feel like a threat. At least, she hadn’t felt like a threat. Her deflection read as dismissive to Kyle. Perhaps he didn’t view her as a threat because she didn’t view him as a threat. Something unfamiliar tugged inside his gut. He wanted to be respected by her, not brushed aside. Part of him wanted the hunter to fear him. The thought felt almost out of place as soon as he’d thought it, but wasn’t it sort of true? Wasn’t he a beast to be feared? He huffed a chuckle to himself. That didn’t feel like it fit right, either. Better, but not exactly. “Yeah,” he said, after considering Daiyu’s words for a moment. “I’ll do my, uh, best, I guess.” He met her extended hand with his own, both passing her back the ammunition she’d lent, and shaking her hand at the same time. “For the record, I don’t help people either. One time Pokémon battle.” He turned back towards the screen, frowning at the movie. It didn’t feel worth it to stay. It didn’t feel worth it to leave either. He looked back to his new not-enemy. “Walk you back to your truck?”

—

There should be another bolt in her crossbow, aimed at the heart of the untransformed werewolf. This could be her easiest hunt of the year. But that wasn’t her hunter’s code — if she even had one. Hunting the raiju also wasn’t part of her code, but maybe saving a bunch of people who are watching Twilight could be something she added. As for Kyle the Werewolf, there was nothing that demanded she hunt him besides the nagging lessons taught in youth. There was no immediate threat, nor was there a bounty on his head as far as she knew. So Daiyu simply shook his hand and took her weapon back and tried not to think about it all too much.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” she said, starting the walk back to her truck with one weapon in each hand, wondering if someone had called the authorities. Hopefully the sounds of thunder and Supermassive Black Hole had covered the sounds of the gunshot, though. “Was a good one, though. Good Pokémon battle. No fried people and shit.” She gave Kyle a look, a semi-grin. It wasn’t so bad, what they’d done. “Edward would be proud.”

—

There was still some kind of unease that sat alert at the back of Kyle’s mind. On one hand, Daiyu had promised not to hunt him. On the other, she was a total stranger who had just played a hand in taking out a creature. Was he feeling conflicted about hunting the creature? He hadn’t long considered his new role in nature. Were he and the raiju equals? Had he too implicitly trusted this gun wielding Twilight-goer? He would have to sit with the topic later. He thought the hunter might combust if he started grilling her about her moral compass, and he didn’t want to put out any fires tonight either.

Kyle scoffed. “You think I care about Edward’s opinion? He would be a normal type trainer in the most boring way. He would have a team of fuckin’ pidgey and–y’know, never mind.” His face wrinkled in disgust. “Point being, I’m not ‘Team Edward,’” he concluded, with air quotes accenting his words. He crossed his arms across his chest as they reached the truck. Goodbyes felt awkward, especially given the circumstance of their meeting. “Hey, thanks for being cool,” he said flatly, with an air of hesitation. “I mean, letting me make you look like a chump with a bow.” He cracked a teasing grin and gave her finger guns. “You’ll get ‘em next time, bro.”

—

Once arrived at the truck, Daiyu worked on returning her weapons to it, making sure they wouldn’t go off if she went too hard over a speed bump (a common occurrence). A small laugh left her lips at the other’s response to her throwaway comment and she looked up with a quirked eyebrow. “Team Jacob, then? I think you’re biased.” She shrugged, straightened up and closed the door. “I mean, I’m totally team Alice, for what it’s worth. And she’d be totally proud too.” She would probably hate Daiyu for what she was, but luckily she wasn’t real.

She nodded at his comment, head bopping at his thanks. There were no guides for situations like these and Daiyu wished there were, and that they were shared at hunter camps. Guidelines for social interactions where you accidentally roped in a shifter into a hunt and didn’t kill them, or whatever. “Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome. Totally let you win, for the record.” She hadn’t, and it was annoying — because even though she was certain she would have been able to kill the raiju if it had been just her, she hadn’t killed it this time. “I sure will. Er – enjoy the rest of the movie. Won’t get in your way again or whatever.” She raised her hand in goodbye, ready to continue to watch the rest of the movie in escapist solitude.

#ch: raiju where the hell you been loca #ch: daiyu #chatzy

5 notes · View notes

doctorareyes · 1 year ago

Text

Honk! [in a menacing tone] || Felix & Xóchitl

TIMING: Before the Boiler Room and Before Ireland. LOCATION: The Common. SUMMARY: Felix and Xóchitl run itno a weird duck. CONTENT WARNINGS: None!

They thought it would be relaxing. A nice, quiet day sitting by the water. They’d even brought a book along with them! It was self care, or something. On a rare day where they weren’t expected at the Grit Pit that night, they thought it might feel nice to just… sit by the water and feel the lack of obligations.

Except there was some weird duck crawling out of the lake now, and Felix didn’t think it looked very friendly.

Uncertainly, the balam scrambled to their feet, taking a few hesitant steps away from the water. They would not run away from a duck. They would not. But they kind of wanted to. They kind of really, really wanted to. They took another step backwards, trying not to draw attention to themself, but that plan kind of backfired when the whole ‘walking backwards without looking’ method of escape ended in predictable failure. Felix tripped over someone who’d been seated behind him, tumbling down into the grass.

Blinking, he looked up at the person who’d unintentionally tripped him. “Sorry,” he said. “There was — That duck is — It’s weird. I think maybe it’s a swan, and I heard swans are mean, so —” The maybe-swan duck waddled towards the pair, letting out a loud honk.

—

The water was nice. It was calm, and Xóchitl didn’t have to think too much about much of anything. Which, as much as she liked thinking, she had to admit it was a nice thing to have a break from, even if it was physiologically impossible to entirely turn off one’s ability to think.

She’d enjoyed the Common and Public Garden in Boston, and Prospect and Central Park in New York, but at neither had she ever ever seen a bird that looked quite like the one that was leaving the lake now. Some exceptionally strange swan or something – and, much like with actual swans, Xóchitl found that she wanted nothing to do with them.

To make matters… whatever version of more something than they already were, someone tripped over her and Xóchitl found herself looking up at them. “It looks like a weird swan or duck. No offense to animals, but I’m not a fan of whatever that is.” She hopped up on her feet, taking a very abrupt step back as the bird let out a honk. “I’m Xóchitl, by the way. Have you ever seen a swan like this before? I haven’t.”

—

The swan-duck-thing was a little more than ten feet from where they stood, but it looked like it probably intended to come closer. And Felix didn’t really think they wanted that. Not for themself, and not for the woman — Xóchitl — who they’d all but run into, either.

“Oh, hi,” they greeted, waving a hand awkwardly as they took another step back, pulling Xóchitl with them gently. “I’m Felix. And, uh, I’ve definitely never seen a swan like that before. Or a duck. Maybe it’s a goose? I think geese are supposed to be mean, and it looks pretty —”

The bird flapped its wings, propelling itself forward again. Closer now, it let out another deafening honk, and — Felix couldn’t move. They blinked, eyes darting over to Xóchitl. Was this a them thing, or had that bird actually done something?

—

“It does look pretty mean, if you ask me.” Which, you know, they hadn’t, but Xóchitl couldn’t help herself.

The honk it let out made her nearly jump, for a moment, which was weird, because even the most annoying of geese-duck-swans she’d run into hadn’t ever made her jumpy. Only full of dislike, and maybe a swan had freaked her out when she was little, but this felt different.

Wrong, almost.

“Should we – move away from it?” Xóchitl wasn’t really sure what this situation called for, but leaving seemed like a good idea. Leaving was easy.

—

“It does,” Felix agreed solemnly. The goose looked angry, and angry geese were probably dangerous. The jaguar within them took some interest, probably because this was a bird and he was a cat and there were obvious connections to be made there.

Or maybe because the honk really spooked Felix, and the jaguar always thought that meant it was his cue to jump in. Felix quickly stifled the desire to shift and eat the bird, because the jaguar was kind of a dick and would probably eat Xóchitl, too, which wasn’t something they wanted.

“We should move,” Felix agreed, only… they couldn’t. It was like they were frozen in place, like their legs weren’t listening to the commands their brain was sending to them. “We should really move.”

—

“We should move, yeah.” Xóchitl echoed their words, though she found herself unable to actually take an action on said words. Which was strange, because she was a very capable person who was almost always easily able to take action on what she wanted to.

“We need to move.” She tried to move again. “I – you can go first.” Maybe they’d move, and that would kickstart her into being able to actually move, because she couldn’t feel herself going anywhere any time soon.

Xóchitl looked back between the goose-thing and her companion. “Right? You – go ahead, and I’ll follow you.”

—

“Okay,” Felix agreed, hoping that her words would… spark something. Force the signals in his brain to send to his legs, something. But when they tried to move again, they found themself just as stuck as they had been before.

They stood, willing themself to move for a moment longer. There was a beat. And then: “Actually, I think you should go first. Yeah. That way if it attacks, I’ll be able to fight it off. Because I’m, uh — I’m a really good fighter. So. Yeah! You go first, and I’ll watch your back.”

—

They wanted her to go first, and Xóchitl still couldn’t move. And while she wasn’t entirely opposed to lying, there was only so much back and forth that she could handle, especially given that she was feeling far too stressed out by this goose for anything to be made sense of.

“I can’t move.” She finally admitted to them. “I – I’m not lying.” Even though she would lie, sometimes, but not about this. Not to make fun of someone. “Can you? Because I’d really like to not be here. Not – you’re great, but the goose? Not so much.”

—

It was almost a relief, hearing that they weren’t the only one frozen in place. Felix often went through a cycle of fight, flight, freeze, fawn when in a difficult position, and while freeze wasn’t their most common reaction, it did still happen from time to time and was certainly among their least favorite responses. So… it was good that it wasn’t happening now.

But not really good. Really good would have been being able to move and escape. Or even… fight the goose. Fawning would be useless here, but probably still better than this. Whatever was happening, it was evidently some physical thing. So… probably not a normal goose. Great. This was fine.

“I can’t move either,” Felix admitted, a little sheepish. “I believe you! That you’re not lying. I’d also like to get out of here. Because of the goose! Not because of you.” This was just awesome.

—

“Well, I’d be alarmed if anyone wanted to leave somewhere on account of me.” Except that Xóchitl couldn’t quite get herself to laugh about that. Mostly because it wasn’t a laughing situation, as much as she tried to lighten the situation with some vague branch of flirting.

Mostly because that was the best way she knew how to diffuse something, but that might not work right now. Especially because there was no way in hell she was going to flirt with a goose. The goose probably wouldn’t understand human languages anyways, so trying to even reason with it would be stupid and pointless.

“How exactly are we supposed to… find a way to move?” Xóchitl paused a moment before adding, “I also don’t want to move because of you. I want to leave because of that rather superbly horrid goose.”

—

“Yeah, no, you're great,” they reassured her. Any flirting, predictably, went over their head. Felix spent a long time being made to feel as though they should consider themself lucky that anyone wanted them at all. The idea of a stranger flirting with them felt a little preposterous. “The goose is less great. I'm not much of a goose fan. Zero out of ten on the goose, specifically.”

They were babbling. Going on and on, a little hysterically, about things that didn't much matter. It filled the silence, at least, and that was something.

But it didn't provide them with anything resembling an answer.

It was jarring, having such little control. Sure, Felix lost control when the jaguar took his turn with their shared body, but it wasn't like this. This was something new, something unheard of, something terrifying. “I — I don't know. I don't know what we're supposed to do.”

—

“Never was a goose fan, and I’m becoming less and less of one with each passing moment.” They were a kind person, and they also certainly didn’t deserve to be attacked by a more aggressive than average goose. Not that there were many people who Xóchitl would’ve said did deserve to be attacked, there was something about the individual in front of her that screamed really super doesn’t deserve this more than for the average person.

Still, that didn’t solve the problem of the goose.

“And we can’t run, we’ve deduced that, so…” Xóchitl let her words trail off. “If we throw something at it? Well, not at it at it, but to distract it? Like I do with my dog for her own enjoyment. Do we think there’s any hope of that helping us out? Working in our favor?”

—

“Yeah, geese freak me out a little. Like, their teeth.” Felix remembered the first time they’d come upon the knowledge that geese had teeth. One of their siblings had so kindly shared a photo with them, and they’d been absolutely scarred for life as a result. They were pretty sure this goose, with its loud honks and its murderous eyes, had teeth that they really didn’t want to see.

They listened to the plan placed in front of them, nodding their head thoughtfully. “Oh! Yeah. Yeah, throwing something might help. Um, what do you have in your pockets? I’ve got…” They trailed off, digging a hand into their jeans. “A piece of linty cheese… a receipt… a couple nickels…”

—

“Yep. Hate that they have teeth.” Xóchitl winced. They were already a bird that she didn’t especially (or at all) enjoy, and to add teeth on top of all that was just too much. So to have a goose that was too big, wouldn’t leave them alone, and had teeth? Absolutely not how she wanted to spend her day.

“I mean, I have my phone and my keys. Not going to throw either of those, but I also have, well, admittedly, some treats for my dog…” which Xóchitl also didn’t especially want to waste, but if it got this stupid goddamn goose away, then it would be more than worthwhile. “Though the nickels might also work. Geese like shiny things… probably? Right?”

—

So their options were dog treats or nickels? Not ideal, but… maybe they could work with that. Felix fished the nickels from their pockets, squinting at them carefully. “Let’s start with the nickels,” he decided. “If those don’t work, then maybe we do the dog treats?” There weren’t a lot of options here, but that seemed like the best plan.

Holding the nickel tightly, he closed his eyes for a moment. “Okay,” they murmured. Then, a little louder: “Okay! I’m going to throw it towards that way, away from both of us.” They motioned to their right, where some weeds were growing high enough that they hoped it would distract the bird. “Are you ready? I think — if it runs away, we move as soon as we feel like we can. And run in the opposite direction.”

—

“I appreciate your thoughts,” Xóchitl nodded, “because I was at a loss for which to start with.” That much was honest, because they deserved that. They seemed nice and they also seemed clueless, which certainly wasn’t the kindest thing to think, but so long as she kept it to herself she figured it was okay. At least relatively speaking.

She glanced to where he was pointing, before refocusing. “Yeah, that sounds good – and yes, I am ready.” Xóchitl planted the toe of her shoe against the ground. Waiting for them to throw it. “But let’s run together, just so we don’t get separated, just in case the goose-thing decides it doesn’t want to go after a nickel. Make sense?” She tensed her body. “Ready whenever you are.”

—

“Thanks,” Felix replied, smiling a little in spite of the situation. It was nice to be appreciated, to be told that their ideas weren’t terrible. They just hoped it was true. In a situation like this one, they weren’t sure they could afford to go with any bad ideas. The goose seemed fairly harmless — it was a goose, after all — but they knew better than to underestimate anything in Wicked’s Rest.

When Xóchitl confirmed she was ready, Felix took a deep breath. “Together,” he agreed. Then, they closed their eyes. “One… two… three!” As hard as he could, Felix tossed the coin. Thankfully, the goose did seem interested in it. It turned towards the gleaming metal, and after a moment, the feeling returned to Felix’s legs. “Come on!” They shouted, reaching out to grab Xóchitl by the shoulder and tugging her in the opposite direction.

—

“Of course!” Xóchitl responded, trying to make herself seem as non-threatening as possible. She didn’t consider herself super threatening in general, but she figured someone like Felix probably could do with an extra dose of ‘not being threatening’, as it were.

She readily followed them, and even once they weren’t that far away, the grating and honking sounds seemed to die down. “It – does it sound better to you, too, or am I just being way too optimistic?” Xóchitl didn’t think she was, but she also hadn’t ever seen a breed of goose like that before. So extra checking was, in fact, needed for this case.

—

It did sound better, though Felix wasn’t the best person to ask if you were worried you were being too optimistic. Their habit of looking at the glass as half full had certainly gotten them into trouble in the past, but… this time was probably different, right? The honking didn’t sound quite so honking anymore, so maybe they were in the clear.

The fact that they were able to move seemed to add to that theory, and they already felt better with some distance between them and the goose. Their shoulders slumped in quiet relief, and they nodded their head. “It sounds better,” they agreed, “but I think we should get out of here. Um, like, as far away as possible. Right? So the goose doesn’t chase us.”

—

“Yeah, don’t want to deal with being chased by… that.” She let her voice trail off. Because that wasn’t how things worked and absolutely wasn’t the way that she planned to spend her day. Plus, agreeing with the other person seemed to be the way to go, given how nervous they seemed. Xóchitl didn’t want to further contribute to what was likely already a fairly intense case of anxiety. That wasn’t going to help either of them whatsoever.

“Do you have a car? I can drive you to wherever you need to be, just so our… guest doesn’t cause you any further trouble.” Again, she didn’t know what this goose thing was but she did know that she didn’t want to be around it and didn’t want her companion to suffer any more than they already were.

—

“I have a truck!” Felix replied excitedly, trying to reel themself in, to make their voice quiet enough that the creature before them wouldn’t hear it and decide to follow. “But, um, I parked a ways away, so maybe you can give me a ride to it? And I can buy you lunch!” They felt like they owed her. “What do you say?”

—

“I’d be happy to give you a ride, of course.” Xóchitl smiled at Felix. They certainly were excitable, and though she’d hazard a guess that a good part of it came from nerves, there was also something incredibly charming about how excited they could get. “You don’t have to buy me lunch, I’d do this just because, but I am hungry. What were you craving?”

—

Relief flooded them as Xóchitl promised them a ride and agreed to the lunch. After everything, Felix was pretty hungry themself. “There’s a great taco truck that parks near the edge of the park. Want to go there?” Anxiety still thrummed in their chest but, with the goose behind them and the car ahead of them, it was fading back down to manageable levels. All in all, they thought, this wasn’t the worst end to a day.

#wickedswriting #chatzy #writing #c felix #honk! [in a menacing tone]#// ty to bex and sorry for my delays on this #also sorry for the title #ily #and i love felix #Give Felix Good Things Please

4 notes · View notes

endlessevenings · 1 year ago

Text

Out of Depth || Van & Mahuika

TIMING: Current LOCATION: Like A Charm PARTIES: Van ( @vanoincidence ) and Mahuika ( @endlessevenings ) TRIGGERS: None! SUMMARY: Van ventures into a magic shop out of curiosity and nerves. Mahuika spots her practically like a spider with its prey, and pounces. But in a nice way. Probably.

Van bit down on the inside of her cheek, shooting furtive glances over her shoulder. The woman behind the counter eyed her from behind the book she was reading, eyebrows pulled together in suspicion. This was so stupid. She wasn’t even… what was it, a spellcaster? A magician? A witch? She just had magic. It was an inherent and unfortunate part of her. It was something she didn’t mind the thought of getting rid of, but she didn’t know how. She figured Like a Charm might be the best place to find that information, but for the most part, she wasn’t finding anything that would aid her in her desperation. She thumbed through a couple of different tarot decks, not able to make sense of any of the symbols or images. This wasn’t her. She wasn’t… somebody who would take to this, she was something else entirely.

A nervous sweat beaded across the back of her neck as she tried to tuck tail and run, but instead of making it through the door, she was slamming into a girl quite a bit taller than herself. Something from the other woman’s hands fell to the ground, and Van dropped into a kneeling position to pick it up. It was a number of herbs, as well as a book that Van couldn’t read the title of. “Sorry– I, sorry.” She gathered the items, straightening up as she shoved them towards the girl, gaze fixed on her own hands and how they shook slightly.

Like a Charm seemed like an absolutely kitschy sort of place – or maybe that was just Mahuika’s good views manifesting themselves. Though she knew that she was right at least to some degree, because some of the things in the shop were absolute junk. Still, she wasn’t going to say that out loud (at least not while she was in the shop), and maybe there was something of use here.

Correct, there were many somethings of use here, and she was totally shopping local, which made her a totally good person, right? Mahuika knew it did, and being in a place dedicated to the appreciation of magic was always good in her book. A place that showed just how better those with magic were. How much more deserving of… everything.

She’d collected some herbs and a book, though those items had suddenly found themselves on the ground and someone else was in front of her and apologizing and Mahuika grinned, giving a shake of her head. “No worries, I was in your way. There’s nothing you need to apologize for.” If the girl wasn’t magic, then she’d have a few other things to work through, but she figured that she should just go ahead and try optimism for the heck of it, at least in this particular moment. “Are you okay? I wouldn’t want you to get hurt or anything like that.”

Van wasn’t sure that was right– she had definitely run into the girl. She resituated the items so that they didn’t fall out of the girl’s hands again and she wiped her palms against her sweatshirt. “What? No, I’m totally fine.” She offered a weak smile. She was trying hard not to look at the items that the girl had, mostly because that was rude, but she was never good at minding her own business. Ever.

Finally, her gaze dragged down and she took note of the herbs, of the book. “You’re really going to buy that stuff?” Was she just some girl, looking to grow a garden, or was this something else? “I mean– sorry, that’s not the right question.” She felt heat rise to the back of her neck again. “I was just wondering. This is my first time here, and I don’t really know what I’m looking at, and honestly I just thought it was a place for tourists.” She kept her voice low as she spoke, as to not offend the clerk who was shelving items across the store.

“Yeah, I am really going to buy all this.” Mahuika did her best to keep her expression light – curious – neutral. Any number of good things because pissing everyone she met off was simply not it. Even if a part of her wanted that to be it, but she’d learned through enough trial and error that being nice and pleasant got her what she wanted most of the time. That was – whenever she wasn’t getting what she wanted through her more preferred means of such eventualities.

“I think some of it is for sure for tourists.” Mahuika nodded toward a deck of mass-produced tarot cards by the front. “But some of it’s legit. Because magic is legit.” She couldn’t help but scrunch up her face ever-so-slightly, ready to duck out or duck somewhere if the girl made fun of her. There was still a bitterness about the possibility of that, but Mahuika liked to avoid thinking about that whenever possible. Besides, she could deal with this girl if she did decide that Mahuika was full of it. “Do you want … help … knowing what you’re looking at?”

“You must be like, rich or something.” Van had no clue how much everything cost, there weren’t really any price tags for her to snoop on. “Sorry– or you’re just really good at managing your money? I mean, I’m like, not. At all.” She bit the inside of her cheek, sending an apologetic glance towards the brunette. God, she was terrible at communication.

Van’s gaze swept over the goods stacked into the shelves, a minor chill running down her spine at the mention of magic, and how it was legit. It was weird, hearing other people discuss it so nonchalantly. She’d been hiding from it her whole life, and now, she was in public discussing– or rather, being talked at about magic. She swallowed thickly, clearing her throat. “Um… I don’t… really know what I’m looking for? This is my first time in a place like this.” She looked at the girl with a pleading expression, as if begging her not to tell her this wasn’t her place. It had to be. Where else was there?

“I don’t… I’m not familiar with like, any of this stuff.” How dangerous was it to come clean to somebody else who also believed in magic? Probably dangerous. Van forced her gaze to not linger on the brunette for too long. “What do you… recommend? What are your favorites?” Was she even going to be able to afford it?

“I’m not.” Which was probably something too blunt and personal or whatever, but it was true. She was working at Bearcliff to make money, not because she was some fancy hotshot princess (well, she was one of those things) who wanted to know what normal life was like. Mahuika’s nose threatened to scrunch up into something resembling disgust but she flipped it around and grin. “No, o-m-g. I’m really not. I guess I’m good?” She shrugged.

“Your first time?” Now Mahuika’s grin was far more real. Which was incredibly rare, but her smile nearly reached her eyes. “Let me help you! If that’s okay, because I’m a stranger?” She’d already decided that she was going to help, but the girl didn’t need to know that. The girl who she very much hoped was not some freakish magic witch-spellcaster murderer. But if she was, the Mahuika would just deal with that. She didn’t go around without physical items for self defense.

“Well, it depends on what you want to do with it. It’s not like you can get one crystal or one paper — and it’s also about laws, and what the person intends to do as their magic.” This girl better not up and try to steal her thunder, Mahuika thought. But she desperately wanted to know someone else magic, and this girl looked like she needed help, so it could be a double win. A new magic-user to know, and a charity case to work on. “Do you have any clue about any of that? Or we could just take a walk around? Just get comfortable vibing with the place?”

Van eyed the girl apprehensively as if willing some kind of mask to fall away from her face, to reveal her true intentions. But there was nothing– she seemed nice, seemed like she wanted to help in the way that Van so obviously needed. She tucked her balled up hands into her sweatshirt pockets and bit the inside of her cheek as she nodded, a little too pathetically for her own good. “I mean, like I’m old enough to know not to talk to strangers, but this is like, super public and you seem to know what you’re doing.” Van wasn’t really afraid of what might happen here, mostly because she could run away if needed. It wasn’t like they were secluded and alone.

The stranger was discussing laws and about what she intended to do with her magic, and Van had to stop herself from telling the brunette that the only thing she’d done with her magic was kill people and melt tables. “I– no, I don’t know anything about… are there like, magic lawyers and stuff?” Was she being secretly watched by some kind of witch-y unity circle? Did they know everything bad she’d ever done? Was this girl here to make her pay? Van’s mind ran wild with the scenario and a small sweat broke out across the back of her neck as she considered the possibility.

“To be fair, I think even some eight-year-olds have that sense.” Mahuika offered the girl a small smile. “But I get that – and you’re right. But this is public, and I wouldn’t ever hurt you.” Assuming, of course, that this girl was also a magic-user. Which was a bit of a gamble, but Mahuika liked to think she had a good read on people. Though there was little that she wouldn’t think she was good at. It just meant that she had really super solid self-confidence. Obviously. Some might have seen it as being overly self-important, but she didn’t, and that was clearly what mattered most.

“Also yes, I do know what I’m doing.” She grinned. “Oh, not laws like that. Laws like…” Mahuika paused, trying to think of a way to explain it without scaring her off. “There’s things that balance the world, and magic plays a role in that. I don’t want to overwhelm you. But you’re not like, in trouble. Fuck the law, right? Human law, I mean. Not the magic law. That is actually important.”

I wouldn’t ever hurt you. Van had to keep herself from telling the girl that sure, that’s what somebody who wanted to hurt somebody would say, but because this wasn’t some low budget horror film, Van kept her mouth shut. She gave a small nod, not sure what else to say to that. Was she supposed to tell the brunette that she wouldn’t hurt her either? Was that more menacing than anything? Probably, right?

Balance. Yeah, that was the word– that made more sense than the idea that there was some kind of witch institute teaching magic users how to be lawyers or something. “Oh… balance. Right, okay.” There was not really any balance within her own realm of experiences, she realized. Everything felt severely out of balance. “Yeah, fuck the law. Not… magic law, I guess.” Van kept her voice low, despite the fact that they were in a like minded shop. For all she knew, these could be fake people with fake things to say about magic. But then why would somebody who said she knew about magic be here? Was she fake, too?

Van’s mind ran away with the limitless possibilities, uncertainty clouding her expression. “So you… you know a lot about like, all of this?” It was so unfair, she thought. To have been taught nothing; to have existed in this without really knowing what was happening to her. Why had other people gotten lucky enough to know what they were?

“See? We’re already on the same page!” Mahuika resisted wrapping her arm around the girl, because that wasn’t good to do without asking and the last thing she wanted right now was to scare the girl off. That wouldn’t do anybody any sort of good anything. Especially because for all that it was absolutely a terrible idea, she already found herself drawn in by the other (assumed) spellcaster. If she could get her hands on someone who was confused and new to all of this, and help them become what they deserved, then that would be all kinds of absolutely perfect.

“I do know a lot. I grew up knowing.” She forced herself to frown, just slightly. Except that the pity she felt for the girl was so real that it was almost tangible. Which was not great (the pity, the loss of time being with magic that the other girl clearly had), but at the same time, worked out absolutely perfectly, just as she’d intended for it to. Mahuika nodded. “I got lucky, but I can help you, if you want. I’d love to help. Teach you whatever I can. I’ll even buy us snacks or lunch or dinner or whatever – and I can be free pretty much whenever works for you. How does that sound?”

Van should have been jumping with joy at the sight of another magic user. Between this girl and the shopkeeper at the Sugar Pot, Van should’ve been expressing immense gratitude, but all she could feel was… well, she wasn’t sure what she felt, but it wasn’t really anything good. Van stared at the brunette, mouth slightly ajar.

“I’m– I don’t know what you’re supposed to like, teach me.” She was recoiling from the help being extended to her again. Even when it came to Teddy, all Van had taken was the ring. The ring that sat heavy in her pocket, unused, because maybe she didn’t want– she wasn’t sure what she didn’t want, and she wasn’t sure what she did want. She took a small step back from the girl across from her, clearing her throat. “I’m– um, I don’t… really know what I’m supposed to be learning.” A small, nervous laugh escaped her as she clasped her hands together, eyes darting around the room. “I just sort of like, walked in here, you know?” This was all too real– the idea that somebody could help her– or a few somebody’s.. no, she couldn’t take up their time. “I’m sorry for wasting– um, your time.”

“You don’t need to be sorry. You’ll learn what you’re meant to learn, all in time. You walked in here and that means something, and I’ll be here for you, alright?” God, she needed to chill with the altruism. But, Mahuika supposed, it wasn’t so bad to be helpful when you were helping another spellcaster. At least this way this girl wouldn’t end up kidnapped or dead. Hopefully.

“We’ll figure it out. But how about I take you out for tea and coffee, or ice cream, or anything you want, first? Also, I’ll admit,” and now this part might’ve been a bit of a lie, “I’ve really been wanting friends, and you seem like you know what you’re doing. So maybe we can help each other? I’ll help you even if you don’t want to be my friend though. This isn’t conditional.” Mahuika hoped that was abundantly clear. “Let me just go and check out first.” She turned on her heel, before adding, “I’m Mahuika by the way. You seem like you’re going to be a lot of fun.”

#wickedswriting #c van #chatzy #writing #out of depth #// i love van and i love ci both sm #i am ridiculously excited to see where this goes

6 notes · View notes

samar-sehgal · 1 year ago

Text

Who: @samar-sehgal & @eleanorxshipley

Where: The After Party (post-plot drop)

When: March 22nd, 2024

Well there was no way to avoid the obvious now, that despite the evening being mostly in jest the residents of London were without a doubt wrapped up in shady, illegal and utterly dangerous activities too numerous to count. The flash of video all too gruesome, yet familiar all the same, had severely dampened the vibe of it all now. People murmured, began to scatter and drift off to the night, and while Samar’s first instinct was to try and gather whatever bits of information he could about what everyone couldn’t help but have seen… he realized that it had been a while since he’d heard from Eleanor. As they were pretending to merely be acquaintances in public whenever other people were around, they couldn’t be attached at the hip like he’d have preferred on an evening like this. It was likely she preferred the distance, he kept telling himself, what sort of publicity bring to her career if people knew she was tumbling with the loudmouthed reporter everyone disdained? Still, he didn’t like that there had been no word from her at all, and even after sending her a text there was no reply forthcoming. Putting that investigative instinct to good use he began to seek her out, trying to determine where she might have gotten off to. “Eleanor…” he muttered to himself quietly. “Just be safe.”

Pounding. Thumping. The sounds roared through her mind. Was it her heart or her head that were the cause? Everything was a blur as green eyes tentatively peeled open from the fog. Eleanor attempted ever-so-slightly to lift her face from the floor-- the immediate ache of her temple indication that it was definitely the latter. She couldn't remember much, except that first she was hiding and then everything faded to black. The crystals on her cocktail dress had collected tiny shards from the glass that had shattered on the pantry floor. Her first thought was to check her phone and seek out help, but she had no idea where it was. Likely hidden among the rubble of the pantry debris. Eleanor felt weak; her vision was still blurry which only made her dizzy as she tried to muster some strength and bring herself to her knees. She ignored the little bits of glass that pierced her legs as she slowly crawled toward the pantry door. Eleanor listened carefully, it silent in the kitchen now, though she wasn't sure how far she could make it on her own. Feebly she nudged the door open enough for a slice of light to leak in, but then vertigo took over and she pressed her face into the palms of her hands, trying to garner another bout of energy.

The longer he went without hearing from Eleanor, the more anxious Samar was becoming. It wasn’t like her to just ghost him and not reply at all. He’d last seen her around the bar area where they’d exchanged a little banter, and soon was putting all his focus into trying to track her without coming across as stalker-ish. The best lead he’d gotten was from a member of the wait-staff who said they’d seen her heading in the direction of the kitchen area, and it was as good a place as any to search. If he needed to, Samar would be searching every room on every floor of this place until he found Eleanor. For some reason, the kitchen was quiet and empty when he ducked his head in, but at least it made the effort a lot easier. “Eleanor?” he inquired, at a level above a whisper but not by much? Eyes glanced around, searching in vain… until he saw the pantry door askew, and a splash of pink color at the bottom of it. Rushing over, his heart practically in his mouth given the circumstances of the night already, Samar pulled the door open slowly and cast his gaze down… to see Eleanor down on the floor, her face in her hands. “El!” He couldn’t hide the worry in his voice, but he’d found her.

Eleanor was trying to concentrate on her breathing-- slow and steady both in, and out. She'd had panic attacks before and didn't want to go down that road again. She wasn't sure she even had the energy to combat one. In. Out. in. Out. This distracted her from the footsteps that approached, she completely oblivious to the fact that anyone was near until she heard the softness of his voice. Her nickname on his lips with concern. Even as out of it she was in that moment, Eleanor felt reprieve. Safe. He had come looking for her. It melted her racing heart, and she peeked up at him; the warmth of Samar's eyes wrapping around her like a blanket. Tears pricked her own, but she managed a small smile and reached for his hand. "Sammy." It barely squeaked past her lips; the name he loathed but let her get away with anyhow. As he knelt down to her, Eleanor disregarded all thought of the media or anyone that might be around. Despite the way they trembled, her hands pressed to Samar's cheeks, bringing his lips to hers with a feather of a kiss. "I'm okay," she whispered, her nose nuzzling his affectionately. The scene around them and her weak, shaky body might seem otherwise, but she knew now that he was here, she would be.

The moment he saw her there and saw the reaction to his voice, Samar wasted no time at all in kneeling down beside Eleanor to offer her help and support of every kind. His racing pulse just as frenetic, his hand finding hers as she’d searched for it. And it was Eleanor who reached to his face and pulled him to a soft kiss, perhaps to remind herself as well she was alright. “You’re certain?” The words were enough to half-convince him, but it didn’t stop him from surveying her for himself, slowly wrapping an arm behind her shoulders, giving her the chance to slowly make it back to her feet herself. “I didn’t know where you’d gotten to, El, but I wasn’t going to leave without you.” Eyes glanced down to notice her legs, dotted with bits of glass and a few having left nicks on bare skin. Her dress had been a showstopper, but hadn’t offered much in the way of protection. “You’re hurt, do you feel like leaving?” In the moment it wasn’t registering with him that it might look odd to the general public if they were spotted leaving together, the only thing he was focused on was her safety and condition. With Eleanor upright now and partially leaning on him for support, Samar’s arm dropped to her waist, reeling her in tighter. “I’m just glad you’re safe, El.”

Although the kiss was almost like a pinch to make sure this was all real, Eleanor was overwhelmed with so much adoration for him that she let the moment overtake everything else. She nodded softly, melting against Samar as he scooped her onto wobbly legs. She clutched to him tightly to find balance, since her aching head still made everything a bit dizzying. "I'm sorry. I promise to explain it all later. I tried to write you back." His words made her pause, heart this time aflutter. After that horrifying video there was certainly a story to unravel. Eleanor knew how passionate Samar was at finding all of the juicy details and instead, he was looking for her. Green eyes grew soft, meeting warm ones again. "Thank you for not giving up on me." She held his stare, only diverting to her legs as his did. Small red cuts decorated ivory skin, but she didn't feel like any glass had actually sunk its way in. She did want to leave, and really just wanted to be with him somewhere safe. If anyone noticed them leave together, she didn't care at the moment. Perhaps he'd be dubbed a hero, or they would be called out. But then and there, seeing that he had sacrificed his findings for her was enough for Eleanor to ignore the consequences. She'd worry about them another day. "So long as you'll stay with me tonight." Judging from his expression, he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

#eleanor #london awards 2024 #after party #chatzy #flashback

6 notes · View notes

theskyspiritstalentshow · 2 years ago

Text

Chatzy.com still exists, I hope it'll keep existing a while longer.

#chatzy #omegle #everyone talking about how they used to roleplay on omegele #i hope chatzy doesnt close soon #tho i wish there was a way to download everything even as premium member/room bcs there are years worth of roleplays in our room #it would be cool to get it all at once sigh

5 notes · View notes

theticklishpear · 2 years ago

Note

Will there be a nano chat this year? ^.^

Well there is now, Anon! I've had a couple people reach out with interest in a chat for this year, so I've booted up a fresh room.

The Chatzy room will be open in the morning:

Click through and enter nano2023withpear for the password.

You do not need a Chatzy account to participate.

Please use your Tumblr handle as your username; it will help me keep track of who's who.

The room will be open 24/7 throughout November. I will be present:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 10 AM–12 PM EST

Saturday, Sunday: 2–12 PM EST

time zone convertor

I'm an ML for my area, plus this is the busiest season of my day job, so there may be times when I can't be there. I am, unfortunately, very human and still have to do life things.

Some ground rules:

We're an extremely low-expectation, chill room, and I intend to keep it that way. Trolling, flaming, anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiments, racism, antisemitism, etc. will not be tolerated.

If it's clear you're not there to write, you will be asked to leave.

Sometimes the room gets quiet — that's okay. Don't get upset if folks take a while to respond. They might be writing, and that's kind of the point after all.

Folks write all kinds of stuff. Just because someone's story isn't your thing doesn't mean you get to be disparaging about it. We do a lot of encouragement and I'd like that emphasis to be upheld.

Come on by if you need some prompts, challenges, or sprints! We're busy little writers, but we do love to feed each other's chaos, and sprints are a great way to buckle down and write hard for 10–30 minutes.

See you there! -Pear

#nanowrimo #chatzy #this has been a public service announcement #pear responds

4 notes · View notes

contemporarybardess · 2 years ago

Note

[pm] Hey. How are you? I just wanted to say thank you for saving me. I didn't hurt you did I?

[pm] Oh wow, hi! I'm doing great! It's nice to hear from you when you're not all zombified. You didn't hurt me at all! Had me scared for a little while there, but I was more worried about your safety than I was my own. I'm really glad Monty was able to get you the help you needed, we should definitely go back and see if he got those llamas he promised!

#Chatzy #c mack

2 notes · View notes

gossipsnake · 1 year ago

Text

TIMING: Current LOCATION: Vic's House PARTIES: Anita (@gossipsnake) & Vic (@natusvincere) CONTENT: n/a SUMMARY: Anita put's her knowledge of insects to use and tries to help Vic deal with a curious pest.

Vic was a very clean person. Even for those who slept, she vehemently believed there was no excuse for not keeping an orderly, tidy home, especially where there were children involved. This expectation, unlike her recent indecisiveness on the moral grayness of vampires, was not up for interpretation, nor did it allow for any mistakes on her part. Her tidiness was meticulous, almost to a fault, which is why she knew she wasn’t to blame when the bug problem arose.

At first, she thought it was a yellow apple, which was a bit odd, considering the only ones she and Rosie had picked at the orchard were bright red. It had gone rotten, she was sure, like things in Wicked’s Rest had a nasty habit of doing, so it was in her hand on the way to the compost bin when it sprouted legs. Vic, in such a state of shock (but totally not flustered like some ignoramus), practically screamed, and she tossed the apple into the air as if it were poison and as if she were a pale princess living with 7 very short men. As if. The apple-bug had crawled away, and for days after, the only place Vic could manage to catch a glimpse was in her conservatory.

Ugh, her conservatory. Years and years of careful tending to fabulous flora and fauna were apparently gone to waste thanks to the apple-fuck. Apple-bug. All of the plants in her conservatory were dying, but everytime she got close to the goddamn thing, it rolled away. Winnie had even had her turn at it, chasing the apple-bug around the room for hours and amusing Rosie immensely, but it was all for naught. The exterminators were a bust too, even if she paid an arm and a leg for them, half of them looked at her as if she were insane when she suggested the pest looked like an apple. The other half spent even longer chasing the beast around her house than Winnie did. Fools, all of them.

The entomologist was her last choice to solve the matter, but Vic was nothing if not stubborn. She wasn’t one for mincing words, either, so while her guest was right on time, she barely wasted time on exchanging pleasantries once she opened the door to greet her. “Hello, Ms. Nieves, right? It’s a pleasure to meet you. Are you here to help me murder my fruit shaped enemy?”

___

It wasn’t exceptionally common for random people to reach out to Anita about persistent pests that were either bothering them or infesting their homes but it did happen on occasion. Whenever it did she would try to get a sense of what the problem was - especially since entomologists aren’t usually people’s first contact in these kinds of situations. She found that often she was a last resort and even more often the insects people were seeking help about weren’t the kind your regular exterminator knew how to handle.

So when a strikingly beautiful woman had come to her for help with something she was calling an “apple-bug” that sprouted legs and ran around her home, well Anita simply couldn’t say no. “Dr. Nieves, actually,” she clarified with a coy smirk, “but you can just call me Anita.” She looked around the space, not immediately noticing anything out of the ordinary. “I am fully prepared for some insect murder in the event that capturing isn’t a viable option, which, from how you described this creature it sure sounds like capturing isn’t a strong option. Where did you see it last?”

___

Vic felt herself redden at the faux-pas. Doctor, of course. How could she have insulted a woman of such esteem so soon into their meeting? Would the good doctor simply refuse to help her now? She might have, if the situation were reversed. “I apologize, Doctor. … Anita. You may call me Vic. Can I get you anything to drink?” How fantastical it must have been to be able to demand someone address you as doctor as soon as they started to insult you. Perhaps when Rosie was a bit older, she would get her doctorate.

At Anita’s question, Vic gestured to her conservatory, walking toward it and showing her the inside. “I apologize, these plants are usually in tip-top condition, but…” She looked back toward the woman, embarrassed. “That devil fruit bug has been destroying all the plants in sight. It’s insatiable, and has a particular affinity for hard to grow plant life”, she said, looking forlornly at her poor, dead orchids.

“I’ve had three different exterminators here and all of them were buffoons. I should have known from the start that only a woman could fix this mess.”

___

“No need for an apology,” Anita said with a gentle flick of her wrist, as though she was physically waiving it off. She set one of her bags down near the front door, keeping the other bag with some supplies on her shoulder. “Don’t need anything to drink now, but maybe we can share a celebratory drink after if we’re able to nab this pest.” Her eyes followed towards the conservatory, which was admittedly in rather sad shape.

“I’ve seen plenty of plants in far worse condition. Part of my studies involved an overlap in entomology and plant pathology, observing how invasive species can create chaos in an otherwise balanced environment.” While the description of this devil fruit bug was somewhat vague, Anita had spent enough time outside over her past four years in this town observing the local oddities. She had come across this apple-like supernatural bug before. A nuisance for sure, but not one that couldn’t be handled.

“Exterminators are only useful when they know what they are exterminating. Their job is brute force, not necessarily keen observation.” Anita elected to leave out any mention of her family’s extermination business, for the time being, not wanting to open the door to questions about her personal life. “I certainly hope I’m the woman for the job. I think together the odds are in our favor.”

Heading further into the conservatory, Anita looked around for any obvious signs of the creature. “Do you have any fruit bearing plants?”

“I’ll hold you to that”, Vic said with a grin thinking of the bottle of wine that was waiting in the cabinet for such an occasion. The death of the apple-fuck would be a momentous occasion, albeit one that might make Rosie and Winnie a bit sad. They did seem to love their new, silly toy after all. There was a sense of pride that came from Anita’s words, although Vic wondered if she might be just being polite. “So… you’ve seen this thing before, then? Is it an easy fix?” There was a glimmer of hope that flashed across Vic’s features, before a scowl reappeared at her next words.

“That became obvious rather quickly”, Vic said, rolling her eyes at the thought. “And you wouldn’t believe the nerve of them, arguing with me the way that they did. It was almost as if they thought I was stupid.” She had been strangely defensive to their arguments too, more so than normal, but she refused to be treated like an idiot in her own home. Thank goodness Rosie hadn’t been there to witness their rudeness.

“None inside”, she said, stepping aside to give Anita a better view to observe their surroundings. Her conservatory was a large room on the side of her home, the rounded walls covered with windows. Framed drawings of flowers done by a child surrounded the doorframe, a small R in the corner of each growing less rudimentary with each one. “I have a vegetable garden growing outside in the summer that I’ve yet to plant, and some raspberry bushes along the outside of the property, but nothing of the sort in here. I will note that the ugly thing appeared here after a trip to the orchard, though. The first time I saw it, I had assumed it was an apple.” Vic didn’t know if she was rambling or if any of this information would even help, she just wanted the bug gone as soon as possible.

“Please do,” Anita quipped back, not missing a beat. If she could flirt a bit and catch a strange supernatural insect? Well that was just a win-win kind of situation. “Never seen one infesting any place inside before, admittedly. First time I ever saw one was a few years back, in the spring and summer they can be found out in the woods wherever there are wild berry patches.” In her experience with these things, which was somewhat limited but undoubtedly more than any of the exterminators who had been through so far, they weren’t any real significant threat to anything other than plants.

The arguing comment seemed interesting, she had heard stories of orchards infested with these critters having an correlative increase in arguments. But that was natural, wasn’t it? For arguments to follow stressful circumstances? Anita’s eyes surveyed the conservatory - it was a beautiful collection of plants. Windows let in natural sunlight that danced across the flowers and the leaves. “I can see why you’d want to protect these beauties from any infestations.” Her eyes landed on the drawings, clearly - or, well, hopefully - made by a child. “Who made these?” She asked, not wanting to make any presumptions.

“It may have followed you in from the orchard,” Anita commented as she continued to try and spot the supernatural insect or at least any indication of where it had recently been. Her focus was on the plants that looked like they were dying, a sign it had been or was being drained of its nutrients. “You ever seen any strange bugs like this before?” Anita had seen these creatures before, there was not much about them that looked normal. This woman seemed unphased by the concept of a bug that looked like an apple with the ability to evade several exterminators. “Always some, unusual things in this town, huh?”

Vic wasn’t used to whatever reciprocal energy was passing between her and Anita, but she couldn’t deny that she didn’t hate whatever feeling it produced. Was this playful banter? She wasn’t sure. “I think it’s less of an infestation and more of a… home invasion. Whatever it is, clearly didn’t intend on ending up here, but now it’s too stupid to let us catch it so we can put it back outside.” She paused, turning from the conservatory to look at Anita. “I’m not new to being a pioneer, though. If you end up writing a book about this bug, you should include photos of my poor indoor plants, so people understand the risks.”

If Vic showed any hint of pride at her plants, she practically beamed when Rosie’s drawings were pointed out. She never wanted to bring too much attention to her daughter, and her interaction with Jade in the park told her exactly why that was important, but it was so hard not to practically burst the moment someone asked about her. “They’re my daughter’s”, she said, stopping herself from showing Anita every picture that’s ever been taken of her. “She’s, well, she just turned three. But I think they’re quite advanced. She’s at school right now, but she might be devastated if we rid our home of the bug. She finds it charming.”

Vic crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head. “Bugs? No. But I’ve seen a ton of unbelievable creatures in town since I moved here about a decade ago. Heard tell of even more. I’m just surprised no researcher has ever come over and declared a whole new ecosystem, since clearly that’s the only way so many strange and unusual species are produced.” Anita must have known the truth about the town, especially with her leading question, but Vic was ever so cautious about the matter. Gloating about her own knowledge on the supernatural wasn’t worth the risk it posed to her and Rosie. In the distance she heard a faint rolling, her heightened hearing picking up the sound almost as instantly as it started. She peaked over to the living room, where Winnie was sound asleep. “I…”, she swallowed, looking back toward Anita. “Something tells me it’s going to make an appearance soon. Do we have any sort of game plan?”

“Oh yeah? What kind of pioneering are you used to doing?” It was something Anita had considered before, writing a comprehensive guide to the supernatural world of insects. She would either be touted as the mother of modern entomology or, more likely, laughed out of the profession she loved “You seem like you’ve got a green thumb, quite the loving touch, I’m sure you’ll be able to get these plants back to their former glory once we get rid of this pest.”

It was hard not to smile when Vic talked about her daughter. Anita never quite understood the desire for offspring herself, however, but she never questioned the important bond of family. “And what about your partner?” She managed to casually sneak the question in, “Will they be sad if we’re victorious in our mission today to catch this bug?” Anita hadn’t noticed a wedding band but that didn’t mean anything, she had learned.

Ten years was a long time to live anywhere. It was too long to live in this town and not know about certain things that went bump in the night. There was an intentional vagueness in Vic’s response that told Anita all she needed to know. Her comment, however, made Anita wonder just how familiar the other woman was with the supernatural world. While Anita was tempted to partially shift, allowing herself to use her thermal vision, she felt it was too much of a risk in the off chance that Vic was a hunter. She didn’t need to expose herself like that. Instead, she let her lame human senses attempt to seek out the insect.

Reaching into her backpack, Anita pulled out two devices that had a long sticky pad on attached to a sturdy retractable pole. “So, unfortunately for your plants, I think the best option is to wait for it to settle in for a snack and then quickly try to trap it down on one of these pads. It’s basically like a fly trap on steroids.” She handed one of the contraptions to Vic, then reached back into her bag and pulled out a makeshift trap that used an apple as bait and set it down by the door of the conservatory they had walked through. “If we can’t catch it… maybe it’ll trap itself as it runs away,” she said with a bit of a shrug as she tried to listen for any soft noises that might give away the critter’s location.

“Oh, um, just…” Vic wasn’t used to people actually asking her follow-up questions. She could usually just bullshit through conversations without having to worry about providing explanations. What had she pioneered? She wasn’t sure. “I was the first artist in town to paint a minion on a storefront in a santa hat. I believe I was almost nominated for an award and everything.” Thankfully, Anita changed the subject rather quickly in favor of her gardening skills. She smiled shyly. “It’s an easy hobby- I suppose I don’t hate that you see all your work come to fruition with plants, you know? It’s not something that’s worth forgetting about.”

Vic felt her eyebrows raise higher than humanly possible (was that a new vampire trait she wasn’t aware of?) at the mention of her partner. It’s not like it was a question she hadn’t heard before… and it was so refreshing compared to the constant inquiries about a ‘husband’ even as close as thirty years earlier, but thinking about a partner in raising Rosie had never even crossed her mind. It made sense that Anita would assume- most families had two-parent households, but Vic was more than a little proud to admit she was doing it all on her own. “Oh, there’s no partner. There’s just me. I’m alone….-single! By myself, with her, and me.” Winnie huffed from the other room, too deep in her nap to get upset about being forgotten in this small family makeup.

Vic reached out for the trap, grabbing it gingerly with her fingers so as to not get trapped herself. She examined it carefully. Wondering why she or none of the exterminators had come up with this idea earlier. “I knew you were the right woman for the job”, she said as Anita placed the trap down. “So…we leave it there, then…could it stay out for a few days? Am I meant to give you another call if it does end up trapping itself so you can examine it further?”

Even though she had an immense amount of questions about this award-nominated santa minion painting, Anita didn’t want to derail the conversation about plants to delve into that topic. “Don’t sell yourself short. A lot of people think plants are easy to care for, an easy hobby, until they really start getting into it. Especially this many plants. They all have their own needs and you clearly know how to satisfy them.”

Five. That was the number of different ways Vic emphasized how single she was and that was not lost on Anita. She nodded, a coy grin spread across her face, “Got it. I love that. Single is quite empowering… or at least I find it to be.” The question wasn’t asked but she wanted to pepper in the fact that she, too, was without any partner.

“I often am,” Antia responded to the compliment with a smile. “The trap can definitely be left out for a few days, as long as you aren’t worried about your daughter or any pets messing with it and accidentally engaging it. If the trap’s closed without the critter inside it doesn’t do us much good.” Her eyes moved around to the different plants in the room, wondering if they would be so lucky to have the malapple appear while they were actively looking for it. “I’d never say no to a call from you. Would certainly be happy to swing by and collect it if it ends up trapping itself at a later date. After all, I can't leave a customer … unsatisfied.” Anita let the pause between her words linger slightly, letting her flirtation be slightly more obvious now that she knew Vic was very single.

Just then, however, a pot fell nearby and Anita quickly turned to look. “Do you see anything?”

Vic smirked proudly at the continued compliments, tucking a hair behind her ear. Perhaps she should keep this Dr. Anita around more often, she clearly had a good mind about her. “You flatter me, Anita. You’ll have to let me shower you with compliments one day, too.” Maybe after she finally found the demon-apple. Which, by the way things were going, didn’t look like it would be today.

Yes, it was incredibly empowering being single and raising a child. And that was exactly why Vic was doing it that way, right? Loneliness never crept into her heart, not in 300 years and certainly not with any type of longing, either. Nope, it was all about empowerment for Vic. Thank god for that feminist movement. “Have you been… single for long?” It was an awkward question, Vic knew as soon as she asked it. She hoped it wouldn’t hang in the air for any longer than it needed to.

“I can keep them away from the conservatory”, she said with confidence, knowing all the deterrence either of them needed was some supervision and a baby gate (although either of them were liable to try and climb over it). Okay, she had thought Anita might have been flirting before, with the comments about a celebratory and the compliments, but now, Vic was absolutely sure of it. When was the last time she’d slept with anyone? It had been at least three years, probably longer, considering the spiral she was on before Rosie came along. Was it like riding a bike, or did she forget how?

She cleared her throat and chuckled, trying to sound nonchalant. “I’m sure your bosses appreciate the professionalism”, she teased, letting a smirk play on her lips. In the past, the only flirting she’d done was to pull secrets from vampires to betray them or hunters to get them to trust her. This felt entirely different.

She was about to say something about the lack of customer satisfaction in this town when she, too, heard one of the plants topple over near them. She looked over at Winnie, still fast asleep in the living room. Some guard dog she was. She glanced around the conservatory, trying to find anything amiss, when she noticed one of her Christmas Cacti had fallen to the ground from a top shelf. “There!”, she shouted with a point, just as the apple rolled behind another plant on the shelf. “How the hell did it even get up there?!”

Anita shrugged at the question, not taking it personally but knowing that her response had somewhat of a tendency to strike a divide between her and others. But there wasn’t an air of judgment in the question that she often noted from people when it was asked. “Yes, I have. By choice.”

Hearing the other woman clear her throat, watching her try to act completely unaffected, it was rather amusing to Anita. It reminded her just how natural she was at this. “Thankfully this isn’t actually part of my real job. No bosses to answer to. They can be so stuffy and boring. Never want people to have any lick of fun on the job.” For a moment she had nearly forgotten the real reason she was in the conservatory with Vic, only pulled back to the task at hand by the incitement of chaos the insect was causing.

The fact that the plant fell from a top shelf made things difficult given Anita’s short stature in her current form. Had she been a rattlesnake right now she could have easily seen up top, easily spotted and likely caught the critter in her makeshift trap. “They’re resourceful,” she noted in response to the question as she looked around for a step stool or ladder. “It’ll be hard to catch on the move. Might end up accidentally hurting more plants in our efforts.”

Most work with insects, other than extermination, required patience. “I don’t wanna swing for it and trap a plant by accident.” It didn’t take long for the critter to manage to scurry off on its little legs and out of Anita’s eye line. “I know wait and see isn’t the solution you were probably hoping for, but might be the least destructive option here.”

By choice. Vic nodded, unsure of what to say. Except, her mouth spoke for her, before she even realized what she was saying. “Me too, actually. I suppose we have a lot more in common than we realize.” Maybe it would be nice having a friend like Anita to relate to. A classy doctor, one who might have been burned by someone she cared about long ago, just like she was. Was this the kind of camaraderie she’d been missing when she closed herself off to the world?

Vic hated working for a boss. When she was working at the slayer bar all those years ago, having to answer to someone who had an IQ about 20 points lower than hers felt like the truest form or torture there was, but she’d always been good at manipulating people. When she wanted to. “It’s nice you can venture off on your own. Perhaps a small business capturing pests is in your future, Anita. Then you could be your own boss. And other people’s.” How deliciously fun it must have been to tell other people what to do.

“I’ll say. Someone should study these things and harness their prowess for good. Do you know how many secret assignments one could complete if they could train one?” It would have been fascinating if it weren’t so annoying. Vic decided that Anita was right, it was better to wait than to risk losing more plants. So, reluctantly, she nodded. “I’m a patient woman. And not an expert.” It was much easier to admit that to Anita than the bumbling oaf exterminators the other day. “You can set the trap, and I’ll call you when it’s captured… But I’m holding you to that celebratory drink once it is!”

Anita smiled, wondering how much else the two women might have in common and hoping that she might get to find out some day. “This time of year, when classes are out at the university for the summer, I have an exceptional amount of time for my own ventures. Though, even during the year, I always manage to find time for my own pursuits.” As much as Anita loved bossing others around, being assertive and taking charge, had she wanted to spend her life running a pest control business she would have been better suited staying in Mexico. After all, that was exactly what her father did and was exactly what he hoped she would have taken over from him.

Enterprise was never what inspired Anita, however. She had seen the stresses of business ownership weigh on her father, and her grandfather before him, and never longed for a life of being ‘the boss.’ It was the observation, the curious intrigue, the study that got her out of bed in the morning. “I like being the boss of my classrooms but I don’t think I’d much enjoy being a boss if it involved budgets and customer service. Not all customers would be as lovely as you, I’m sure.”

The comment about secret assignments was so curious, and Anita raised an eyebrow slightly at it, curiosity eating away at her to know more. “Maybe we’ll have to see if we can train one. If we manage to catch it. I’ll get the trap set up, once it does it’s job, you and I will most certainly celebrate.”

#budding bug hunters #vic #para #chatzy #c:vic #p:vic #writing

9 notes · View notes

axisjr · 1 year ago

Text

TIMING: 5/6 LOCATION: Somewhere someplace away from Wicked's Rest at the side of the road PARTIES: Jade & Nora SUMMARY: Jade parks by a rock on the side of the road, it's Nora. WARNINGS: suicidal ideation tw

On the first day, she cleared the town. Out of the crypt, through the woods, and on. The shadow followed her. Out of sight. Out of hearing range. It loomed.

On the second day came the thirst. She stopped at a lake and got lost for hours. The rippling water, the smell of crushed grass with a running creek. She was back in Ireland. Declan was in the water, hand outstretched for her to grab. Come in, his smile told her. Come in, in the shadow laughed, drown.

On the third day, she saw a couple taking photos together. For a moment an illusion flickered at the tips of her fingers, ready to destroy their moment, but the will to try drained instantly. Nora moved on.

On the fourth day, her stomach began to hunger unbearably. She bore it.

On the fifth day, her legs began to shake. She hadn’t stopped to sleep for fear the shadow would spend the night whispering in her ear. She tried not to stop to drink because then the shadow would tell her to drown. She refused to stop to rest because resting was reserved for people. She was a murderous monster. She didn’t get to rest.

On the sixth day, nothing happened. The shadow screamed over the wind. She stopped looking back to see if it had Declan��s face. On the seventh day, her legs gave out. They crumpled midstep. The shadow laughed. It crawled towards her. It mocked that she would have nowhere to go. Nora began to crawl.

On the seventh day, her arms gave up. She had crawled until the cloth around her knees, elbows, and stomach had been torn away from the sliding movement. Cuts filled with small rocks lined her fingers. Mud covered her head to toe. The shadow cheered.

For hours she lay at the side of the road. The sun baked the mud into her. The shadow waited eagerly. Cars sped by, tires speeding through puddles. Each spray of water brought Nora back to Ireland. To the waterfall. To Declan. She closed her eyes, imagined his smile. Imagined she was there. By the time a figure stood over her, casting a shadow between her and the sun, Nora had been imagining Declan so hard she thought he’d be there. Her eyes opened. Her body strained to move her face out of the mud and get a glimpse up. Long black hair. Brown eyes. But not her brown eyes. Not the eyes that had once held everything and now nothing. Nora let her face fall back into the mud.

This is where she was supposed to say go away. This is where she wanted to say leave me be. This is where she might have managed a ‘are you my shadow?’ but the only words that made it out of her cracked lips were “It should have been me.” Her mantra. Her daily affirmations. The only feasible thought going through her head.

—

She did not hunt out of town that often. Unless someone posted something at the Three Daggers about incidents in the outskirts, Jade much preferred the comfort of headstones and dark alleys over woodsy areas, thank you very much. But she wasn’t gonna pretend like there wasn’t something nice about taking off, something freeing about letting the wind hit her face, getting lost (hopefully not in the literal sense), while she rode farther distances. It reminded her of being young and cruising the country with one unique purpose, one mission, no distractions.

Distractions were plenty once she made it to Wicked’s Rest. Distractions were good here, so good she found herself slipping, falling in love with one. And then said distraction left to go back to her cult, then came back a month later, Jade’s emotions yo-yo-ing all over the place, doing all those fancy loopy tricks. And with said emotions came the need to let them out. Talking had been nice (in the painful kinda way, but nice), crying had done her good. But riding? Yup, riding was exactly the type of thing she needed right now. Some would dare say she was running from her conscience, but some knew nothing at all.

Jade stopped the motorcycle when she spotted a giant rock on the side of the road, deciding to park right next to it. Cause then she’d remember to come back here, where the rock was, for her bike. (She’d lost Roxie once, she’d learned her lesson). She climbed out and walked to her delivery box, where she kept the weapons needed for the evening. Her stakes, her crossbow, some knives. The classics. Cause she really needed to get back into the groove of—

GEEZ! Jade jumped, her heart leaping to her throat when the rock moved beneath her (?), lifted its head to look at her with sad brown eyes, spoke (?), and then slapped back onto the ground. What… Oh. Common sense kicked in. Cause, it was so much easier to think with no distractions. This was no rock, it was a woman, lying on the side of the road for… whatever reason. Which… First of all, relatable. Maybe she should’ve tried that during her ‘Regan is in Ireland’ era’. Second of all, her face was gonna look incredible with this improvised mud bath. Third of all, and probably like, the only relevant thing… how did a girl end up on the side of the road, covered in mud doing her best Peeta Mellark impression? It should’ve been me. Jade blinked at her in disbelief, cause, “Um… I’m pretty sure it was you. Girl, what happened?” Jade forgot about her weapons, or her hunt, crouching to examine the not-rock closer. Her gaze shifted around, to the cars passing by, no other soul but them on this side of the road. What was going on? This had all the elements of a sidequest, except… “Are you…hiding out here?”

—

The television was on. Nora was lying face down in the mud so she couldn’t see, but she would know the bad acting of an ABC family series anywhere. A brunette with bright shining eyes stood over the runaway teenager. Both actresses were in their twenties because you couldn’t hire a real sixteen-year-old for a television series. They were too lanky and dumb looking. A laugh track played as the brunette spoke in a bright, bubbly voice. Girl, what happened? Each syllable contained a miniature comedy that Nora missed the joke too. The laugh track cackled. The runaway’s lines should be next, a polar opposite to really drive home to the audience that these characters were so different. The television crackled with static. No, that was just the ringing in her ears. The mixture of starvation, dehydration, and too much sun was messing with her. Leaving her disoriented and confused. The laugh track played again, the shadow controlled the soundboard.

“It was me.” Nora agreed. What happened? That was a loaded question. How did she answer that? It all started when I went to Ireland. No, that wasn’t the start. It all started when I went to track down a screaming moose. No. Why stop there? It all started when I was adopted by two humans who didn’t know a thing about bugbears. Record scratch. This was me as a baby. Two months old and probably abandoned by a bear in the woods. If a baby cries in the forest and no one hears, is there even a baby abandoned? In come, Gregory and Damien, two gays who always got too far in over their heads. Aw geez, what conundrum will they get up to today?! The laugh track played again. Nora realized she hadn’t said anything out loud.

“I’m not doing a good job. You found me. You get five million dollars. Yay.” Nora rocked herself to the side, so she could look at who she was talking to. It was an awkward motion, a fish flopping on dry land until it couldn’t move anymore. Her hands clutched at the quadruple-wrapped plastic bag full of ashes, immaculately kept throughout her whole travel, checked continually to ensure no leak would go unnoticed. “You’re cargo pants.” Without mud obscuring her vision, Nora found she recognized the face looking down at her. They’d had, what, two conversations? “Regan sent you peach emojis. I told her too.”

—

It was her, yup. Jade didn’t have to be a genius (but like, she was one, for the record) to realize something horrible had happened. But she did not understand. Which was weird cause… she usually got scripts in advance to work on the tone of her delivery and jot down places where she could improvise a zinger. This? She did not get. But she was good at improv too. She could work with this. It kept her on her toes. “You’re doing a great job, babe. But um, yup… maybe looking up when someone comes wasn’t the best decision if you were cosplaying a rock,” there was no shame in that though, cause being curious about noises was like, part of being human anyway.

The way the girl continued to talk had Jade feeling like she’d jumped into the middle of the episode. But at least she was like, lying on her side now, she could see two eyes and a crack moving. (Did Cass know they were giving out millions of dollars for finding girls who could rock? She had a business idea to propose when she got back to town). She stayed in a crouching position, blinking slowly at the girl. Sometimes Jade found things. People. That was super true. She kinda prided herself on that. Cause she was nosy and persistent and annoying which were like, all the best traits to get the job done. She’d found a woman who did not think of herself a person despite having the wettest heart known to man, and a girl who wore anxiety like a uniform, in need of an older role model. She’d found a girl battling an evil Spanish bird, but who really just needed to be reminded that she was still hot. Or a guy so hardened by grief and loss that just needed someone to stick around and help him dispose of worms. She’d found a guy who was a hero undercover but all he needed was a little encouragement to believe in his bravery. Or, how she’d found the elder vampire keeping somebody a prisoner for over a century, helping to break those chains. Sometimes she found things, yup. So she was meant to find this girl somehow. But why?

She took off her jacket, the cold hitting a little cause… she was wearing one of those shirts she cut the sleeves off when Regan was in Ireland. But that didn’t matter, her arms looked great. Jade used the thinnest part of the sleeve to wipe some of the girl’s mud off her face. Some bits peeled off super fast cause of how dry they were. She couldn’t help but notice the girl carrying a suspicious-looking powder in her hands. But she was pretty sure those types of jokes were in the past, like for old sitcoms with laugh tracks. (She was gonna ask though, cause again… nosy). And oh, this girl knew Regan. But Jade did not remember her. Not cause she had a bad memory or anything, just cause the amount of people who had to hear her talk about Regan reached alarming levels, especially during the Ireland saga. The clue was in the khakis, for sure. But when did she talk about khakis… khakis, cargo pants? There was something there… “I’m Jade,” she corrected, but at the mention of peach emojis, a dopey smile bloomed on her face. “She hasn’t stopped sending them since.” She was positive Regan had “bought” another “subscription” just to send them.

She rose to her feet (if her knees cracked, mind your business), and opened the delivery box, pulling out a water bottle. Jade left it on the ground, in front of the girl, in case she wanted it, then laid her jacket beside Rockgirl, to sit on it. She glanced down, at the pair of anguished eyes, her eyebrows pinching in concern. “Alright, who are we hating on? You’ll be surprised by how much I can despise people I don’t know.”

—

An illusion flickered around Nora. It was supposed to be a rock, like a regular rock, the kind of rock that sat on her shoulders and held her pressed to the mud. Instead, it came out as Dwayne Johnson in cargo shorts. His figure engulfed Nora for a brief moment before the power slipped past her. There was too much hunger and not enough fear to feast on. The spark of interest Nora normally greeted a stranger with, to taste their fear and see their reaction was no longer there. Just a month and a week ago this meeting would have been different. Her time in the mud would have been more akin to a wobbegong camouflaged and waiting for a meal. Her illusions would have been beautiful. “Next time,” Nora managed. She hadn’t meant to lie. There was no real reason to put empty words into the universe, but the effort to say ‘There will be no next, I’ll rot here. I can’t keep going.’ was too much and too pointless, just like her hunts.

Jade moved closer. A hand reached towards her. Nora tensed, closing in around the bag, assuming the universe was going to take Declan away from her again. That wasn’t what happened. Nora shouldn’t be surprised by kindness. It was everywhere. It existed in the world, but she’d crawled off like a kicked puppy and refused to see it. She ran from kindness as if it would skin her alive, and leave her flayed body for all to see. It was rude of her, to trick one more person into being kind to her. But she didn’t move away as Jade used her jacket to wipe away the mud. She didn’t warn Jade that feral animals shouldn’t be handled.

“Jade. Scared of cargo pants” The words filed from her memory. Why did Nora only remember what people were scared of? Hadn’t there been more to the conversation? Weren’t people made up of more than their fears? “But when you wear them, it’s fashion.” Besides, who was actually scared of cargo pants? They were just pants. Nora ripped the mental index card in half. Hadn’t they been talking about Regan? Back when Nora was trying to keep Regan from leaving? The cargo pants were probably just a deflection, but she’d snapped up the information, clinging to any fear of those around her.

Bits of the conversation were coming back to Nora. If Jade had been a better kisser, Regan would have stayed. If Regan stayed, Declan would be alive. Those were selfish and despicable thoughts. She hated them for crossing her mind. She hated that she was grasping at straws to place the blame on anyone else, including Jade who found her at the side of the road and wiped her face and offered nothing but kindness and water. I killed Declan she reminded herself. She clung to the words, branding them to her soul. Don’t forget. Don’t blame someone else.

Still, when Jade smiled over the mention of Regan’s peach emojis, it physically hurt. Nora turned away, eyes glued to her plastic bag. “They stopped in Ireland.” The word slipped past before she could stop herself from picking at someone else’s happiness. It just wasn’t fair. She wanted to send peach emojis to Declan. She wanted to explain to him the double meaning of emojis while teaching him how to use a cellphone. She wanted that moment of laughter when they talked about how dumb it all was. The inside jokes that would spawn from the moment. The waterfalls they would send each other, and would mean I love you. But he was dead. And Regan was back in America sending peach emojis. To who? Who was Jade? Regan hadn’t mentioned her once the whole time they were there. “The only girl Regan talked about in Ireland was Duty, and Duty is a bitch.”

Nora was aware that she was being unkind. She was a feral cat stuck in a trap hissing at the person trying to help her, but she couldn’t stop. She wanted to stop, she really did. But the pain inside her was too much and it demanded to be felt by everyone. Which really sucked because Jade was being nice. Jade was sitting in the mud next to her and still offering a kindness she didn’t deserve. Who are we hating on. Not, who are you. We. Not alone. Together. That hurt too. There were many names she could have said. Niamh. Cliodna. Ireland. “Hamst-” Nora choked on the name. It was a deflection. “Nora.”

—

Upon closer inspection, Jade realized what filled the bag looked very similar to ashes. Nope, they were literal ashes. So, the plot thickened. Something told her that prop would become relevant later in the scene. So she didn’t push, she barely acknowledged it. Instead, her face brightened at the recognition. “Yup! That’s me. I’m like, doing so much better when it comes to cargo pants. I even bought some recently,” and it felt so nice, not to fear anything else at all. Jade was pretty much invincible like that.

But the smile faltered when Ireland was brought up, and the wheels started turning (the ones in her brain, not Roxie’s). This depressed girl had gone to Ireland, knew about Regan. And with Elias and Wynne already accounted for, Jade realized who she was speaking to: The ham child (HamC for short). Her frown deepened and this weird thing called guilt set in the pit of her stomach. In a way, HamC was acting like that cause of her. In the same way Elias injuries could be traced back to her. And Regan’s wings. And Wynne’s extra cult trauma. Cause Jade didn’t try hard enough to make Regan stay. Was she gonna bring the mood down even lower? Nope. She was supposed to be running from that stuff. So of course, she kept things superficial. “Oh, yeah… we hate that girl too. She’s stupid”.

The final piece of the puzzle she needed was delivered in the form of a name: Nora. But by that point, Jade had already completed everything in her head. She’d found Nora, Emilio’s missing kid. And Nora spoke in third person, which Jade was definitely digging. It had the makings of a great philosophical moment for all involved. And sure, she could have considered reaching inside the pocket of her jeans, pulling out her phone and immediately giving Emilio a call. But the thought didn’t cross her mind. Cause she knew how cats worked. Not just Melody and Lullaby but like, most of the people in her life had real cat personalities. You had to let them come to you. She looked away, focusing on the wheels of her motorcycle.

“Oh. It’s that kinda party” Jade nodded in understanding. She thought of Van (nope, that was a mistake) (forget about Van). She thought of that day outside Sly Slice when she’d had to console… a super anxious girl. “Okay. Alright! But those parties are like, for a limited time only, you know? It can’t go on forever. We have to wrap it up at the end. Then we schedule for another time. But you have to let me know, so I can bring snacks” Actually, maybe she did have snacks. Didn’t she steal a bag of onion rings from her last delivery? Mmm… they were probably soggy and… wait, focus. “What are we hating Nora for?”

—

Vindication filled Nora when Jade agreed that she hated Nora. Those words felt right, they felt better than the kind things she’d ran away from. They felt like the new future she’d planned for herself. The shadow with Declan’s voice hated Nora. Nora hated Nora. Everyone should hate Nora. Thank you, Jade, for hating Nora too. Everything about this made the universe feel right. She was on the right path. Leave until her trail turned to dust. Maybe she could go to Canada and live out her life as a polar bear. Polar bears were known for being solitary, only coming together for mating seasons and if like a whale got washed up and made for a large meal. Nora could live as a solitary bear in the Arctic. She didn’t mind the cold. It made her like, sleepy, but if she slept her whole life then she could live in a dream where Declan and her were under their waterfall. And that felt right too.

But Jade wasn’t done talking. Jade sounded like the color orange. Which was weird, because her name was Jade and Jade was a shade of green. You would think if a person was named after a color, they would be that color. But before Declan, people hadn’t been colors. They had been fears. But now Nora couldn’t look at people as nothing more than their fears, they were more than that. And Jade was orange. Orange was a color of disconnected warmth. It was the base to a sunrise and a faraway light on a moonless night. It was the bonfire burning in the center of friends. It was a place to go if you worked for it, but it wasn’t overwhelming and it wouldn’t chase you down.

It was also the color of pumpkin spice lattes. Nora wondered if those were the snacks Jade would bring to the next party. “Why? I mean, why end the party and reschedule? Why tell anyone? Why bring snacks?” The things Jade said were absurd enough that it drew the curiosity out of Nora. It was easier to respond to these abstract ideas than responding to things like ‘live to mourn.’ and ‘grief is a solitary and hard path.’

What are we hating Nora for? What didn’t we? Nora figured Jade had no clue who she was. There weren’t pictures on the internet connecting her to the ham account. And to most people, she was some variant of ham (an idea that twisted painfully in her stomach), as far as she knew Regan had no clue what her name was. She knew Jade was friendly to Van and Emilio, but both knew she hated being called her name and she trusted both of them not to betray her name to anyone. So to Jade, she was probably just some weird rock girl. Anonymity was a beautiful thing. That’s what the internet has been teaching people for decades now. You could say anything anonymously and it didn’t count. “She killed someone I loved. She thought she could go and save someone, but instead, she got someone I loved killed.” Nora let out a harsh bark of laughter. “And she didn’t even save the original person. That person chose to save themselves.”

—

Nora had excellent questions all around. If this had been a TV show they would’ve made for a great unlikely duo that ends up winning the audience. Alas, their show might have gotten canceled after a season cause they had too niche of a following. Jade nodded, answers ready like she’d had this conversation before. “Cause… I mean. All parties come to an end. The next day will come, and we gotta keep getting that bread. Metaphorically. We gotta keep trucking along. We got work, or school, or even, the premiere of a show we’ve been waiting on. So yesterday’s party is done and dusted. But then there are like, people who are excited to come to the next party, who’ve been waiting to receive an invite. So you gotta make sure you let them know. Plus, there are the people who wanna help you clean up after too. It’s just basic decency to let people know about your parties, everyone gets FOMO.”

Jade reached down, taking some crusty pieces of what once was mud off of Nora’s hair. Then brushed the strands off her face. “I can help with the party. But we’re gonna need backup for all the mess that’s gonna get left behind, we’re gonna need the people who will hold your hair while you puke and swear you’re never touching vodka again, the people who will help you hide the broken vases” she shuddered at the memory. “That’s the point of parties, I guess. The more people are there for you, the better. We don’t want a party to flop.” She looked down at her boots thinking of how many of her own parties had flopped. How many times she’d begged for partygoers to just show up. And when no one was interested, how she’d resorted to finding strangers in bad places just to fill that void… but, anywhoosies! She was not the host of this party.

And like, she always knew the reason Nora was out here becoming one with nature wasn’t a happy one. Elias looked a mess, Regan was put through the wringer. Wynne… Jade didn’t wanna think about them for too long, but they had to be in similar conditions. She’d heard of stabbings and wings cut off, even of death in that vague way Regan explained things, but… Nora was connected to it? She did not have uplifting quotes stolen from Instagram for this. She didn’t even have Facebook quotes with minions in the background. That’s how dire it was. She let out a tired sigh. “Oh, babe. That sucks ass. I’m so sorry.” The understatement of the century, probably. But it was the truth. And she was trying to be truthful this day.

She glanced down at Nora, thinking about how many times Emilio must’ve begged for her to come back. All the many times Van wondered where she was. Jade was stubborn, she knew that sometimes there was no way to sway a woman with conviction. A quality she admired, but that always came at the cost of the most painful lessons. (She thought of the other stubborn woman in her life, and the wings she didn’t have anymore as a result). And of course, there was still the Nora they had to hate on. Who was different from the Nora who blamed herself for everything. It was a little tricky, but separating the two was also kinda smart. Jade hugged her knees, conceding. Sometimes all that worked was anger. (It wasn’t something she enjoyed, but she couldn’t deny its effectiveness).

“Mmm, that’s reason enough to dunk on Nora, yup. But like, are we also hating on the real person behind it? That was a very specific way of phrasing what they did, you know? Would it… do you feel like, maybe… I’m like, spitballing here, hear me out. It was the fault of like, the actual murderer too? Multitasking our hatred and all…” she tilted her head curiously. “I get it though, not the murdering… I’ve never murdered anyone,” on account of those people already being dead. “I get that… Sometimes, intentions don’t matter, right? We still end up messing up. We are reduced and judged by the end result.” Her thoughts drifted to Van, as they usually did these days. All Jade had were good intentions, but in Van’s eyes… what she did was messed up. What she did helped no one. It only got people killed too. “I do think they should. Matter, I mean. Intentions. Like, Nora believing someone could be saved? Nora having hope things could change? Diving head first with her heart? That’s not a crime” In fact, that was the whole reason Jade had Regan back. How could she live with herself if she didn’t help to piece at least one portion of that broken heart? “But ya know… she still did that to you. We’re still printing photos and defacing her face. So… what punishment should Nora get?” She did promise it would be a joint effort, after all. “It can’t be physical, cause I’m a little bruised from… falling off my bike, and you’re literally a rock,” she thought of Emilio again, and got ahead of the curve. “We can’t banish her either, cause like… I’m sure Nora has people who wanna see her again so… let’s brainstorm.”

—

Jade spoke with her whole body, her words marked a cadence and all of her being fell in accordingly. Expressive, that was it. Capable of giving an impassioned monologue to the rock on the side of the road. The studio audience hmmed and awwed over the impassioned speech about parties. Nora tried to picture the party Jade was talking about. It was at the graveyard, a few of her favorite ghosts showed up. Jade was there, next to an orange crackling campfire. She held a drink in one hand as she spoke to Emilio, because Emilio had to be paired at the party with someone who would do all the talking, the drink would spill as she talked. Jade wouldn’t notice, maybe, but Emilio would and he’d scowl about it. Maybe Jade would like annoying Emilio, and spill the drink more and more on purpose until he threw back the rest of his drink and limped away. She’d wondered if they’d be friends.

Van would be explaining Candy Crush and Honkai: Star Rail to Metzli. Metzli had asked about gaming before, and Van would be a lot better at explaining it. She’d download the games onto Metzli's phone, add herself as a friend, and walk Metzli through the first steps. Lelia would be watching with a smile. Cass would corner Thea about comic books, and Thea would be too polite to excuse herself from Cass’s in-person fanfiction read. She’d do her best to be kind. Cass would love to have someone to talk to. Teddy would have a crowd around them, start a round of singing, all eyes on them but in a way that was endearing and not try hard annoying like men playing Wonderwall on guitar. They would get Wynne to sing with them, and Wynne would be shy at first, but Ariadne would smile across that orange crackling campfire, and join in. They’d be happy. It would be a beautiful party.

But Nora wasn’t there. Nora didn’t see how she could fit herself in that space. Ask them to forgive her. Ask them to hold her hair while she cried on their shoulders. Ask them to hold her steady while the world shatters away. It was a beautiful party, and she hoped Jade would meet her friends and throw it for them, but she couldn’t be there. The thought caused a panic to ripple in her chest, up her throat, leak down her eyes. She turned her face away, “FOMO.” Nora repeated. She was glad her friends were missing out on this one. “Can’t always be bad. I don’t think they want to be rocks at the side of the road.” That was reductive, and Nora knew it. Another day, another inability to listen to people who only wanted to help her. A fresh wave of self-hatred washed over her. Maybe it was time to wrap up the pity party. And do what? Be who? Go where? Jade had foreseen that as well. She sat next to Nora, in the mud, face full of concern, heart open to a stranger on the side of the road, and said “let’s brainstorm.”

Nora blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. The studio audience was applauding. The credits threatened to start rolling because Nora had no clue what to say. Brainstorm over her punishment with someone who didn’t know that she was who was getting punished? The static in her mind made it hard to think. She had to put every effort into moving her sluggish thoughts anywhere. Blame the actual murderer? The image of Niamh, blade in hand, flashed across Nora’s mind. The picture of Cliodhna, praising Nora for being exceptional. A view of Regan, jealous. That was unfair. That was unkind. Nora pushed that thought away. And wasn’t Nora a real murderer? She’d come to terms with Debbie’s death, and she’d saved the lives of her friends, but murderer would always be a correct adjective when it came to her. But saying she’d dove in with her heart? That intention should matter? Those words struck a chord, a nice melody, it ignited a small flame of hope. It was orange.

“Why do you care?” Nora asked because they weren’t an unlikely duo staring on ABC Family. A commercial break hadn’t interrupted their conversation. The director hadn’t shouted cut before slathering fresh mud onto Nora’s face and resetting her face down. This was life. Jade didn’t need to be the color orange, offering a light in the dark. She could have gotten on her bike and drove away. Later on, she could have joked with her friends about the girl pretending to be a rock on the side of the road. The laugh track would have played. She would have been rock girl in stories for years while her body withered away in the spot, unable to move on. “Why,” It was hard to formulate the words. Why stop? Why try? Why care? Why help? “Why does it matter to you?”

—

“Mm, you underestimate how many people just wanna be rocks at the side of the road together.” Jade knew if she asked Emilio, if she asked Van if they’d rather be rocks for a chance to get Nora back there’d be like a… (what was the collective noun of rocks?) a pile (duh) of rocks on the side of the road. Why do you care? That was, of course, one of the questions of the hour. Why would Jade put her day on hold cause of a huge rock on the side of the road, (turned girl covered in mud) and then change plans to sit with her to contemplate things? Why? Why would a rock girl stuff herself into a suitcase and get smuggled into Ireland for a woman who didn’t wanna hear anyone out? Why? They could be out here ping-ponging these sorta questions for a while. Jade's stamina for arguing had only met a few decent matches recently, but she still came out on top.

“I want… to believe in good intentions” I need to, would’ve been more accurate. Jade needed to believe that she didn’t do horrible things to people, (people, they were people… or er, something in between) (maybe not just monsters with curses) just for the sake of it. She wanted to believe she had goodness in mind, in her heart. That she was honoring her duty first and foremost: She wanted to protect humans above everything. Keep them safe. Jade needed to believe she wasn’t just some weapon, like Metzli had called her. An instrument, like Regan called herself. This was different, she’d chosen this life. She had. And she wanted (had) to keep doing it. How would that look? She wasn’t sure. But Nora didn’t need her baggage on top of her Ireland trauma. (Stupid Ireland). And shoot… tangent over.

Jade thought of the emergency letter she had written Regan. When someone couldn’t think about themselves, they had to think of others. It was easier for Jade to ponder on her own situation through someone like Nora. It might be easier for Nora to open up about a different Nora. It was weird, but if it worked, then… was it weird anyway? Weird wasn’t a bad thing. And actually, why would she not care? How did that even look like? She couldn’t imagine. All she’d done her whole life was caring. (In a totally chill, not intense way!). Jade looked at the girl, sympathy kicking her heart. (ouch). She let out a weary sigh. “Besides. Here’s the real kicker. I owe Nora a lot. I might owe her for the rest of my life, even. So I’d like a chance… to tell her that. Cause her good intentions got the woman I love back” She glanced at the bag in Nora’s hands, fully aware she was playing with fire. She was always a bit of a daredevil anyway. “I’d like to tell her it wasn’t in vain. That her good intentions mean everything to me. Which is like, so selfish. But that’s fine, I’ll own up to that right now” She had worse things to come to terms with on the waiting list, anyway.

She cleared her throat (allergies), letting a moment of reflection pass for both of them. “You deflected from punishment, by the way. So maybe in some twisted way, you already know Nora’s got enough punishment coming her way. And that’s fine. If Nora wants punishment she should face it. Cause she sucks.” But she didn’t have to face it by turning into a rock on the side of the rock. That was easy, in a way. Comfy. Just neglecting everything and everyone. Way less energy. The super hard stuff? That might be coming to terms with the fact that people will always care. Even when you don’t want them to. Even when you can’t care for yourself. (She couldn’t relate. Everyone she cared for left when they heard of her ‘good intentions’) (But it was really nice that Nora had that going on). She thought of Van, for like, the hundredth time, missing her best friend. She thought of Emilio, losing another one of his kids. Holding onto the hope that this one might return to him soon.

And Jade? She could still have good intentions. She could still care, even if Nora fought her, even if it didn’t make sense to her. She pointed at her bike, eyes narrowed. “That’s Roxie. I’ve had her for like, three… maybe four years? Lots of people consider it torture. It goes so fast, some people can’t stand it,” like her own little rollercoaster from hell. “It can take us into places that would be considered torture. Sorry, punishment. It can lead Nora to face the people who care for her, even though she doesn’t deserve them obviously, cause we hate her. But having to look at them in their loving, forgiving eyes? Feels punishment enough.” And Jade was quickly transported to the small bathroom in Regan’s bathroom, where she had to look at a wreck that could’ve very well been her own doing, had they not crossed paths. Had they not fallen in love. She swallowed the tightness in her throat (guilt), glancing down at Nora, to sell her on her nightmare bike. “Plus, lots of people puke with the bumpy rides. Which is so weird, cause I’m a great driver?” a smile reached her lips, small and patient. (Cause how else could she smile to a girl who lost her whole world recently?) “I’m just saying, that’s one certified torture right there. The rest of her sentence? We can figure out as we go”.

—

In an alternate universe, they were rocks on the side of the road. Intentions didn’t matter, because rocks didn’t have any. Nora looked at Jade, and this time she really looked. She ripped herself out of her self-absorbed pity party and forced herself into the present moment; mud-covered, hungry, in pain, and full of pain, but alive. She painted this moment in her mind because she knew one day she’d need to look back and remember.

Jade, the gem, formed over the years under extreme heat and pressure. For the briefest moment, while she committed her paint strokes to memory, and examined Jade in her entirety, Nora thought she could read the woman perfectly. She was a gem made of years under extreme heat and pressure to live by the good intentions that she wanted to believe in. There was a sadness of something unspoken. But optimism had polished her, Jade, into something that shined through it all. And as that moment stretched, Nora wanted to ask how she’d gotten there. How, in a world of endless possibilities, did she end up the polished gem she was today? What had shaken her belief in good intentions and left her wanting to believe, and not fully believing? What was the unspoken story that hid under the shiny polished edge and lived at the side of the road, covered in mud? But the words stuck in her throat, buried by the weight of existence, held down by the shadow. She wasn’t ready, but in that glittering moment, she thought that one day she might be. She just had to stick around long enough to get there.

Jade was still speaking, and Nora understood what Regan saw in her. How the two of them had formed. The balance that must have been made between their two wildly different personalities. And Nora liked that Jade was selfish about her love because she would have been the same if given the chance. She was glad to see Jade knew how lucky she was. It meant something, even if Nora wasn’t sure what that something was yet. And finally, Nora realized her identity had never been a secret. Jade knew who Nora was this whole time and had simply been playing along. Another small mercy given to the girl who deserved none. Past Nora would have been ashamed, angry, or embarrassed about this. This Nora was just grateful that Jade had played along with a rock at the side of the road. She was too tired to be anything else.

Jade was a good person. This world was full of good people if you only found them. Nora wished desperately that those good people had been in Ireland with Declan. To show him the love he deserved, and give him a life full of happiness. But wishes were a dime a dozen and Nora was out of pocket change. She rubbed at her eyes, spreading more dirt than doing any good, but she was lost in this unexpected gift Jade had given her. She’d given Nora proof that her good intentions hadn’t been just ash and dirt. It was Regan and Jade. It was the smile as Jade said Regan still sent her peach emojis. And it hurt, but it wasn’t all bad. There was some good in that hurt knowing that some people had faired the trials better than she did. She had tried, and wasn’t that more than most people?

“We’ll figure it out as we go,” Nora agreed, following the statement with a nod. She was a newborn foal getting to her feet. Her bones rattled with the effort, and each moment she thought she’d pitch back into the mud. But Jade helped, and one foot found its way in front of the other until Jade and Nora were on Roxie. The wind whistled its approval as it tugged at Nora’s torn clothes. She held Declan close, making sure the wind wouldn’t rip him away. She cried on the way back, and she was grateful Jade couldn’t see behind her. She braced herself for the upcoming punishment of facing everyone who loves her, and the weight of pain that would come with facing them after everything that had happened. The studio audience cheered. Royalty-free music chased them out of frame. The credits rolled.

#chatzy #chatzy: jade #day 10 #thank you mary!!!1

8 notes · View notes

mayihaveyournameplease · 2 years ago

Text

TIMING: current PARTIES: Siobhan & Beau LOCATION: Tupperware SUMMARY: An unusual fae pair work together to escape and unwelcomed kidnapping. CONTENT WARNINGS: Unsanitary tw. WRSPICE because IYKYK.

Siobhan didn’t sleep much; the night was for having fun and the day was for having fun and there was no time left to not have fun. Terrible things happened when Siobhan wasn’t having fun, anyway. So, when she did sleep, hopefully so thoroughly exhausted that dreams didn’t dare to knock on her skull, she coveted the time; it was sacred. When the smell of varying stale foods flooded her nose and pulled her up from sleep, she was angry. When she looked around and noted the thick, cloudy plastic walls and bright blue ceiling above, she was livid. Siobhan screamed; if anyone was asleep before, they certainly weren’t now. The plastic, for its part, simply quivered a little—being reinforced by its trips through the microwave, into the freezer and the fridge and then back into the microwave. It technically wasn’t freezer safe but that hadn’t stopped it from showing up in the freezer.

Little Beau Beep was counting sheep. They danced and pranced in his dreams, and every time he got close to one it would snap its teeth at him. “I’ll turn you all into lamp chops!” He declared, pulling a flamethrower from the dimension dream items came from. Dinner was cooked well done. Deep in slumber, a cartoon figure donned in a sleeping cap with a singular puff at the end, and a onesie, buttflap unfortunately unflapped. The smell of old food wasn’t what woke him, it lingered well with the greasy feast he was partaking in. Instead, he woke up relaxed, and happy. A big stretch and a yawn, eyes blinking wearily. “Good morning world.” He announced, as if he was the star from which the universe revolved around. It wasn’t his bedroom he caught sight of. Beau blinked, rubbing the slumber from his eyes and eyes darting around. “I am not cheesed to be here.” He mumbled in his plastic container. Spotting another contained individual, Beau raised a hand in greeting. “Hello! There seems to be a mistake. I shouldn’t be here. Haha! I’m going to be late for work! Haha.”

There weren’t many people Siobhan decided she hated upon first sight. To hate someone was usually far more care and attention she wanted to give. Yet, as a chill struck down her spine with the familiarity meeting another fae often did, and as he laughed the way that was too fake and utterly useless, Siobhan decided she hated him. Perhaps it wasn’t fair, they were stuck in a plastic container and that was sure to be what was really souring her mood. She forced herself to smile, in a way that was also too fake, and tried to be polite. “Unfortunately, I’m not the person that put you here! So I can't get you out. Haha.” She imagined jamming his head under the lip of the lid; she imagined it squeezing and popping off like a pea freed from its pod. The image brought her peace. “I’m also not…” she sighed. “…cheesed to be here.” She stepped closer to the man, despite herself. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to get out, would you? I would like to leave.” She paused. “Haha.”

The tingle down Beau’s spine told him that this was another fae, which was nice. Beau hadn’t made many fae friends since coming to Wicked’s Rest. He had met that dumb fae child, but she was a lost cause. Then there was the Doctor fae that kept turning him down. Beau had stolen the knowledge that he was fae from her, so they couldn’t bond over that. Then there was the goat, who didn’t like him. All these Ls and Beau never couldn’t figure out why. Maybe this fae was a chance at redemption. “Haha!” Beau responded, at least this fae had a good nature. Full of laughs! Even if her laughs sounded a bit dry and flat. “Seems like we’ll be tasked with figuring out how to get out ourselves, haha!” He placed his hands on his hips, very much looking like that one construction worker who only ever watched as the others constructed. Beau turned in a slow circle, staring up at the plastic lid. “It would appear we are in very large tupperware.” Beau announced, as if it wasn’t the most obvious thing he could have said, and it was something helpful. “I’m just swissed about this. Haha!” His forced smile burned his cheeks. Beau did the most manly thing he could think of, he kicked the plastic container with his foot. His foot was only covered by the onesie foot. His toes crushed into the plastic causing him to topple over and curse with pain. “I HATE THIS I FUCKING HATE THIS.” He screamed into the air, before remembering he wasn’t alone. One cough. Two coughs. “I mean. Haha.”

“Haha,” Siobhan said plainly, using the idiotic phrase to hide the anger that roiled inside of her. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, saying ‘haha’ was an easy way to stop herself from saying ‘I don’t care if you’re a fae I’m going to skin you alive and use your flesh as a wreath’. “Haha.” Watching him hurt himself was nice, like a sitcom one might leave to play in the background; amusing enough but largely a waste of time. Even if the live studio audience in her head broke out in laughter, the more sensible director was keen on keeping them on task. As this man was a fae, despite his obvious flaws, Siobhan decided she would pretend like she cared about him. “Oh! You poor, sweet thing!” She walked very slowly to his side, bending down to try and help him out. “Your toe! Oh, how that must have hurt--this terrible, evil box wants to destroy your strong manly foot. Oh! If only you could use your big, smart brain to get us out of here. Oh! If only, maybe, you could stand on my shoulders and see if the lid will lift!” She smiled tightly at him. “Haha.” She was thinking his eyes would look lovely in a jar.

The throbbing pain in his big toe was infuriating. He hopped around on his good foot for a bit while the other fae started talking. The fae, a woman, she was hot. A bit old looking for his normal tastes, but he could forgive a fae for aging since she was so nice. Beau preened as she doted on him, calling him strong and manly. He is strong and manly. He definitely could use all his big strong manly brain power to get them out of the box. Beau put his hands on his hips, he’d seen superheroes do it on posters and he was about to be the savior of this woman’s world, it seemed fitting. “Have no fear. You should stand on my shoulders. Since I’m so strong and manly. I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself with effort. Besides, I like a woman on top.” He added a wink, just to let her know that if she was interested in staying in this weird large tupperware container with him, he wouldn’t be against it.

The man looked like a simple tap would have him keeled over, Siobhan didn’t want to think about what having the full weight of someone on his shoulders would do to him. Thankfully, at least, she had fallen asleep in the same clothes she’d gone out in, so there was no free show for Beau if he decided to look up between her legs; pants could be a wonderful thing. “Oh, but shouldn’t we uplift men?” She tried to smile; she didn’t enjoy the fact her words seemed to work so well on him. “In this current political climate, shouldn’t men stand on top of women and push up heavy tupperware lids? What if my weak woman arms can’t do it?” Siobhan might have been born over a hundred years ago, but growing up in a matriarchal society that largely sacrificed its men had given her a very pointed view of the sexes; it was a very spider-like idea of feminism. Even joking in this manner had her stomach twisted into knots; she’d have to be careful about how she was complimenting the sad, small man. “I don’t want to damage your…” Siobhan gestured to his sad excuse for muscles. “...manly shoulders.”

Beau’s chest started to puff out with each passing statement coming out of her mouth. This was a woman chasing after his own heart. Beau bravely ignored the throbbing in his left foot and straightened his back, chasing that extra inch that he knew would make him all the more handsome and impressive in her eyes. “I don’t say this a lot, but you might be the smartest woman I’ve ever met.” His tongue slipped against his upper lip. He’d seen tiktoks of younger men doing the same sign to look attractive to women. He hoped it was working. “Alright, I’ll get on your shoulders and I’ll use my strong manly arms to get us out of here. Anything for you, my excellently aged cheese.” He hoped it wasn’t too soon for fond nicknames. Every marriage needed fond nicknames. Oh wait. Maybe marriage was getting ahead of himself? He mulled it over before deciding it wasn’t. Beau walked closer to the woman, craning his neck up to look at her face. God. She was an amazonian of a woman. “Uppies.” He stated, holding his hands up as if he was the petulant toddler he acted like.

If this man died right now, Siobhan was sure it would be her happiest memory. Nothing would fill her with more euphoria than being able to scream for him and then stab him several times. She was thinking twenty seven times but the count went up every time he opened his mouth. Suddenly, she didn’t want him on her shoulders. Maybe it would have been better if she had just crushed his trapezius with her heels. “Maybe you’re the smartest man I’ve ever met.” A muscle below her eye twitched. “You’re my hero, my egg,” she said, imagining cracking his skull like one. She hoped she never had to see him again. When he said ‘uppies’ she amended her thought: she hoped that she did see him again, thoroughly dead.

Siobhan bent down, lifting the annoying gnat with ease--as, unlike the man, she was strong. A lifetime of rigorous training to be an instrument of Fate had changed her deceptively thin physique into the sort that could easily lift up another person. The feat was probably lost on him. “How are you?” She asked, straightening up slowly. She kept a firm grip on his legs, trying to stop him from falling over; she wasn’t sure what lies she’d have to tell about his manly body to get him to shut up if it happened. “Are your strong, big, thick, manly arms doing anything?”

The woman lifted him up in his big strong arms, and Beau was a little breathless for a second. Strong and a man enjoyer? What did he do to get the whole package? His heart began palpitations. Then she was speaking again, honestly she spoke too much. That was another downside she had. When they got married she’d need to talk at least 95 percent less. Beau stretched his arms against the clear blue plastic cover and started pushing and pushing. At first it seemed like it wouldn’t budge.Then sound of plastic scraping against plastic, and it was becoming loose! “I’m doing it! I’m doing it!” Beau shouted, his feet doing little joy taps against the woman’s shoulders.

Beau was not doing it. A large face appeared. It belonged to a man. The ugliest man Beau had ever seen. “Hahaha! Some feisty ones.” The person’s voice was loud, causing Beau to shake a bit. “Get down. I’m here to deliver your daily milk.” Beau was manhandled. Could you believe it? Man handled! He was lifted off the woman’s shoulders and placed onto the plastic ground as milk began to pour over and around them. Beau was disgusted and a little aroused, if he was being honest. “Hey! Let us out!” He shouted, fist flying against the air. But nothing changed. Milk was delivered and the tupperware was closed.

The only thing worse than having to deal with the annoying, short man would be a shower of milk. How strange it was that the next thing to happen was precisely that. Siobhan seethed, vibrating with the force of her rage. Milk dripped from her hair and soaked into her clothes, which clung tightly to her body in a way that was flattering, though that was the only fortunate thing about it. Milk covered their tupperware in a pool of white, coming up to Siobhan’s knees. She waded through the liquid, ready to be done with it. She’d plunge his body below the milky wavers and drown him. Escape would be more steps away from her but at least the last shreds of her sanity would remain. She stormed over to him, milk sloshing; she felt a little like a slow-motion attractive lifeguard coming to shore. The milky hair flip didn’t help with the image.

She was close, close enough to strangle when she remembered that killing fae was the sort of thing that had gotten her wings ripped out. As much as Siobhan hated him in this moment, as he was the vehicle for her frustrations, he couldn’t be harmed; a fae was a fae and fae were family. “Looks like another case of someone trying to keep men down, my sweet, sweet omelet.” Her hands balled into fists by her sides; she spoke between clenched teeth. Her shoulders ached from where he had tapped in excitement on her. She wanted to crush him like a bug. “What now?” Her gaze dropped, she noticed a strange lump in her pocket--cylindrical. What did she have in there? She pulled it out, staring at the drenched knife. She twisted it, watching the blade catch light. “Would you look at that, my egg?” She grinned.

The worst thing about the milk was not the fact that it was seeping into his onesie, congealing against his toes and setting on his skin in a thick and sticky film. No. The worst thing was the milk was warm. Warm milk? What kind of sin had the woman next to him committed to cause them to end up in this place? Surely Beau had done nothing to deserve such a treatment from whatever giant had opened the container and doused them in warm milk. “Haha.” At this point the laugh had lost any and all luster it once had, the smile which never reached his eyes was starting to not reach his lips. How was he supposed to thrive under these conditions? Then Siobhan was pulling out a knife, and for a second, when she was calling him egg, he thought she was about to poach him. Beau blinked, a little bit of a laugh and went. “Haha, my finest aged cheddar, what are you going to do with that knife?”

Siobhan thought about how lovely the man’s blood would be against her knife; she pictured his skin ripping in layers when she would stab him, flesh given to blood given to bone. What sort of expression would he make, she wondered. Would he haha? She looked at him and then her knife and then back at him. She could not kill another fae. She splashed around the container, making her way to the wall. Siobhan plunged her knife into the worn plastic and pulled down with as much force as she could summon, ripping a jagged, vertical line into the box. It looked suspiciously like a certain anatomical opening, but Siobhan wasn’t going to make that comparison. “Come, help me open this,” she called back at the short man, pulling at one side of the tear. “I need your…strong man arms to help me…because I’m…too much of a woman.” She hoped he’d slice his hand on the plastic, feeding it to the warm wilk (which was surprisingly nice, she thought, like a bath).

Beau smiled broadly as the beautiful and slightly too old and aged looking woman stabbed the knife into the plastic and started sawing their way out. He should have known she would be too weak to follow up. “Don’t worry, I am excellent with my hands.” Beau lied, but since he truly believed that lie to be true he suffered no ill effects. Beau stepped forward, shoving both of his hands into the gash she’d created and started tearing it open. Nothing happened. Beau coughed, adjusting his hands to focus on just one side pulling back instead of pushing the two halves apart. He started getting somewhere! The plastic gave a bit. “Big and strong, what can I say.” With each long and tiresome tug the opening got bigger and bigger until the plastic tore and Beau found himself being spilled out on the counter with the milk flowing out. Suddenly the world was no longer small and tiny and Beau was large. This was the tallest he’d ever been! Except, as he looked around, he started to get the feeling that he was simply his normal height now. Disappointing.

Siobhan knew for certain, in that moment, that her partner in milk was completely useless. She pulled, her muscles flexing--as she’d been raised to be the perfect instrument of Death, there was an undeniable strength held in her limbs. She pulled, and pulled harder to make up for the man’s lackluster efforts. The tiny cut turned into a gash and then an opened and milk sloshed through and their bodies tumbled with it. Out of the tupperware, whatever strange--slightly perverted--magic was at work seemed to wear off and Siobhan was at her usual height, which towered over the obnoxious man. She brushed milk off of her; a futile gesture. “Siobhan,” she said, holding her milky hand out, “I forgot to introduce myself and…” She drew her hand back, which trembled in the cold, dry air. In front of her were a hundred jars, lined up in neat rows, holding their own lakes of milky fluid and a singular figure standing in the liquid. She thought she saw a unicorn in one; she wasn’t even sure those existed. Wordlessly, she tilted her head to the side and wrung milk out of her hair. “I think we avoided something terrible,” she said, “perhaps because of your manliness.” She added that only because she thought it was funny.

In their miniature forms, the woman had towered over Beau. Old and tall, both had been marked against her in his constant judgment. However, stuck in a tupperware container, Beau had been kind enough to offer her grace. Grace that whatever had stuck them in that tupperware had messed up the shrinking process and had shrunk Beau just a little bit smaller. Now as the two of them were standing normal sized in a room full of jars, Beau felt disgust boil over him to realize she actually was just behemothly tall. That was very unbecoming of her. Old or tall. Pick a struggle. Then she introduced herself. Rage danced underneath Beau’s skin, causing it to prickle. He hadn’t asked for her name, eliminating all ease of snagging it from her. Sure. The pull in his chest informed him that she was a fellow fae, but she could have been kind enough to ask. His practiced smile pulled across his face as he turned to look up at her. “Beau. “ He returned his name, “But you can call me Beautiful. On account of how manly I am.” He struck a pose. At least she was smart enough to recognize him as the man he was.

She marveled at the ease in which murderous fantasies involving the man flooded into her mind. By the time Beau had finished introducing himself, Siobhan had mentally flayed, dismembered and tortured him in a hundred different ways. She stared down at him and knew that her favorite of the fantasies was the one where she crushed him like an insect. No, like a tin can; instead of a smear, she’d stomp down and snap bones into a perfect circle. She smiled. “Beautiful,” she said, looking beyond him and into the imagined version that waddled around with his collapsed body, slowly pulling up to reveal smashed bones and flattened skin in the shape of an accordion, dangling limply. “So beautiful.” Her imaginary arms lifted him, laying his accordion body on its side so she could separate each ring of flesh so she could twist it again to get a never-ending cord of his body. She looked around at the tupperware and jars and suddenly it all made a sort of perverse sense to her. The warm milk, however, remained a mystery.

She knelt down to his level. “Beau, beautiful, manly Beau.” Siobhan rested a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. “Putting you in a jar would be such a waste. I’d want you where everyone could see. I’d want wrapped around the room like tinsel. I’d call people over, I’d say ‘look at Beau, isn’t he so beautiful’.” You wouldn’t believe it, he was such a tiny man in his life, now look at how tall and grand I made him. It was the sort of irony Siobhan liked. “You’re so special. You would have been wasted here. I’m so happy that you’re free.” Trapped, Beau’s unique, repugnant nature would have been lost to the world. He was a pacifier, sized like one too; her mind reached a new level of calm, setting all its cognitive efforts into cruel punishments. He was meditative, soothing, a zen garden for a murderer. She leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to the tip of his nose, picturing herself with acid lips to break down his cartilage. “Beautiful Beau.” She rose to her feet. “I hope the next time we meet, there’s less milk.” And she left.

That night, she completely forgot about the stained tupperware and all questions she had about how they got there or where there even was—she didn’t even remember how she got home—but she couldn’t forget Beau. He’d given her so much peace that for the first time in over forty years, she slept through the night, carried by easy dreams of Beau dying beautifully.

Maybe older women had their place in this society. Despite the lines around her eyes, and her probably sagging bosom, Beau was enthralled by the tenderness at which Siobhan reviered him. Despite asking, multiple times, to be referred to as Beautiful, Siobhan was the first to listen to him. She kissed his nose. She left him speechless. If only she was better looking. Beau watched as she walked away, not ready yet to escape from the room that had bound them. Milk clung to him, and he knew it would sour and turn disgusting soon, but there was one thing he needed to do first. He’d seen a unicorn, miniaturized just like they had been, only in a jar. Beau plucked it off the shelf and dropped it into his milk-soaked pocket. This would be coming home with him.

#chatzy #chatzy: siobhan #this was ria's idea #you can all thank ria for being so talented and funny #and making me suffer this #i'm ria's number one fan

5 notes · View notes

ariadnewhitlock · 10 months ago

Text

Blue all the Time || Wynne & Ariadne

TIMING: Right after Cass died. LOCATION: A road. SUMMARY: Wynne comes to collect Ariadne after she calls them post-Cass. There's a good deal of a discussion of grief. TRIGGER WARNING: Sibling death referenced.

Wynne was alive.

Wynne was alive and Cass was dead and Ariadne wasn’t sure where she fell in that spectrum of things. She was dead, very clearly, but she was still alive. Cass hadn’t been like that. She was just dead.

Which felt too cruel, to phrase it like that. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to phrase it, in a way that kept things both true and kind. Wynne was on the phone with her, she could hear their breathing (a sound she’d committed to memory months ago) and soon enough, she heard the sound of a car pull up.

“Wynne.” She said their name the second they pulled up. Hung up, and repeated their name once they’d opened the door. “Please - help. I can’t get up.”

—

How similar yet opposite it was like the time they had driven to get Ariadne from that van. This time, too, they had taken Emilio’s car without permission. This time, too, they drove recklessly. This time, too, they could not understand what was happening just yet.

But this time, someone was dead.

They pulled up, watched the car open and her voice plead with her. Wynne did not believe what she had said about Cass, not fully or truly, but they believed what she was saying now. They stumbled out of the car, rushing around it in a daze and finding her. Tear-stained. Lost. Struck by something familiar.

They sat down next to her and pulled her head onto their chest, blonde hair in their face and mouth and the entirety of Ariadne close to them. “I —” It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t true. “I —” But Ariadne would not look like that if something bad hadn’t happened. “I have you.”

—

Wynne was here and she let them pull her against them. She hadn’t been able to touch Cass, so Wynne had to be here. Ariadne figured that they maybe needed some sort of code in case Wynne did die and became a ghost, so that she’d know that they were that.

“Hi.” She didn’t even turn to face them but instead just sat, pressed against their body, still shaking.

“We were –” she began, a hiccup and a snort (and not of the fun, laugh-too-much kind), “at her cave, and she told us all to leave. I tried to stay, but she made me leave – it was dark, and I – she used a thanks I’d given her and then she saved us. Except she died.” Her body began shaking again. “We were supposed to have each other for forever. Or like, a really long time.” She didn’t know what else to say. “I’m not sure what to do. I – it’s not real. It can’t be.”

—

If this was all a lie, some elaborate and cruel prank, then Ariadne was playing her part formidably. The thing was, of course, that Wynne did not think Ariadne capable of such cruelty. Of lying to them like this. Which meant, that if she wasn’t, that there was something very true about the way she was aching in their arms.

Ariadne painted a picture of the cave and it made no sense. Why would Cass die in the cave? Had her father primed her for this, like their own had for their demise? Or had he been cruel, had the clutching hand on her shoulder become something more volatile?

They squeezed Ariadne, who spoke in the language of denial too. “You don’t have to do anything.” That they knew. There was not much else they knew. This was uncertain territory, with them not understanding what had happened and how it ever could have. “It doesn’t feel real to me either.”

—

“Okay.” She kicked her foot at the ground, at the dirt. “I don’t want it to be real.” She couldn’t help but keep repeating herself. Thankfully, she knew that Wynne wasn’t the sort of person to ever judge her, and most especially not now.

Ariadne tried to focus her thoughts, tried to focus on Wynne and the fact that they were here, she could touch them, and she could breathe in their smell. “I feel sick.” She shook her head. “No. Hollow. I think.” That made more sense to her, even if nothing made sense right now.

“We should – move. Right?” She knew that she’d need their help if she was going to stand up. “But I don’t want to leave. But we have to. Right?”

—

They nodded, even if Ariadne could not really see it. “Me neither.” And it wasn’t, not really. Cass’ death was still removed from them, like a muffled sound outside of the house that you can’t quite place. But Ariadne in their arms was real. That could not be undone.

Wynne made a humming sound, “That makes sense. And that is … okay.” There was no right or wrong, that was what people kept saying. Not the ones who had raised them, as there was only right and wrong at that place, but the ones they trusted now. “But I hope it leaves.”

They rubbed a circle on her back, going round and round. “Whatever you want. When you’re ready we can go. We can go in the car and drive home or somewhere. Or we can sit here.”

—

“I hope it does too.” But at the same time, she wasn’t sure if she really did – because what if that meant she forgot Cass forever? Ariadne didn’t think that was possible, but it was a worry that tugged at her.

She would’ve rather tugged on ballet slipper ribbons a hundred thousand times over. Anything would’ve been better than this. Cass shouldn’t have died and Cass shouldn’t have had the father she had, and she ached for that. For the fact that her best friend had never felt included so much to the fact that when someone came and pretended (and did a good job of pretending too, because she’d been fooled just as much as Cass had) they succeeded with such ease.

“Can you help me?” She finally turned to face them, her hand immediately going to touch the curve of their jaw. “Up, to start. We – I don’t know. Can you tell me what to do?” She hoped that it wasn’t too much to ask them. Not too much to want from them. “You can sleep with me tonight, right?”

—

There was only one possible answer to Ariadne's question. “Of course,” Wynne said, moving their arm behind their girlfriend, tucking their hand underneath her shoulder. They pushed off from the ground with their free one, pulling Ariadne along with them. Once they stood, they hugged her once more, pulling her close for a moment.

“Alright,” they said. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know what came next, except that it was life. On and on and on. Wynne tried not to think about Cass, tried not to imagine what had happened, even if they kept wondering if her dad had done this, if her dad had killed her.

They moved towards the car, opening the passenger door. “For now you can get in, okay? And I'll drive. We can go all the way along the coast, or we can to your home, and we can sleep, if you want that. I can stay up, too.” They didn't know if they could sleep, but they'd pretend to if it brought Ariadne peace. “But now all you need to do is buckle your seatbelt.”

—

When Wynne held her, it made standing up a little bit easier. Then again, they made everything easier, so it would figure that they could at least somewhat lessen the absolute and utter ache that she felt having lost Cass. She had them, she had someone who was her whole world – though she couldn’t think about the fact that they were human at all. Because being human meant living a max of maybe a hundred years at most, and that was so small an amount of time in compassion to her forever.

Ariadne buried her face into their shoulder. “Thank you.” She didn’t know if she could ever thank them enough, for the number of times that they had saved her, including the few where it was quite literal.

“I’ll get in the car. Maybe – maybe home. I don’t – you don’t have to sleep.” Her voice was shaky, in a way that was only barely controlled by the person next to her. “You’re here. Maybe we can just sit on the couch and have soda and just sit.” She would’ve suggested a movie, usually, but she didn’t know how useful that would be right now. “Hold each other.” Buckle the seatbelt. “Right. Yeah. I’ll – yeah.” She clicked it in. “Whose car is this?”

—

Death was a fundamental part of life, a prerequisite of sorts, and Wynne knew this. It was needed for balance and contrast, but right now all of that didn't matter. They no longer wanted to see Ariadne's face like this — scared and upset, ruined by the things she'd seen and failed to do. Had they looked like this, when they had processed the news of her brother's death? How did one handle it, to see someone they loved in this much pain?

It was more palpable than whatever hole in the earth Cass had created. That pain would hit them later, surely, but now they only had eyes for Ariadne. Not because she was breathtaking (though she was, of course), but because she wore her pain so clearly. “You're ...” welcome, they were supposed to say, but they couldn't.

Ariadne buckled her seatbelt and Wynne got into the other side of the car, taking a moment to take everything in. The road ahead of them. The stick shift they struggled with. The key in the ignition. “We're going home,” they said, making the decision for her, “And we'll just sit on the couch. And then we'll see.” They still didn't understand what had happened but maybe that was for the best. They tried to start the car, but failed on the first try. “Emilio's.”

—

“That sounds good.” She wanted to be more cheery, and usually, with Wynne, she was. But right now it seemed purely impossible. Wynne wouldn’t judge her, Ariadne knew that with her whole heart, but she still wanted to be better. They deserved someone who was happier. She hadn’t ever really dealt with death – other than her own – and that hardly seemed to count, because she was still here.

Not that waking up after dying had made any sense. But Cass wasn’t going to wake up. Cass was buried and she wanted to go back and find her friend and hold her close. You couldn’t hold ghosts and she missed how it felt when Cass lay against her shoulder when then hung out.

“We’ll see.” She turned to look at them, because they were so alive and beautiful and her whole world, and they made her feel alive. Ariadne figured that right now of all times was a particularly important time to feel alive. She had to live, even if Cass would never live again. “It’s a good car.” She sniffled. “But I guess maybe we should only make out in my car. I feel like Emilio wouldn’t like it if we did that here.” She forced an awkward, half smile. “Sorry – not the time for jokes. Not that – well, you know.” She lay her hands in her lap, fiddling with them, dirt from the cave under her fingernails. “We should do something to honor her. Now – and also forever more. I think. Right?”

—

Back at home, Wynne had been taught that there was no room for grief. Once you had accepted the natural order of things – which all Protherians had – then it was a waste of energy. The dead were remembered and honored, especially those that had given their lives for a higher cause, but their loss could not bring you down. You could not allow it to.

They knew now that it was not that simple. They accepted the existence of death, but were starting to understand that death and grief were different. Wynne wished they had any wisdom to bestow, but all they could tell Ariadne was that grief was exhausting and that there seemed to be no rules for it. Maybe they wouldn't have to tell her anything about it at all — she was dead, in a way, so maybe she already knew all there was to know.

Wynne smiled absentmindedly, starting the car. They had no interest in making out, nor joking about it, but the fact that Ariadne was speaking with a certain lightness made them feel more assured. At least she was no longer on the side of the road. “You can do or say whatever,” they said, pulling away from the road, “Joke, or not. I don't mind. And yes. We can plant something for her. Or … just anything. Whatever you want. Whatever … whatever is right.”

—

She knew that she was lucky – exceptionally so, unrealistically so, to not have really had many people close to her to grieve. Of course, that also came along with acknowledging the fact that she hadn’t been close to many people outside of her family while growing up, but Ariadne figured that maybe that was for the best, if this was what loss felt like. It felt dizzying and like she was on those roller coasters Chance used to refuse to go on.

He’d probably love them now. He probably did, there was no use in thinking about him in the past tense even if their relationship was different than what it once was. Even if they’d both changed so much, and in such opposite ways, even if she had technically died. But right now she needed to focus on Wynne, on Cass, on the inevitability of life going on and the fact that she was guaranteed to experience more loss for the rest of her life.

“Rock gardens are… a thing, aren’t they?” Ariadne tapped on her knees. “Something like that would probably be best for her. Because of how much she loves – loved rocks, right? I don’t know.” She looked over to Wynne, watching their profile as they drove. “I love you.” It wasn’t anything new, nor anything fancy, but it felt good to say. I love you. Please don’t leave me. I wish you could live forever. Except, because they were human, the only way for them to live forever was for them to die – at least as far as she was aware – and she wouldn’t wish that on anyone, even if a part of her (and a bigger part than she cared to admit) selfishly did want that. “One day at a time, right?”

—

Their chest was heavy with unsaid things. Wynne wanted to take away this day, erase it from existence and go back to rearrange everything so it could be avoided. Even if the it was still unclear to them, the entirety of Cass' existence being undone sounding like an alternate reality still. The wish to turn back time was still overwhelming, though, but there was no doing such thing. There was just the metaphorical and literal road ahead.

At least Ariadne was next to them. They tried to focus on that, to not think about all the people that loved Cass. Did Van know already? They imagined calling her, then remembered Ariadne had mentioned Van during the phone call. So where was Van? Where was Metzli? Wynne looked over to Ariadne, pressing their lips together. What about Thea? And Nora —

They felt something constrict in their chest, thinking about how Nora already was so weighed down by the loss of Declan and would have to swallow another loss now. Their vision was starting to blur through tears and they sniffled, blinking to rid themself of the tears, not wanting to become more of a reckless driver than they already were. “Rock garden,” they echoed, “She'd like that.” They drove slowly, reaching out a hand to squeeze Ariadne's leg softly. “One day at a time.” There was a small hiccup. “And I love you too.” If only love was enough to compensate for the ache shared between them, but even this thing they felt for Ariadne wasn't strong enough to fill the gap.

—

Her world was spinning, but as in so many other cases, Wynne was a stabilizing force. They always were, and Ariadne wondered if it was selfish to think such a thing, but her parents had said that it was a sure sign of meant-to-be, or something along those lines. Which she was grateful for. She figured that they kept each other balanced and safe, in many different ways.

So they would survive this, even if her grief was eating at her insides, as if clawing itself to get out, like some sort of even more twisted version of Pandora’s box. She knew the myths, her parents had made sure of that. It seemed pretty silly for someone with her name to not know anything about myths. Cass hadn’t been a Cassandra, though she wondered all the same if she would’ve listened if her Cass, not Cassandra, but her Cass a-k-a Cassidy had said the world was going to end, would she listen? Ariadne liked to hope so, but now she also knew that she’d never know for absolute certainty. The many parts of her life that would never have answers because of her best friend’s father were too overwhelming to think about.

“I thought she might. We can do painted rocks, maybe. Maybe –” she shook her head. “We’ll – we can figure something out.” She placed her hand on top of theirs. “One day at a time. We just have to make sure people know she was a hero. Like, everyone. We know, but – the town should know. Because she – she was.” She settled her head back against the headrest. “But for now, just today.”

—

It was hard to focus on the road ahead, hard to keep their mind on the many actions the vehicle demanded of them. Wynne wanted to pump the breaks and take hold of Ariadne again, to start weeping with the abandon of someone who could accept that their friend had died. But they couldn't, especially not with the road ahead and the car buzzing beneath them.

They turned their hand around, giving Ariadne's a soft squeeze before returning it to the steering wheel, not yet comfortable enough in the car to drive one-handed. It hurt, to separate from her, but it wasn't the worst pain they had known. It was nothing compared to what Ariadne had to be feeling now. And though a comforting hand might help, it was not enough to take away all the pain that radiated off her. Wynne knew there was no gesture large enough for it and it was that thought that weighed on them like a bag of stones as they drove, attempting to just keep their head on straight enough until they arrived.

“That … yes. Painted rocks. And everyone … I agree.” Cass had been a hero. Still was, in a way — how was it even possible that she no longer was anything? That she was someone you talked of in the past tense? Wynne tightened their grip on the steering wheel and stared at the road ahead, because it was the one thing they felt most certain of right now. Everything else was too hard to grasp, so in stead they clutched that steering wheel. “Just today.”

#wickedswriting #c wynne #chatzy #writing #blue all the time #sibling death tw #// ty to marin ilu

3 notes · View notes

legxllyblxndc · 4 months ago

Text

heathers party - gen 2 ( @foreverwednesday )

BS JH FM MS AH: Bridie was having a lot of fun with Heathers but she was not enjoying having to see Elias and Fleur all over one another. And maybe she wouldn't mind so much if he didn't seem to be completely under her spell when they weren't in rehearsals. "I really wish I didn't have to have her in my fucking house." Bridie huffed as she looked across at Fleur, with a roll of her eyes. "Seriously - doesn't she think she's above it all or something." She knew that she was talking to the wrong person. Aaron was too level headed to let her get away with being too much of a bitch but she needed to vent to someone. "And does he think i'm some sort of idiot or something?! Look at him. He's practically fucking drooling." Bridie had half a mind to go over there and kick Fleur out but she knew better than that. That would only make Elias think she was some sort of crazy person. Instead, Bridie finished her drink and quickly set about pouring herself another one.

BS JH FM MS AH: Jude hadn't seen Ava since she'd gone on the drive with him. He had needed a moment to get away from his crazy home and the only person who he wanted with him, was Ava. He'd been both surprised and not when she had agreed. But now that they were at her place, he wasn't sure what to do. He felt awkward. But she wasn't with Milo so he quickly moved over to her, hoping to get just a small word with her. "Hey.." He muttered, the first words he'd said to her all night. "You look good tonight, Ava." He muttered, he quickly looked her over. She always looked good, he thought but absolutely did not say it. He thought that it went without saying, anyway.

BS JH FM MS AH: "You did good today." Fleur nodded as she glanced up at Elias. She wasn't sure what it was that had changed between the two of them over the last couple months but there was definitely something there and she was only half interested in the fact that he was dating Bridie. It wasn't like she was someone who Fleur was particularly worried about. If she wanted something - or someone in this case - she was going to get it. It was only a matter of when, really. "Seriously. I'm pretty impressed." She smirked before she took a sip of her drink. Him, above anyone else, should know how much it took for her to give a compliment. She wasn't going to give it unless it was earned, not ever. And she definitely thought that he had earned it. She glanced around the party then, rolling her eyes as she noticed Bridie looking over. "I thought Ava and Bridie would throw a better party than this. When is it going to get interesting?"

BS JH FM MS AH: Milo had no idea what this feeling was. But ever time he saw Jude and Ava together... he didn't like it. He had never been a jealous person. He had always been so sure of himself so he had never really felt the need to be jealous. And yet there was a niggle every time the two of them were together and he had no idea what it was - or how to get rid of it. "Am I going crazy?" Milo asked, looking at Barney, "Or are the two of them just a little too close?" If he trusted anyone to be honest with him, he knew that it was going to be Barney. He'd tell him if he was being stupid or not. He hoped so, anyway.

BS JH FM MS AH: "Minnie!" Alba called as she spotted her friend, she held out one of the cups to her, "I got this for Aaron but looks like he's busy." She rolled her eyes. She didn't want to go over to talk to Bridie and she didn't want to interrupt whatever it was that was going on with them. What was going on with them?. She wanted to know but there was a part of her that also didn't. Alba decided that she'd just keep a close eye on the situation and so she had gone to Minnie. Her friend could serve as a distraction, "Mins, are you having a good night?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow.

EH AG BC AM MA joined the chat

EH AG BC AM MA: "Why did you invite her? You wanted the whole cast?" Aaron asked curiously. He wasn't being judgemental, he never was with Bridie - but he did genuinely wonder why she had invited Fleur into her house when the two of them so clearly did not get on. He looked over at Elias and Fleur as Bridie spoke, watching them for a few seconds. "He says there's nothing going on there?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. He thought it was pretty obvious that Elias was into Fleur, or at least that he was letting Fleur think he was... Which he thought was pretty disrespectful to do in Bridie's house. Fleur was the kind of girl most people found attractive, but he had never thought Elias would go any further than that... before now.

EH AG BC AM MA: Ava looked up from fixing herself a drink with a smile, as she heard Jude's voice - she didn't think there would ever be a time that being around him didn't make her feel some type of way, that it would ever just be normal... but it was feeling slightly better than it used to, which was nice. "Hey." She replied, smirking slightly as he looked her over - it was always nice to know he still thought she was attractive. "Thanks. Thought I'd better put some effort in, as one of the hosts." She laughed, shrugging her shoulders and taking a sip of her drink. "You look good too. Happier, as well." She told him, raising an eyebrow slightly. "How's everything?" She knew Jude had been surprised when she'd agreed to go for a drive with him; but she, more than most, knew how crazy his house could get and, well - she was never going to not be there for him. Regardless.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Oh, I know." Elias smirked as Fleur spoke, resting his hand on the wall just above her head, so that he was looking down - or more like leaning in - as he spoke to her. He was all too aware that something was going on there... He'd found Fleur pretty much unbearable before they'd started rehearsing for Heathers, but now... there was something he couldn't put his finger on. An itch he'd never wanted to scratch before now. And he couldn't step away. "You're impressed? High praise, Morley." He laughed, raising an eyebrow. "You're doing pretty well too, you know? Feels fucking good to sing with somebody that's actually challenging me." He shrugged his shoulders. He thought that was probably part of the attraction with Fleur - the challenge. She was never going to let him get away with anything; even the fact that he and Bridie had something going on. Not that Elias thought he was doing anything wrong - they weren't official. "Fucking boring so far, isn't it? You gonna spice things up?"

EH AG BC AM MA: If he was honest, Barney had been a little surprised when Milo and Ava had gotten together - but he was happy for his friend... if a little worried. He just didn't want Ava to do anything that might hurt him - and seeing Milo feeling jealous, something that was totally out of character for him... He didn't really like it. He wanted to try and be fair, though - unbiased. It was only right that he do that for his friend. "I mean, they are close... You're not crazy. But I guess that's almost to be expected when you were in a relationship for a while, right?" He asked, shrugging his shoulders. They all knew Ava and Jude had been through a lot - it would be almost more strange if they totally ignored each other. "Does Ava talk to you? About Jude?" He asked curiously. He thought that made the difference... whether or not she was secretive about it. Barney didn't really know how he'd feel in that kind of situatiom.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Albs! Hi!" Minnie smiled warmly as her friend approached her, leaning in to hug her quickly before she took the cup being offered to her. "Oh, thanks - I guess I'll take it, then." She chuckled, nodding her head and taking a sip. "What is he busy with?" She asked, looking around to try and find Aaron... and seeing him with Bridie. "Oh dear..." She knew how that would bother Alba. "You know they're just friends though, right? Aaron is clearly crazy about you." She told the girl with a smile, shrugging her shoulders. She couldn't help her gaze from flickering over to Milo as she spoke... she knew how it felt to see the person you liked with somebody else. "I am! It's a fun party, right?"

BS JH FM MS AH: "Ava invited her. It was an open invitation." Bridie shrugged. She hadn't exactly said that Fleur couldn't come but she was pissed off that she had turned up. It wasn't a secret that the two girls didn't like one another, after all. She was sure that Fleur had only shown up to annoy her. Bridie nodded her head before she took a big gulp of her drink. "Yeah, of course he does. But it's fucking Elias. He'll do whatever he wants." She rolls her eyes. Though Bridie had never thought that he would be like that when it came to her. That had messed around on other people - Aaron being one of them - but never this bad. He never taunted her with it. "Look at her. It's fucking pitiful."

BS JH FM MS AH: There were some days when Jude wished that he could shake whatever hold it was that Ava had over him. But he didn't think that he ever would. He would never admit it outloud but he thought that Ava might be the love of his life. And he had messed that up. But he thought there might be a glimmer of hope - why would she keep being there for him when he needed someone if there wasn't any hope? "Of course. That's the only reason." Jude nodded, chuckling to himself. He wasn't going to say it but he always thought that Ava looked good. She was stunning - always. He nodded again, "Yeah, I'm - it's alright." He shrugged. "Never gonna be good, is it?" He didn't think that it would be until his father either got sober or died ... and he hated that he even thought that last part.

BS JH FM MS AH: Fleur was well aware that his girlfriend - or whatever Bridie was to him today - was across the room but she didn't particularly care. And it didn't seem like Elias did, either. She smirked as she looked up at him. "Exactly. So you better stay at that level. I'd hate for you to disappoint me." She shrugged. Fleur laughed as he returned the compliment, "You think that you need to tell me that? I know I'm killing it." She shrugged. It was a different kind of role for Fleur but she knew that she was doing a good job. And she was enjoying herself. "You struggling to keep up?" She asked, leaning forwards a little. She was certainly enjoying the back and forth between the two of them. She couldn't tell what Elias was going to do and she was enjoying that. The anticipation of whatever was coming was almost unbearable. "Depends. You going to help me?"

BS JH FM MS AH: This wasn't like Milo and he really didn't like the feeling. He wished that he could do something about it but he just didn't want to rock the boat. He didn't want to upset Ava. She was, obviously, allowed to have friends. And he hoped that, that was all Jude was to her. He just had no idea if that was all they were to one another. "Is it? You and Alba aren't like that." It felt like it was more than the two of them just being close but he had no idea if he was just being a little silly. And he hated that he had thrown Barneys old relationship back in his face, "Sorry." He sighed as he looked up at his friend. Milo shook his head at the others question, "Not really, no." He sighed. "You think that, that's a bad thing?"

BS JH FM MS AH: Alba laughed as Minnie took the drink from her. She was glad that her friend was happy to join her with the drink - at least for right now, anyway. She followed Minnies gaze as she looked to Bridie and Aaron. They were a little too close for comfort, if she was completely honest. "Yeah, oh dear." She muttered, nodding her head. She was glad that the other girl seemed to see what it was that she was seeing as well. "He was crazy about her for a while too." She shrugged. And she had also noticed Elias with Fleur. She didn't put it past Bridie to do something to get Elias' attention. "It is!" She smiled, resting her head against Minnies shoulders.

EH AG BC AM MA: "God, I forget they're friends. I just can't believe somebody can be as versatile as to be friends with the both of you." Aaron chuckled, shaking his head teasingly. Open invite or not, though - he knew Fleur had come here for the drama. It was clear Bridie wouldn't want her here. "Even though you guys are... whatever you are?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Aaron didn't really understand why Bridie would let Elias treat her like that; how you could be content not even being sure that the person you were with wasn't going to cheat on you. He shook his head slightly as he watched Elias and Fleur. "I just don't get it... Before this show, they wouldn't have even looked in each others direction. What changed?" Part of him thought Elias might even be doing this just to get at Bridie, to make her sweat - but he knew better than to say that right now. It would only make things worse.

EH AG BC AM MA: If she was being totally honest, Ava had no idea what her feelings were for Jude; there had been a long time when she had been convinced he was the love of her life... and she couldn't say for sure that he wasn't. What she was sure of, was that things with them had always been... dramatic. Passionate. Up and down. And she had been excited by that - but since things had started with Milo, all she had felt was safe. Wanted. Appreciated. They had fun, they laughed, they talked - it wasn't all arguments and storm outs. And she had to wonder if that was what it was all about. It was a strange feeling for her. "Of course. What else is there?" She laughed, raising an eyebrow playfully. She had always been somebody that prided herself on the way she looked. "It could be. One day. Or at least, one day you'll be out of there and you can make things good for yourself." She reminded him, shrugging her shoulders. She wished she could just make it all better now, but she knew she couldn't.

EH AG BC AM MA: As far as Elias was concerned, he and Bridie had never put a label on anything; they never spoke about their feelings, they never made anything official... So why the fuck shouldn't he be doing exactly what he wanted? "You think this is the best I can do?" He gave a snort of laughter, raising an eyebrow. "I've been giving like, fifty percent." He told her with a smirk. He laughed as Fleur spoke; her self confidence was so attractive to him. He knew he was going to chase this feeling until it got boring for him; and something told him that with Fleur, it would take a while. She was so unlike anybody he'd ever wanted before. "Don't flatter yourself. I could keep up with you with my eyes fucking closed, Morley." He told her; although he already knew that if anybody could give him a run for his money, it was her. "What, you're incapable of causing drama on your own? Don't let me down now."

EH AG BC AM MA: "No, but that's more on Alba's part than mine... I would definitely still be her friend if she wanted to be mine." Barney shrugged his shoulders. He had always been so sad about the way things had ended between he and Alba; the fact he'd hurt her, the fact she pretty much hated him now. He missed her friendship, he missed what they'd had before it all went wrong. He thought it was a very different situation to Ava and Jude, though. "And, you know... what they went through - it's not easy for anybody. Especially people their age." He sighed. He thought Milo was up against rather a lot, if he was honest. "Hey man, it's fine - you don't have to censor yourself with me." Barney chuckled, wrapping an arm around his friends shoulders. "I don't really know, though... I'm not exactly the relationship expert. I just think - you know, if friendship is all it is... Why wouldn't she discuss him the way she discusses her other friends? I bet she tells you all about Fleur and Bri and Alba, right?" He shrugged his shoulders.

EH AG BC AM MA: Minnie knew that she was pretty much Alba's consolation prize, since she hadn't been able to get to Aaron... but she didn't mind so much. If she was being honest, she felt that way quite a lot of the time - but she still loved her friends. She still wanted to be around them. She wasn't about to complain. "He was. But that was a long time ago and he quite clearly has no interest in her now - he just wants you, Al." She told her friend with a smile. She really wished Alba would believe it; believe that she was enough for somebody to want. "Why is Elias stuck to Fleur like glue, though? I thought he hated her?" She asked Alba confusedly, watching the pair with intense curiosity. There seemed to be a spark there, which was the total opposite of what there had been before.

BS JH FM MS AH: "It's ridiculous, isn't it?" Bridie raised an eyebrow. She hated the idea of Ava being friends with Fleur but she knew that she couldn't tell Ava who she could and couldn't be friends with - even if she did wish that the other would have better taste in friends. Bridie nodded, "Yeah, exactly. Whatever we are." She was never one who was going to dictate that she and Elias put some sort of label but she thought that it was pretty clear that they were something. She didn't care what Elias did, not really. But he was making her look like an idiot and that was the one thing that she had asked him not to do. She was doing everything in her power to not storm over there and break up whatever it was that was going on between he and Fleur. "She got attention from someone who wasn't Gomez. Reeks of desperation."

BS JH FM MS AH: Jude shrugged his shoulders, "Your boyfriends here, right?" He chuckled. "Though his standards don't seem all that high." It didn't make sense to Jude that Ava would be with Milo now. It wasn't like the two men were anything like one another. Why would she want to be with someone like him? It didn't make him insecure but it did annoy him to no end. He shook his head, though, as Ava continued, "We'll see. Doesn't seem like there's much of a light at the end of the tunnel any time soon, though." He shrugged. He already had a place of his own but it wasn't like he could really get the distance that he needed from the Hayes house. Not unless he left London and he just wasn't willing to do that.

BS JH FM MS AH: If Elias didn't want to do something, Fleur was sure that he would tell her. And so far, he had given as much as she had. She wasn't sure what had changed with Elias. Before, she couldn't stand to even be near him but now? It was like she was a little intoxicated by him. She was pretty sure it was seeing how talented he was. She had always been attracted by talent and she had never quite seen how far he could go when he was pushed. "Then that's even more disappointing. I want your hundred percent." She shrugged. She didn't see the point in giving anything less. Fleur rolled her eyes, though, as he continued, "I would love to see you try, Elias." She chuckled. "Not incapable. But it'd be much more fun with you." She smirked. And without another word, Fleur took a hold of his shirt and pulled him down towards her, to close the gap. Her lips quickly found his.

BS JH FM MS AH: "No, I know. I know." Milo nodded, feeling even more guilty that he had brought that up. He had known that it wasn't on Barney. But he would have thought that Jude would be more like his sister than he wasn't - maybe it was just that he hoped. "I know that too." He sighed. That was why he felt so bad about how he was feeling. Why was he being like this when she was just talking to someone who had been with her through the hardest thing in her life? He knew he needed to calm down but he didn't know how. He had no idea how to work through these feelings. "Yeah... maybe." He nodded before he glanced back over at the two of them, "What would you do? If you were me?"

BS JH FM MS AH: Alba didn't mean to make Minnie feel like a second choice. She was one of her closest friends but she would also be with Aaron if he wasn't already busy. She had always gotten pretty wrapped up in a guy when they were interested in her. She just wanted to be around them, as much as she possible could. "It doesn't look like that." Alba sighed, pursing her lips. She didn't know how to read the look that was on his face and that was just annoying her. Did he still have feelings for Bridie? Was she just being silly? She had no real idea. "Oh I have no ---" But she trailed off as she saw Fleur kiss Elias. "Fuck." She muttered, a laugh slipping from her lips. Things were about to explode.

EH AG BC AM MA: "It's... Interesting." Aaron laughed, nodding his head. He was never going to outright talk badly of somebody; and in small doses, he thought Fleur was a lot of fun... but from what he'd seen, Bridie and Ava had a lot more in common that Fleur just... didn't share. There had been a time when Aaron would've been sad that Bridie had given up on what they had for a 'whatever they were' with Elias - but he knew now that they would've never worked out. What he had with Alba... he wouldn't change it. And he was glad he still got to be there for Bridie. "Oh, so her and Gomez are on the outs? That explains everything a little more." He nodded, turning back to look at Fleur and Elias - and visibly wincing as the former leant in to kiss him, his gaze snapping right back to Bridie. "Oh shit... Bri..."

*** joined the chat 14 hours ago

EH AG BC AM MA: "He is." Ava laughed, nodding her head - it made her smile, though, to know that Milo genuinely wouldn't care if she was dressed up like this or if she'd come to the party in her pjs. He'd tell her she looked good either way. She narrowed her eyes slightly, then. "I'd say he's done alright for himself, looking at who his girlfriend is." She shrugged her shoulders. She didn't like what Jude was insinuating - and she knew exactly what it was. That Milo wasn't good enough, that he was too different. And she hated that. "Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. And - well, you know I'm here. Always." She told him - and she meant every word. She would always be around if he needed her. She turned as she heard some kind of commotion, eyes widening as she saw Fleur and Elias. "Oh, for fucks sake..." She muttered, rolling her eyes and turning to look at Jude again.

EH AG BC AM MA: "You'll get it. Trust me." Elias muttered with a throaty chuckle, raising an eyebrow. He was holding out, because he knew that he wouldn't be able to fully let go, to leave himself behind and give everything to the character, until they were on the stage. He needed to hit the point of no return. It was always how it worked for him. This character, in particular, was so close to home. "Everything is much more fun with me." He told her, his smirk mirroring hers. He had no idea what Fleur was going to do next, but he always found himself excited to find out - and as she grabbed ahold of his shirt, his smirk widened. He laughed into the kiss at first, knowing exactly what Fleur's game was; and then he pulled her closer to him, arms locked around her waist as he deepened the kiss - they were in it together now and he wasn't about to back out. Whatever happened next, Fleur had succeeded in making the night a hell of a lot more interesting.

EH AG BC AM MA: "You know it's okay to feel this way though, right?" Barney asked, giving his friend a comforting smile. "You don't always have to look for the right way to feel... it's totally normal to be jealous of your girlfriend speaking to her ex-boyfriend, whether there's a valid reason for it or not. It doesn't make you a bad boyfriend or anything." He thought that was important for Milo to know. He was the best person he knew. "Well, if I were you... I guess I would bring it up to Ava. Tell her how it makes you feel. I don't know her like you do and I don't know if it would change anything... but you might at least be able to hear her side of it, right?" He asked, raising his eyebrows. "For what it's worth, Miles... I'm pretty sure that if she wanted to be with him, she could be. And she's still with you." He clapped his friend on the back with a little smile.

EH AG BC AM MA: Minnie and Alba had been friends since they were tiny, so Alba being wrapped up in a guy was nothing knew - and it didn't make Minnie think any less of her. She was happy to be there for her friend, whenever she needed her. "You don't think it looks like he's just being there for his friend?" She asked, keeping her tone level - that was exactly what it looked like to her, but she wasn't about to tell Alba that she was wrong. Minnie's mouth fell open in a gasp as they watched Fleur kiss Elias, eyes widening - things were about to go off and she did not want to be caught in the crossfire. "Why would they do that here?!" She muttered, shaking her head. She felt so sad for Bridie, especially as she saw the look on the others face.

BS JH FM MS AH: "Of course they are. She wouldn't be here if they weren't." Bridie shrugged. She hoped that they'd stay this way but she wasn't convinced. She couldn't understand what kind of hold Fleur had over Gomez but she wished that he could shake it off. As she saw the look on Aaron face, she turned so she could see what he was seeing - Elias and Fleur kissing. In her house. "You've got to be fucking kidding me?!" She snapped. Her grip on her drink tightened for a second. And before she could stop herself, she was crossing the room to where the two of them were. "God, Fleur, do you have to be so fucking desperate." She huffed. She brought her cup up and dumped the contents over both Elias and Fleur. "Get out of my fucking house, Morley!" She shouted, dropping the cup and pointing to the door.

BS JH FM MS AH: Jude shrugged his shoulders as Ava got defensive over Milo. He wasn't going to comment too much more - he didn't see the point. But he thought that they both knew that she was better than Milo. She deserved more than a grown man child. He thought that she ought to come to her own conclusion - sooner or later. He nodded, though, as Ava continued, "Yeah. I know." He muttered. It was the closest that he could get to telling her how much it meant to him. He knew that he didn't deserve to have someone like Ava in his life. She was good. He was not. Though at the commotion, he quickly looked over to see what was going on. Jude closed his eyes for a second, wishing he could be anywhere that wasn't there. He was all for a little drama - he was a Hayes, it was in his blood - but Elias always had to take it a step further than was ever necessary.

BS JH FM MS AH: Fleur knew what she was doing. Of course she did. She wanted to cause as much trouble as she possibly could and if anyone was going to be down to help her, she knew that it would be Elias. They were very different people but their want to cause trouble was very much alike. She knew that it meant that there were going to be people who were pissed off at her but she didn't care. There was always someone who was annoyed at her. And besides, Elias was a good kisser. She was definitely getting something out of it. What she didn't expect, though, was for the drink to be poured over her head. "What the fuck Bridie! You absolutely psychopath!" She growled as she pulled apart from Elias. Though as she saw the look on the others face, she couldn't help but laugh. She looked over her shoulder, to Ava, "Your lap dog needs her leash attaching, Ava. Seems she thinks that Elias can't do whatever he wants."

BS JH FM MS AH: Maybe Barney was right. Maybe it was normal to feel like this when you saw your girlfriend with her ex ... but Milo didn't like it. It made him feel like he needed to question Ava, like he didn't really trust her. He didn't think that, that was all too fair. Not when she hadn't really given him a reason to not trust her. Just because she had hurt Wyatt like that, it didn't mean that she'd do the same to him, right? He wasn't able to respond to his friend, though, as he heard the shouting from the girls. He turned to look - just in time to see Bridie pour her drink, "Oh god." He sighed. He didn't understand why Bridie was the way that she was - especially with Elias - but he knew better than to try and get involved. She wouldn't want him too. "Gomez said he wasn't coming, right?" He checked with Barney. Even if he and Fleur weren't together right now, he was sure that it would still hurt his friend if he saw her kissing someone else.

BS JH FM MS AH: Alba shook her head, "No. He looks like a lovesick puppy." She huffed. There was a voice, in the very depth of her brain, that was telling her that she was being dramatic but she didn't want to listen to it. Aaron didn't like her like he said that he did. She had always believed that. And this was just the proof that she needed. Alba covered her mouth, to hide her snickers as the scene started to unfold with Elias and the two girl, "Because they live and breathe the drama." Alba replied simply. And people wondered why she was such a drama queen - when she had always looked up to Elias in the way that she did.

EH AG BC AM MA: On the surface level, Aaron knew that Fleur and Gomez didn't make a lot of sense... but he thought when you watched them together, saw how well they got on, how much they cared about each other - it made sense. It was almost sad that Bridie thought Fleur was doing this because she missed Gomez. He didn't really have time to think about it, though, because before he'd even managed to speak, Bridie was storming over. "Bri, don't --!" He called after her, but it was futile. He knew he wasn't going to be able to stop her from doing anything rash and if he was honest, he knew it wasn't his responsibility. He just didn't like seeing her like this. He winced as the drink flew through the air; it was never going to go down well. The worst part was that he didn't even think Elias or Fleur would care, or that they'd leave any time soon.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Every fucking time." Ava muttered as she watched Bridie storming over to Elias - she had known what was coming as soon as she'd saw the kiss and while she couldn't blame Bridie, she also couldn't help wishing that they could have just one night without some kind of drama between the two of them. "Fucking hell, Bri - did you have to?!" She winced slightly as the drink splashed over Fleur and Elias - and mostly onto their carpet, too. She would've done the same thing, she just wished it had been somewhere she wouldn't have to clean up in the morning. She rolled her eyes as Fleur brought her into it though, shaking her head. "Don't fucking bring me into it, Fleur. That was fucked up." She shrugged her shoulders. Both girls were her friends, but her loyalty lay with Bridie and if she wanted them out, she'd stand by her.

EH AG BC AM MA: Elias could already hear the reactions around them before he'd even pulled away, and he knew Bridie well enough to expect that she was about to cause a scene - even he was shocked as he felt the drink being poured over him, though. The shock registered on his face for a split second, before it fell back into a signature smirk. "Bothered, are you?" He asked sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. "What's your problem, Bri? Why are you acting like a fucking psycho?" He could only imagine how he would've reacted if Bridie had done something like this, but in his head he felt totally justified - it was a party, he'd kissed a girl... So what? Whenever he got that itch, that feeling that things were becoming too serious with Bridie, that she expected something from him... this happened.

EH AG BC AM MA: Barney felt like pretty much everybody in the room had their eyes on Bridie, Elias and Fleur in that moment - and he wished they didn't. He didn't want them to see Bridie like this. Vulnerable, even though she was trying to pretend she wasn't. "Why does she let him do this?" He whispered to Milo with a sigh - because they all knew that even after this, the two of them wouldn't be done with one another. All three Hayes siblings were so complicated, but none quite as much as Elias. "Yeah, he has a family thing... Thankfully." He muttered. He would've hated for Gomez to see this, even though he and Fleur had split. He was pretty sure that was the only reason Fleur was entertaining this in the first place.

EH AG BC AM MA: "If you say so..." Minnie said softly, shrugging her shoulders. She didn't want to disagree with Alba, but she thought that if she continued thinking like this then she was going to drive Aaron away and ruin something really good. She couldn't help blaming Freddie and Grace for the way their children were in relationships. Minnie gasped as the drink was thrown - she knew this wouldn't be the end of it either, a huge argument was about to ensue and she only hoped it didn't end up in a fight. Especially as Ava started to get involved, too. "Yeah, you don't say... I kind of wish Gomez was here. I don't think she would've done that if he was." She said, chewing on the inside of her mouth. She could say a lot of things about Fleur Morley, but she didn't think she'd ever seen her intentionally hurt Gomez - it was so obvious how much she cared about him.

BS JH FM MS AH: "Shut up, Ava." Bridie snapped as she heard the other girl. She knew that she'd do the same exact thing. There wasn't even a hint of Bridie that regretted her actions. Everyone knew that she and Elias were together - if not officially. She had told him not to make an idiot out of her. And he had gone and done that, in front of everyone. She wasn't just going to let this slide. "Have you hit your fucking head or something?" She scoffed as she looked up at Elias, "I told you not to make me look like a fucking fool and what the fuck do you go and do?!" She was making a scene but she didn't care. This was her house. And she wasn't going to have someone there to disrespect her so completely in her own place. "You call me the psycho but you're the one who is actually fucking certifiable!"

BS JH FM MS AH: Fleur was well aware of all of the eyes on the three of them but she didn't particularly care. She wasn't the one in the wrong here - at least that was what she told herself. Elias was single. She'd kissed a single guy. Why was everyone looking at her like she'd shot someone? It was insane. "Fucked up?" Fleur laughed again, "Ava, seriously? It was a kiss. I didn't fucking kill anyone." Maybe there was a part of her that was acting out. Gomez wasn't there. He'd made it pretty clear that he didn't want her. So she was going to make damn sure that she got whatever else she wanted. And she didn't particularly care who she hurt in the process.

BS JH FM MS AH: While Jude was in agreement with his brother - he didn't really think that he had done anything wrong - he couldn't understand why Elias would pick here do to his. In fact, no, he knew why. He just wished the other had thought about it a little longer. He crossed his arms over his chest and decided to let the others get into it, though. He wasn't going to get in the middle of it. Elias could fight his own battles and it wasn't like things would turn physical. That would be the only time he'd jump in to defend his brother. He glanced over at Alba and Minnie, to check that the two of them were out of the way. He didn't want Alba to be pulled into it either.

BS JH FM MS AH: If there was something - anything - that Milo felt like he could do to help Bridie, he'd do it. Once upon a time, he'd have called Olive and told her to get there but he knew that, that was just going to make things worse. He wasn't even sure if they were talking anymore. "I really have no idea. We've all tried to tell her." He sighed. He looked at his big sister, his eyes filled with sadness. None of them had handled their mothers death well but none took it as hard as Bridie had. He didn't see any coming back for her now. She'd burnt too many bridges. "Okay. Good." He nodded. Though he didn't know if it was a good thing or not. He didn't want Gomez to see this but Milo was pretty sure that Gomez was probably the only person who could calm Fleur down - or at least get her to leave.

BS JH FM MS AH: Even the way that Aaron was looking at Bridie as she went to Elias annoyed her. What was that? Concern for his friend? Or jealousy? She seemed to convince herself that it was the latter. She just couldn't understand why someone would be friends with their ex - especially with someone like Bridie, who had clearly disregarded his feelings so completely. She thought that it showed too much weakness. Alba raised an eyebrow as Minnie mentioned Gomez, "I didn't even realise he wasn't here." She muttered as she glanced around at the others. Her gaze lingered on Barney for a second before she looked back at Minnie, "You think we should maybe see if he could come?"

EH AG BC AM MA: "Dunno, did you throw the glass as well as the drink?" Elias smirked, raising an eyebrow. Bridie asking him not to make her look like a fool had pretty much had the opposite effect... because it had just made him feel as though she expected too much, as though she was telling him what to do. He was never good with that. "I haven't done a fucking thing! If you're so concerned about looking like a fool, then what the fuck are you doing right now?!" He asked her, laughing incredulously. "It was a kiss, Bridie. I didn't get down on one fucking knee and propose." He rolled his eyes. "Am I the one screaming and bawling? Am I the one fucking throwing vodka around? You look pathetic, Bridie."

EH AG BC AM MA: "God, Fleur. If you're going to be a bitch at least have the balls to admit you're being one. You kissed him to cause trouble. I know you." Ava reminded her, with a roll of her eyes. She had been that person; when she, Fleur and Willow had been something of a trio, she had learned all the tricks of the trade and she knew exactly why Fleur had done that in the middle of the room. She turned to Elias as he continued talking down to Bridie, feeling her blood boiling - she hated the way he spoke to her, made her look like such an idiot, because he knew she'd forgive him. "You need to shut the fuck up, or get out. I'd prefer the latter, because you're dripping all over my floor." She told him, shaking her head.

EH AG BC AM MA: "I know... That's why her and Olive don't talk anymore, right?" Barney asked, raising an eyebrow. Olive had been over at his parents house to visit only last week, talking about everything that had happened with her and Bridie... it broke his heart to know it all, when they had been so close before. "Yeah... I wouldn't want him here for this. Even though he's probably the only one who could've made it better." He sighed. He thought Gomez was probably the only one that could get Fleur to see enough sense to get out of the party before she did anything she was going to regret.

EH AG BC AM MA: "He's usually around Barney and Milo. I noticed there wasn't a third amigo." Minnie laughed, shrugging her shoulders. She was close with all three boys, so it was easy for her to notice the absence of one. "I don't know - it's not really his responsibility, right?" Gomez and Fleur had broken up, she didn't think it was right for him to still have to come and fix things... but he would be able to. "Maybe we should ask Milo and Barney?"

BS JH FM MS AH: "No. I think you were just dropped on your head as a baby. Wasn't like they did much looking after you, right?" Bridie snapped. She was getting personal and it was a low blow but she couldn't stop the words tumbling out of her mouth. Okay, maybe that one she would regret later on. But right now, all she could see was red. She wasn't going to let it drop. "You act like you're such a fucking innocent, Elias. You think you're such a hard man but you can't even admit when you're being a cunt." She snapped at him. "Oh, no. Because that would actually mean you got over your myriad of issues and actually done something about your fucking fear of commitment, wouldn't it?" It was so clear to her. Every time they got too close, he'd do something like this. She knew his issues. She just didn't know how to fix them. "I look pathetic? You're the one who kissed Fleur fucking Morley. I'm surprised she managed to stop moping about Gomez long enough to give you a second look!"

BS JH FM MS AH: Fleur rolled her eyes as Ava continued, "I kissed him because I wanted to kiss him. Not my fault she needs to go to the looney bin." She shrugged. She was a bitch. She knew that. But she wasn't about to say it out loud. She wasn't about to admit that she'd done something wrong when she didn't think that she had. "Oh Ava, go back to your own problems, will you." Fleur snapped, "This isn't the Hayes that wants your attention." She didn't know about Elias but Fleur had no real intention of going anywhere. If they wanted to kick off, they could, but she was going to stand her ground.

BS JH FM MS AH: Milo nodded his head, sighing, "Yeah. She couldn't wait - well, this." He nodded to his sister and Elias. And he couldn't blame Olive. Milo didn't have it in him but he had thought that Olive turning her back on Bridie might have been her wakeup call - apparently not. "Me neither." Milo sighed. Though he wasn't sure how they were going to get Fleur to leave if it wasn't for Gomez. "Doesn't she see that this is exactly why Gomez broke up with her?" He muttered. He flinched a little, though, as Fleur brought up Jude to Ava. So she'd seen it too? She looked over to the two of them again, wanting to see his girlfriends reaction.

BS JH FM MS AH: "I'm sure that, that's all you noticed.." Alba muttered, wiggling her eyebrows at Minnie before she laughed a little. She wondered if Minnie and Milo would ever admit that there were feelings there - would Milo even realise it while he was still with Ava? She had no idea. "It's not but.." She shrugged her shoulders before she stood up at the others suggestion of asking the boys. She stopped, though, as she heard Bridie. "Oi! Don't fucking speak about him or my parents like that ever again!" Alba shouted at Bridie. She usually left them to their own devices. Everyone knew that Bridie and Elias would be on good terms again sooner or later. But she wouldn't stand anyone talking about her family like that.

EH AG BC AM MA: As Bridie spoke, Elias saw red pretty much instantly - maybe his actions had crossed a line, but now Bridie was bringing up things he'd shared with her in confidence. Things he never wanted to share with anybody else. "Shut your fucking mouth, Bridie. At least I can stand to look at my fucking family. How's your sister doing, again?" He asked, voice brusque. "Please, I'm the first to fucking admit I'm a cunt one hundred percent of the time - not my fault you keep crawling back believing you're the one that will change it. How many fucking times do you want me to prove you can't?" He laughed nastily, rolling his eyes. He was furious now; the things she'd said about his family had riled him up to the point he could barely even remember how the argument had started. "Do you think I give a single fuck who her ex is? Yeah, I kissed her. She's fucking hot. And she comes without half of the fucking emotional baggage you do. You don't think that's a turn on? A fucking change from you crying and fucking moaning all the time?"

EH AG BC AM MA: "I don't give a shit that you kissed him, fucking hell! I give a shit that you did it in the middle of my living room just to be a dickhead about it." Ava laughed incredulously, finding it pretty much unbelievable that Fleur couldn't understand where she was coming from. "Ooh, harsh words. At least my ex still gives a shit. Where's yours?" She asked, eyes flashing as she looked up at the other blonde girl. She knew that the root cause of all of this was Gomez breaking up with Fleur; and this was the exact reason why. "Just go, Fleur, before you fuck things up any further." She sighed. She didn't want to fall out with Fleur, but she knew she would end up doing so if things continued. She was always going to have Bridie's back.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Yeah... I don't blame her." Barney sighed sadly. He knew how much it must've taken for Olive to cut her sister off; he couldn't help but wonder how much it would take for the others to get to that point too. He hoped they never would. "I wish she would... Maybe then she could actually change it. I don't get it - if she loves Gomez as much as we all thought she did, why wouldn't she be trying to change? To be better? It's not like he's totally done with her, he just couldn't stand... well, this." He shrugged his shoulders. As both arguments began to heat up, Barney didn't know who to watch - but he knew it absolutely wasn't going to end well.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Oh please, stop doing that!" Minnie laughed, shaking her head. Yes, she had a crush on Milo - something she'd admitted to Alba in the safety and darkness of underneath a duvet at a sleepover one time, but she knew those feelings wouldn't be reciprocated. At least not now. Not now Ava had given him a shot. She'd made her peace with that. "Oh, Albs..." She started as the other started shouting over - she understood exactly why, but she didn't think it was a good idea for her to get involved even so.

EH AG BC AM MA: Aaron had been watching both arguments from the side, wanting to make sure that nothing went too far - especially where Elias Hayes was concerned. He didn't think he'd get physical, not when it was all girls, but he still didn't trust him. He knew he could get nasty. He didn't, however, think he had to worry about Alba just yet - but as soon as Elias's parents were brought up, he knew he'd been wrong. He started making his way over to her before she'd even spoken up. "Al, nobody means what they're saying. They're all drunk and angry. They're talking shit." He told her, shaking his head. He thought things could probably go very, very wrong from here.

BS JH FM MS AH: Bridie couldn't help but smirk as she saw the look on Elias face, as she saw the change in his features. She had gotten him. And she'd barely even started. "Are you really trying to compare families with me right now, Elias? What? You think that your alcoholic father and absent mother are going to compare well?" She threw back. His comments about Olive stung but it wasn't something which she hadn't thought before. That wasn't going to get under her skin. "Crawling back? You've got to be fucking kidding me, Elias. Half the time you're fucking begging for me to come back! Don't pretend like you're some fucking god." She rolled her eyes. And yet there was a part of her, deep down, that knew he was right. She would go back to him ... time and time again. "My baggage? Oh, baby, don't pretend like you've not got enough fucking baggage to fill this entire room. No. Why do you think you're so fucking angry all the damn time? You've got the ability of a two year old to handle your own emotions."

BS JH FM MS AH: Fleur rolled her eyes again, that trademark Morley smirk never leaving her face. She was enjoying the chaos. And maybe that made her a terrible, terrible person - and everything Gomez would say about her was right - but she didn't care. "It's a fucking party, Ava. Bridie doesn't fucking own him. We can both do what we want. You trying to tell me that you haven't kissed someone at a party? Oh, that's right." She glanced at Jude, "Just because you fuck inappropriate people, doesn't mean that everyone who gets together at a party is." Jude and Ava had gotten together at her birthday, after all. "I'm good here. Thanks." She lent against the wall, crossing her arms. She wasn't going to leave just because she had been told too.

BS JH FM MS AH: For any other family, Milo thought that they might already have been at a point of no return for Bridie ... but he just couldn't. He couldn't turn his back on his big sister when it was so clear that she was hurting. He couldn't give up on her. And he knew that was the same for his friends too - Barney and Gomez. They both knew Bridie as well as he did. He knew he was lucky to have as good a friends as he did. "I don't think she knows how too.." Milo shrugged. "I love uncle Tommy but she's just as bad as he was, so I've heard. It's in her DNA." Deep down, Milo hoped that things worked out for Fleur and Gomez - he just had no idea if it ever would. They were worlds apart. "What should we do?" He muttered.

BS JH FM MS AH: Albas face screwed up as she heard Aaron and she turned to look at him. "Of course you'd fucking stuck up for her." She rolled her eyes. But she ignored both Aaron and Minnie as she heard Bridie call her father an alcoholic and she turned back to Elias and Bridie, moving so she could stand beside her brother, "You say that again, Bridie Saracen and I swear to god, you won't be able to say it a third time!" She was so much like her siblings - she saw red. After everything that she had done to keep her father afloat, someone throwing it back in their faces was enough for her to feel homicidal - especially as she had done it just to upset Elias.

BS JH FM MS AH: Jude would be there if Elias needed a little bit of backup but he thought that they all knew that he could handle Bridie all by himself. He was, however, pissed off at the way Fleur had brought him into an argument that he had no part off beforehand. "Fuck off, psycho barbie." He snapped at her. Jude was pretty tired of all of the fights already but he knew that they were probably going to have to deal with this for a little while longer. It wasn't like any of the people involved were just going to back down. "Al, knock it off!" Jude shouted from across the room. She was just making the situation worse.

EH AG BC AM MA: Elias felt something inside himself snap as Bridie spoke about his father; those were the most personal things he'd ever told her... the way they'd find his father sometimes, how angry he could get, how he'd be passed out drunk in the living room most nights. How his mum was barely ever at home because of it, how she had pretty much had nothing to do with Jude and Alba growing up. "Absent mother? That's fucking rich, Bri." He told her, his tone nasty and his face screwed up with anger. "Is that your excuse? Is that your reason for being such a total fucking embarrassment? Poor Bridie gets to fuck everybody else's lives up, because mummy isn't around anymore." He stuck out his bottom lip, a mean display of false sadness. "But Bridie, I'm not the one who picked somebody who doesn't even fucking want her over her own family. When was the last time you spent time with your sister? Or your brother? Or your fucking grieving father, hm? Because you'd rather wait around, praying that I'm going to pick you back up again. Don't fucking talk to me about begging." He told her, a smirk pulling at the edges of his mouth. There was absolutely nothing about this situation that Elias found funny; in fact, he was seething with rage. He had almost forgotten who it was he was saying these things to - he just wanted to say something that would hurt.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Is that supposed to bother me?" Ava laughed, raising her eyebrows. She had been through so much in the past couple of years that it didn't feel there was much Fleur could throw at her anymore, although she was clearly trying. "You think I can't admit when I've made mistakes? Fleur, half of my life for the past fucking two years has been filled with them, but I'm not the one who's afraid to admit when I've fucked up. You're the one stood, covered in somebody else's drink, smirking over a fucking kiss she had with a boy that has laughed about her behind her back for god knows how long, refusing to leave a party that nobody wants her to be at." She turned slightly as she heard Jude; that was something she definitely missed. Jude would always have her back, he would fight alongside her; she knew Milo hated any kind of confrontation, that he would never want to get involved. "Get a fucking life, Fleur. You talk about dogs and leashes, but everybody here is wishing your handler was around." She told the other girl, rolling her eyes.

EH AG BC AM MA: "It's not, though." Barney sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't think we should just excuse her behaviour with that DNA stuff... because she's still an adult making her own choices." He said sadly, shaking his head. Being one of Gomez's best friends, he had gotten to see a different side of Fleur when they were together - and it had been so nice. He wished she would show that side of her off more. "I don't know... this is getting out of hand." He whispered back, chewing on the inside of his mouth nervously. Things were being said now that Barney wasn't sure could be taken back, and more people seemed to be getting involved every second. He was glad that Milo wasn't the type of person to get involved in an argument just because his girlfriend was - but as he heard Elias say something about Annabelle, even Barney thought that was way too far. "He needs to get out." He muttered quietly, but he knew he had absolutely no way of getting him to leave. "Do we call somebody?"

EH AG BC AM MA: "I'm not sticking up for anybody! This whole thing is insane." Aaron sighed, shaking his head. He thought Alba was just angry because of the things Bridie was saying, not actually at him - he had no idea she thought he'd been flirting with Bridie, that she was upset with him because he'd been trying to comfort her. "Bridie, that's too far..." He told the other girl as she brought up Freddie's alcoholism - he hadn't actually known that, although he'd maybe suspected... So he was sure that the other people at the party didn't know it either. It didn't take long before Elias hit back with something equally heinous, though and he didn't think it would be long before somebody threw a punch if they continued. "Bro, I think you need to get him out..." He moved over to Jude, his voice quiet but firm. "Want me to help?" He thought it would probably come down to physically throwing Elias out at this point, but he was willing to try if it meant deescalating the situation.

BS JH FM MS AH: The longer Elias spoke, the more angry Bridie found herself getting. They'd never been this bad with one another before and she knew that she had started it - she'd brought up his mum and dad - but bringing her own mother in it was too much. Bridie wasn't even seeing red at this point. Whatever she was seeing, what she was feeling was much, much worse. Without thinking about it, Bridie brought up her hand - but instead of a slap, she punched him. She felt absolutely feral. But before she could do anymore damage, she was pulled away from Elias, "Get off me!" She screamed. "Get off!" She tried to twist out of the grip of whoever it was that had a hold of her. "I swear to fucking god" Bridie screamed, "If you don't get out of my house, BOTH OF YOU! Then i'll fucking kill you." She had no idea what she was saying, there was a ringing in her ears as she continued to get out of the hold someone had on her. She had never been this angry before. Her whole body was vibrating with it. "GET OUT!" But she was pulled out of the room before she could see if they had actually done what she told them to do. She suspected that they probably wouldn't and it only made her more angry.

BS JH FM MS AH: "Ava, you're fucking rich to talk about people laughing at me behind my back. Who is it that you're dating again?" She raised an eyebrow. "Because, as far as I'm aware, you used to join in when we laughed about him." She rolled her eyes. Her laughter only got louder as Bridie lunged for Elias. She had barely been paying the two of them much attention, she hadn't heard what was said - if she had, she probably would've been on Bridies side. For the punch, at least. Fleur didn't know Annabelle as well as some of the others did - like Gomez and Barney - but she'd known her well enough and had known how much she meant to her dad. "And you're calling me pathetic?" She laughed as she watched Bridie being pulled from the room. But as predicted, she didn't bother moving. It wasn't like these things didn't always happen. It would blow over.

BS JH FM MS AH: "Yeah, maybe you're right." Milo shrugged. He wanted to find a reason why Fleur was the reason that she was. He wanted Gomez to have the happily ever after. He just didn't know if it was ever going to be possible. The mention of his mum, though, had his head snapping to look at Elias, his mouth hanging open in shock. He had always thought that the other wasn't a nice person but he had never thought that he would go that low. And then he heard Fleurs comment to Ava and it felt like he had been slapped. He had always guessed that Fleur and Willow would laugh at him behind his back but Ava too? He shook his head as he looked up at Gomez. "I think we need to call Gomez. If she leaves, then it's one problem down." He shrugged. "Besides, if anyone can get Elias to go, it's Jude."

BS JH FM MS AH: Alba rolled her eyes at Aaron. She didn't believe him and maybe that was her own insecurities peeking through but she was too angry to think through it rationally. She could feel her cheeks heat as she glared at Bridie. The idea that this was how Aaron would find out all of her issues at home was too much. She was about to intervene herself, when Aaron did. As Bridie was dragged away - by Aaron, which didn't sit well with her - she turned to Elias. "Maybe you should leave..." She muttered. She was sure that he would regret what he had said eventually - they both would - but right now, it was better that Elias got the hell out of dodge. "She's a fucking nut job but maybe it's for the best." Alba shrugged

BS JH FM MS AH: Jude didn't understand why Milo was stood to the side as Fleur threw insults at his girlfriend. He just couldn't understand that. If someone upset Ava, then they upset him. And he'd protect her. Why did Milo think it was fine to just stand at the wayside? And why would Ava want that? He nodded, though, as Aaron spoke, "I've got it." He muttered. Jude looked to his brother, though, raising an eyebrow. He figured that the damage was probably done. Should they leave ? But he wasn't going to force Elias. Not when he was sure that Aaron would calm Bridie down and everything would be fine sooner rather than later.

EH AG BC AM MA: Elias had known that what he said was over the line; it wasn't even something he thought, it had just been something that he had known for a fact would hurt Bridie - and he wasn't surprised at all as her fist flew at him, although it definitely hurt. He gritted his teeth as Aaron dragged her away, anger swelling within him until he turned around and jammed his fist into the wall behind him, dust flying everywhere as he pulled his bleeding hand away and revealed the hole he'd left behind. "Don't worry, I'm fucking going. Party's fucking shit anyway." He spat, grabbing a bottle of something off the table and swigging straight from it as he walked towards the door. He felt completely out of control, like anybody that got in his way was going to get hurt - and before he walked out of the door, he turned and swept everything off the table angrily, glasses and bottles smashing and splattering across the floor. He turned to Ava then, looking her in the eye. "Tell her I'm fucking done. And I mean it."

EH AG BC AM MA: "You're so fucking weird, Fleur." Ava rolled her eyes; she had no idea if what Fleur was saying was true - she didn't think she'd ever made fun of Milo, but she knew she probably hadn't stopped the others from doing so... and yeah, that made her feel pretty guilty. But there was nothing she could do about it now. She'd grown, she'd learned. That was more than she could say for Fleur. She spun around, however, completely ignoring Fleur, as Bridie lunged for Elias - and she moved to grab her friend, Aaron getting there just before her. "Get him out. Please." She looked over to Jude, sure that he would help - but then Elias announced he was going and Ava jumped slightly as his fist slammed into their wall. "Are you fucking kidding me?!" She demanded, mouth hanging open as she looked at the damage. Never mind that seconds later, their floor was covered with glass and spilled alcohol. She turned to Milo then, knowing that he'd probably be just as upset by what Elias had said. "I -- I'll be back, okay? I need to see your sister." She sighed, moving through to the room that Aaron had dragged Bridie into.

EH AG BC AM MA: As soon as Aaron had heard what Elias had said, he'd been on high alert and he made it just in time to drag Bridie away - she was stronger than he'd anticipated, though and it took a lot of his strength to hold her back, to drag her into the kitchen where he slammed the door behind them. "I'm sorry, I know this isn't what you wanted but I... I didn't want you to do anything you were going to regret." He sighed, shaking his head. "Elias is a fucking dickhead." He breathed. He didn't usually say anything about the other; slating the guy his ex-girlfriend had cheated on him with wasn't his style, but this wasn't about him... It was about Bridie and all the shit she put up with from him. He didn't know what else had happened out there, but he'd heard commotion - he assumed that was down to the eldest Hayes.

EH AG BC AM MA: Everything seemed to happen so quickly, Barney felt as though he was watching a tennis match - he didn't like what Fleur was saying about Milo and he hoped it wasn't true... but he was soon distracted by everything going down with Elias and Bridie. "Jeez..." He whispered, watching Aaron dragging Bridie away - it was very rare that he saw her like this, but it was clear how much Elias had affected her. "I'm going to call him." He sighed. He really hadn't wanted to involve Gomez; the breakup was so fresh, he was trying to enjoy family time and he purposely hadn't come tonight because he didn't want drama... But he didn't think there was anything else for it. He moved to the side of the room and called his friends number, speaking to him for a few seconds before he went back over to Milo. "He's on his way."

BS JH FM MS AH: Jude nodded quickly as Ava spoke but he knew that he didn't need to do much. If he knew Elias well enough, he knew that he'd be leaving now that the fight was over. He hadn't, though, expected quite as much a scene as Elias had left behind him. He sighed but he quickly followed after his brother. Someone had to stop him from getting into too much trouble. "Elias. Wait up." He huffed, jogging to catch up to his brother. He didn't say anything, though. He didn't think that there was more point. He knew the other well enough to know that if he spoke before Elias calmed down, then he would get the brunt end of the anger and he couldn't be bothered to deal with that.

BS JH FM MS AH: "Nice defence." Fleur muttered. She couldn't understand why Ava was the way that she was now. They had all been friends once upon a time. Ava was just as bad as she and Willow. And then she suddenly changed and it pissed her off. It was like the other looked down on her now. She didn't think that Ava was any better than she was. Even as Elias left, though, Fleur didn't. She wasn't going to back down. Instead, she grabbed her drink - glad that she hadn't left it with everyone elses. Maybe she needed to stop drinking but the argument had made her sober up a little too much. "What are you looking at?" She huffed, as she glanced to Barney and Milo.

BS JH FM MS AH: "What the fuck, Aaron!" Bridie cried. There was a part of her that knew that he was right, though. She was about to do something that she was going to regret, that there would be no coming back from. And as soon as he mentioned Elias, the adrenaline that had kept her going drained from her and she burst into tears. She didn't know why she continued to go back to Elias but what he had said today had completely broken her heart. She had thought that he knew that her mother was off limits. "This is fucked up." Bridie whispered, shaking her head. She hoped that Elias had gone - and by the commotion that she heard outside, she was pretty sure that he had.

BS JH FM MS AH: Alba wasn't even sure how everything had gotten so fucked up but she was seething - though it drained as the other hit the wall."Elias!" Alba jumped. She didn't like this. She'd seen her dad in a state time and time again and she was almost certain that Elias was heading down the same path. She was scared. Her eyes met Barney, tears welling before she blinked them back. If there was anyone there who knew how upset she was, then it would be Barney. He had been there for her when he dad had been really bad. She couldn't believe that Aaron had gone off with Bridie. What Bridie had said was bound to upset her and he had been more concerned with his ex girlfriend.

BS JH FM MS AH: "Alright. Good. 'Cause she can't be here when Bridie comes back out." Milo nodded. He didn't know what Bri would do if Fleur was still here. Milo raised an eyebrow as Ava went off to find Bridie but he quickly covered it up. He shot Ava a quick smile, nodding his head. "Bloody hell." Milo sighed as he heard the clatter of the glass on the floor. He didn't think about it, though. He moved over to grab a couple bin bags and started to tidy away what he could, "Does anyone know where the sweeping brush is?" He asked, no-one in particular. He couldn't help his sister in this situation but he could make things a little cleaner before they came back out.

EH AG BC AM MA: Elias stormed down the street, shaking hands in his pockets, trying to find his cigarettes - it was all his brain would allow him to do. He couldn't see past the red mist just yet. He didn't bother slowing down as he heard his brother behind him, just letting him keep up - but as he finally found his cigarettes and brought one to his mouth, lighting it with shaking fingers.... He slowed down slightly. "Did you hear? Did you fucking hear what she said about dad?" He demanded, eyes alight with fury even now. "Everybody knows now. Everybody knows how fucked up he is." He hissed. It wasn't that he was embarrassed; not a lot embarrassed Elias, really. It was that he felt as though he'd let his dad down... Elias and Freddie fought a lot of the time, they had even gotten physical on occasions - but he could also relate to his dad in many ways. This was one of them. And now his dads private, dirty laundry had been spread out for everybody to see. He was so angry that Bridie had shared something that he'd told her with so much confidence, all because he'd kissed another girl.

EH AG BC AM MA: Aaron simply shrugged his shoulders as Bridie swore at him - he knew she'd be grateful eventually, she had been so angry that he wasn't quite sure what she would do if she got her hands on Elias. "I'll leave you guys to it." He told the two of them, grabbing the sweeping brush before he left the kitchen door - he'd heard Milo's question and knew it was probably the most helpful thing he could do. "Here, man." He told him, handing him the brush. He moved over to Alba then, eyes softening. "Hey - I can't believe all of that just happened... Are you okay?" He asked, placing a hand gently on her back. He knew that what Bridie had said had obviously gotten to her, but he wanted her to know he was there for her - and he didn't agree with it.

EH AG BC AM MA: Ava nodded as Aaron left the room, staying quiet for a few moments - she and Bridie knew each other well enough to know exactly what the other needed in times such as this one. She opened the back door and moved to sit on the steps, taking two cigarettes out of the packet she'd left there and lighting them both, holding one out so that Bridie could join her. She took a deep drag of her own, blowing smoke rings into the sky as she waited for her best friend. "Fucked up is one way to put it..." She agreed quietly, nodding her head. She knew that Elias and Bridie took things too far all the time, but not like this - Annabelle was the line, she thought they'd all known that.

EH AG BC AM MA: "I know." Barney sighed. Bridie had been angrier than he'd ever seen her - if she came out and Fleur was still here, he thought she'd probably lose it all over again. He just hoped that Gomez could get there quickly. "Oh, good idea..." He agreed as Aaron brought out the sweeping brush, taking one of the bin bags from Milo and starting to help him. He looked over at Alba then, though, catching her eye - he had known how embarrassed she'd be for Freddie's business to be revealed in that way. He gave her a soft, sympathetic smile - they hadn't spoken in so long, but he would still be there for her if she needed it.

EH AG BC AM MA: When Gomez had gotten the invite to the party, he'd turned it down pretty much instantly - it was nice to be invited, but he knew it was more of a cast thing... and he wanted Fleur to have her night. She was the lead, after all and their breakup was so raw... He didn't want to take away from that. He'd been happy to go out for dinner with his family instead; they'd had a nice time, he'd gone home and was watching a film with his dad when his phone rang. Barney, begging him to come; something about Fleur needing to leave, about a fight, an argument... He couldn't really figure out what was going on, but he had headed over there pretty much immediately. If Fleur needed him, he was going to be there. It didn't take him long - he passed Elias and Jude in his car as he drove up, parking outside and heading straight in. The first people he saw were Barney and Milo. "Hey guys... Um... What the hell is going on?"

BS JH FM MS AH: As his brother spoke, Jude nodded his head, "Yeah, I heard." He sighed. He had been trying not to think too much about the fact that everyone knew how bad his dad was now. He didn't know if it was a good idea for Freddie to hear what had been said. "They were gonna find out sooner or later." He shrugged. It seemed pretty inevitable, if he was completely honest. His dad wasn't hiding anything. People were already talking, they were all going to know. "Did you have to fucking kiss her in there, man?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow. He didn't think that Elias had actually done anything wrong but he had to know that it wasn't going to end well.

BS JH FM MS AH: The whole place was a state and Alba couldn't help but feel a little responsible. And Elias and Jude had left her to clean up their mess. Again. She had no idea what to do as she stood in that room. She wanted to leave but the idea of walking home on her own wasn't something which she particularly liked. She smiled a little, though, as she met Barneys gaze. The smile quickly fell as she heard Aarons voice. She was mad at him and she didn't think that, that was going to go away tonight. "Don't fucking touch me." Alba hissed as she took a step away from him. "You didn't care two minutes ago. Weren't you a little busy?"

BS JH FM MS AH: Bridie was just glad that it was Ava with her. Because at least she didn't have to explain what it was that she was thinking - Ava was already a step ahead of her. She joined her by the door and took a cigarette from her. It was the only way that she was going to calm herself down. It regulated her a little more. She lent against the door frame with a sigh, ""How bad was it?" She asked. Because Bridie had pretty much blacked out. She remembered bits - like Elias throwing her mothers death at her but she couldn't remember everything. That was how she knew that it was bad. She only got like that when she did and said things that she really regretted.

BS JH FM MS AH: Fleur had no idea that the boys had called Barney but as soon as she saw him, she could feel the butterflies in her stomach. Her face, however, was as stone cold as it had been before. She wasn't going to let on that the very sight of her ex boyfriend made her feel weak at the knees. "Oh, what the hell are you doing here?" Fleur huffed as she saw Gomez, rolling her eyes. "I don't need a babysitter!" She called, but stumbled a little as she took a couple steps away from the boys. Maybe she was actually drunker than she had thought - maybe the adrenaline had just caused her to think that she'd sobered up.

BS JH FM MS AH: "Thanks." Milo muttered as he took the broom from Aaron. If they could get this place cleaned up a little, then he thought that he would probably feel a little better. He had no idea what to do about the fist sized hole in the wall, though. That one he didn't think that he was going to be able to fix. He perked up as he heard Gomezs voice and looked up at his friend. "Bridie and Elias had a fight. It was - It was a whole thing." He sighed, shaking his head. He lowered his voice, then, not wanting Fleur to hear. "She was involved. She won't leave. We didn't know what else to do. I'm sorry." Milo muttered. He hated that he had dragged Gomez into this but it was the last resort. Nothing else had worked.

EH AG BC AM MA: "No, they fucking weren't." Elias muttered, although he knew his brother was probably right. Freddie didn't exactly hide the way he was - it was the rest of them that were stumbling around trying to keep it under wraps, trying to help him keep his dignity. He rolled his eyes as Jude spoke, turning to his brother. "Oh fuck off, Jude. You knocked up your best friends fucking girl. Are you seriously going to lecture me about what I should or shouldn't be doing?" He had no reason to be nasty to his brother, but he didn't like this being brought up right now. He was only just managing to calm himself down enough to talk. "It was a fucking kiss. Not my fault she's insane." He muttered, although realistically - it was definitely at least somewhat down to him.

EH AG BC AM MA: As soon as Alba's face fell, Aaron's mirrored the expression. "What have I done?" He asked, brows furrowed in confusion. He was truly clueless; he'd just tried to do the best thing for everybody in the room and right then, that had seemed like getting Bridie out of the way. "Are you seriously angry with me for stopping Bridie from attacking your brother? Because that was what she was going to do. And I didn't think anybody else was going to stop her." He told Alba, his voice calm but with a definitely hint of frustration. Didn't Alba think he would've rather spent the night with her? That he would rather all of those things didn't happen?

EH AG BC AM MA: Ava looked up at Bridie as she spoke. "Pretty fucking bad." She told her; the two of them were nothing if not brutally honest with her. She took another drag of her cigarette before she spoke again. "You brought up his dad, he brought up your mum... You punched him in the face and he punched a hole in our fucking wall. And smashed all of our glasses." She rolled her eyes. She had no idea how they were actually going to get around that one; neither of them could afford to fix it. "What do you want to do?" She asked the other, leaning against her legs gently. "I can go out there and tell everybody to fuck off home, or we can go back in and get monumentally drunk now that dickhead's gone." She shrugged her shoulders. She would do whatever Bridie wanted her to do.

EH AG BC AM MA: Gomez nodded as Milo spoke; he knew exactly what Fleur could be like, more than most, but seeing her standing alone... it still made him feel a little sad. People thought she behaved that way for no reason, but Gomez knew better. There was always something, even if she wouldn't admit it. He knew she was struggling with the way Ava had pulled away, with the fact that Willow wasn't around much. He knew she was struggling with the breakup. Seeing Fleur hurting; it was impossible for him not to want to make her feel better. He raised an eyebrow as Fleur shouted over, shrugging his shoulders gently. "Are you sure?" He asked. She was clearly drunk. He moved over to her, expression softening. "Come on, Fleur - let's go for a drive or something. Sober up a bit." He suggested, face hopeful. He missed her - he'd missed her from the second he'd ended the relationship.

EH AG BC AM MA: "She definitely needs a babysitter." Barney muttered to Milo, raising his eyebrows. He hadn't actually realised how drunk she was until everything had calmed down; and he was one hundred percent sure they'd called Gomez at the right time. He just had to hope that it would have the desired effect; he was pretty sure he could see it in Fleur's face, even though she was acting mad that Gomez was there... she was happy to see him. He turned his attention back to Milo then, patting his friends arm softly. "How are you doing, man?" He asked. "After everything... you know, what Fleur was saying." He sighed. The three of them had never exactly been popular, but they'd gotten by - it couldn't feel nice to hear what Fleur had said.

BS JH FM MS AH: Jude shrugged his shoulders at Elias' response. He was surprised that everyone didn't already know. He and his siblings could do as much as they wanted but Freddie never made it easy for them. It was only a matter of time before more and more people found out about what was happening. "I'm not fucking lecturing you." Jude sighed, shaking his head. He wasn't going to start a fight with Elias - even if that was a low blow. He fell silent for a couple beats, letting his brother have a moment to himself. "We probably should have told Alba to come with us..." Jude muttered, glancing over his shoulder to where the two of them had just come from.

BS JH FM MS AH: Alba rolled her eyes at his question. It annoyed her even more that he couldn't see why she might be annoyed at him. The her being pissed off he'd gone somewhere with the girl who had just revealed to everyone that her father was an alcoholic, rather than being there for her. "No. I'm annoyed that you picked her over me." Alba snapped. At least, that was what it had felt like. She was always peoples last choice - her brothers were such a unit, Ava and Bridie too. She was always just the extra one and he had made her feel like that this evening as well. "Who you've spent basically all fucking night with."

BS JH FM MS AH: "Fuck..." Bridie sighed. She remembered the comment about her mum but she didn't remember that she had brought up Freddie. Those were lines that neither of them ever really crossed. It was their biggest weaknesses and they'd just aired them in front of everyone at the party. She'd worry about fixing everything at a later date, though. She didn't have it in her to think about that right now. "The later." Bridie nodded. If she told everyone to leave now, she knew that she would just be in a foul mood all evening. If they went back out there and got drunk with their friends, then Bridie thought that they might be able to salvage a little of their evening. "As long as she's gone."

BS JH FM MS AH: Sometimes, Fleur couldn't work out why she was so alone. She was just like her dad - at least most people said so - and he had, had the best friendship group. So why did people hate her so much? And yes, maybe she did things to get a rise out of people but there was a part of her, deep, deep down, that knew she did it for attention. She had been starved of attention growing up - her mother striving for perfection, her father rarely there - and it had all fed into the person that she was now. The only person who had ever come close to seeing her like that, though, was Gomez. And even he didn't want her. Fleur glared up at Gomez for a moment, hoping to maybe get him to back down and leave her alone ... but after a moment, she relented and nodded her head. "Don't pretend like you care about me now, Gomez." She scoffed but started to move towards the front door, anyway.

BS JH FM MS AH: Milo nodded his head as Barney spoke, "100%". He hated this situation even more, seeing how drunk Fleur was now. A part of him wondered if he and Barney should've kept a closer eye on her - not that they could've done anything to stop her if they had. Milo raised an eyebrow, though, as Barney turned the conversation to him. If he was honest, he had been trying not to think about it. That was the main reason why he had gone to try and clean up, as much as he could. "I mean - it's not like I didn't already know that Fleur would take the mick out of me." He shrugged. He should probably have guessed that Ava would have joined in back then, too. "Should I have done something? When Fleur and Ava were arguing? I didn't want to get involved but .." He shrugged his shoulders. He had seen the look on Avas face when Jude said something - should he have done something as well?

EH AG BC AM MA: Elias let Jude's words slide, although he certainly felt lectured by him - he didn't want to be told what he should or shouldn't have done, because he already knew. The issue was that Elias never cared, until it was far too late. He raised an eyebrow as Jude spoke about their sister; maybe they should've asked her to come, but he was pretty sure she wouldn't have and he wasn't about to go back into that house now. "Go and get her, if you're so bothered." He shrugged, but continued walking away from the house - showing Jude that he wouldn't be waiting for him. "She won't want to leave, anyway. Too busy with her boyfriend." He shrugged. Actually, he was pretty happy about that - because he trusted that Aaron would look after Alba and get her home safely. He could leave, not feeling that guilty.

EH AG BC AM MA: "I -- what does that even mean?!" Aaron was pretty much dumbstruck - he couldn't even figure out what Alba was referring to, it felt as though she was speaking in riddles. "I don't understand what you're saying, Alba. What have I done to make you feel as though I was picking Bridie over you?" He asked, shaking his head. Aaron was always so chilled, sometimes too chilled - but he definitely felt a little frustrated at this situation. "All night? It's... Al, I probably spent twenty minutes chatting to Bridie before everything kicked off and I had to drag her off your brother - and I'm sorry if me talking to my ex-girlfriend upset you, clearly that's a conversation we need to have but... You can't just accuse me of picking her over you. That's not fair. At all." He sighed. He felt as though he'd done the right thing, he didn't know what else he was expected to do.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Fuck." Ava agreed, nodding her head. She didn't quite know how you came back from saying those things, but she knew Elias and Bridie would find a way - she thought it might take a little bit longer this time, though. "Glad to hear it." The blonde smirked as she looked up at her friend; she didn't want the night to be over, to be totally wasted. At least this way, they could claw it back - even if it meant getting extraordinarily drunk and making more stupid decisions. "Yeah, I want her fucking gone, too. Talking shit about me and Jude - and me and Milo." She rolled her eyes. Ava loved their circle, but she also hated how everybody knew pretty much everything about everyone there. Moving on from Jude had been hard - she probably wasn't all the way done... but she had something really good with Milo and she hated that people were already trying to get involved.

EH AG BC AM MA: As Fleur stared at him, Gomez simply looked back at her - nobody could force Fleur to do anything she didn't want, but Gomez knew she did want to come with him... She just needed some time for it to look like her own decision. He hoped he would always be able to read her like the back of his hand; because she could read him too, he knew. He sighed as Fleur spoke, but nodded back as she began to move and quickly gave Barney and Milo a little wave before he followed her out of the door. "I would never have to pretend to care about you, Fleur. I always have." He told her quietly, offering her his arm to steady herself as he unlocked the car. He already had her favourite music playing; he'd just wanted to make her feel comfortable. Not like people had called him to drag her out of the party and he was there out of obligation - because he wasn't, not really. If Fleur was ever in trouble, he wanted to be there. He opened the passenger door for her, making sure she was in before he went to the drivers side. "Any requests? Where'd you wanna go?"

EH AG BC AM MA: "Out of all of us, man. Not just you." Barney shrugged his shoulders, a little smile on his face. "The only reason they didn't go for Gomez was because he was Fleur's." He chuckled. He had never been bothered by people making fun of their little group, they had just been easy targets because they had been so happily different - but he was sure it didn't feel nice knowing that your girlfriend had been one of the people doing it. He thought then, at Milo's question... He hadn't really thought about it before. "I'm not sure." He admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "I mean, it's not like Ava can't hold her own, right? And everybody knows you and confrontation, man... You shouldn't be expected to be somebody you're not." Barney didn't like confrontation either, but if he was honest... if he imagined somebody fighting with Sylvie or even Alba, still - he'd probably have to stand up for them.

BS JH FM MS AH: Jude had always been the peacemaker of the family. Which wasn't to say that he didn't have a temper too but with Elias and Alba, it was hard for him to get a word in edgeways sometimes. He had, had to learn how to smooth the situation pretty early on. Otherwise he wasn't sure if they'd have all survived their childhood - especially not after their mum had left. Something which still sent a pang of guilt through him. And here he was again, having to chose between Elias and Alba and his choice was always easy. He'd have his brothers back, no matter what. "Nah. You're probably right." He muttered, making sure to keep in step with the other.

BS JH FM MS AH: Alba continued to roll her eyes as Aaron continued. She was being as clear as she possible could be and it was annoying her that he didn't seem to get what it was that she was saying. "And that's exactly it, Aaron. You ex girlfriend said some horrible shit about my family and instead of being there for me. You went off with her!" She snapped at him. She had always been hot headed - she was a Hayes after all - but it was hard to argue with someone who was so calm all the damn time. Normally, that dampened her fire a little bit. Today it was just spurring her on. It was just another example, to her, that he didn't care enough about her. "Elias is a big boy. He would've been fine. You didn't need to step in." She huffed. "But that's what you did!" She cried at him.

BS JH FM MS AH: Already, Bridie was anxious about the next rehearsal. There was definitely going to be a tension in the air and she was already pissed off about it. She had no idea if Elias would speak to her any time soon. And she couldn't say she blamed him. After what he'd said about her mum, she didn't really want to speak to him either. She knew that she wouldn't get an apology from him so it was going to take her a while to calm down from what had been said. Bridie looked to Ava quickly at the mention of her brother, "Is he okay?" She asked. He had been the one who had to go to therapy to deal with the damage after their mum. He can't have found it easy to hear what Elias said about her either.

BS JH FM MS AH: "That's why you dumped me, right?" Fleur snapped but linked her arm through Gomezs. Whatever happened between the two of them, it would be clear that he would always have her heart. He was so good - perfect, she thought. And she couldn't understand why she decided to keep messing things up. Why couldn't she be the person that he wanted her to be? The person that she wanted to be for him? "I don't want to go home." She muttered, shaking her head. She didn't care where the two of them went, but she did not want to go back to that empty house. Her dad had a show. Her mum was away with her boyfriend. Whichever house she went too, she'd be left alone. And that was the very last thing that she wanted. "Take me wherever you want. Just not home. Please." She didn't even know if she could call the place she grew up a 'home'. She had a privileged upbringing, she was well aware of that, but it was so empty. She found herself being jealous of people like Gomez and, god forbid, Minnie. People who had a little bit of both - a good life but a loving family, too.

BS JH FM MS AH: "I know. I know. But you're not dating one of them now." Milo joked, though it was barely a chuckle that left his lips. He hadn't stopped to think about the fact that Ava was one of them, once upon a time - the girls that teased him and his friends. He had always known that she was too good for him and what Fleur said just seemed to prove to him that they all knew it as well. "I know. That's what I didn't. She can do a much better job than I can." He nodded. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had done something wrong, though. "I just think -" He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. You've listened to me mope enough tonight." He laughed before he turned to see who was left, "Mins! Put some good music on would you?" He smiled at her, finishing up with the cleaning - as best as he could for right now.

EH AG BC AM MA: "You're putting a spin on it that's making it sound horrible, Alba - that is not what happened! I dragged Bridie away from your brother and came right back out to you, as soon as I could. To check that you were okay. You say he's a big boy, but I also know just how upset you'd have been if Bridie had actually hurt him." Aaron thought they all knew that in the mood she had been in, Bridie was very capable of doing so. "No, it's not! Does being your boyfriend mean sticking by your side every single minute? Because I think we both know you'd hate that." He shook his head. He could have the best time with Alba, the most fun - and yet times like this put such a damper on them.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Don't stress about it too much, Bri. It's shit, but... worse has happened." Ava reminded her friend softly, putting out her cigarette and throwing it into the bin they kept out there. They had been through so much more; this one drunken fight, as horrible as it was, would blow over. "I haven't even seen him yet. Had to come in here and make sure my psycho best friend wasn't going to claw poor Aaron's eyes out." She winked up at her best friend, before she got to her feet. "I'm gonna go and see him now." It hit her then that maybe Milo should've been the first one she went to... but surely he'd understand why she'd had to go to Bridie? The two of them had basically dragged each other through the past couple of years. In times of crisis, they'd never leave each other alone.

EH AG BC AM MA: Gomez felt a hit of sadness as Fleur linked her arm through his; he missed that feeling, he missed being with her - he knew tonight should be a reminder of why he wasn't, though. "That's fine... We can drive somewhere, get some food? Or we could go back to my house?" He suggested, shrugging his shoulders. "My parents will be in bed by now." He knew Fleur probably wouldn't want to see them right now; even so, his parents would never turn her away if she needed somewhere to go, despite what had happened to them. "It's totally up to you, Fleur." He shrugged his shoulders. He hoped they'd be able to talk about what happened whenever they got where they were going to, but he wasn't about to push right now. He didn't want to make the situation worse.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Hey, but I did! You don't think Alba said stuff about us, to fit in? It's just - as long as you don't think she would say that now, as long as you know she'd have your back... I don't know how much all that stuff matters." Barney shook his head. People changed, he thought - and people did things for a multitude of reasons. "That is true... I would hate to see you getting flattened by Fleur in an argument." He chuckled, nudging his friend jokingly. He hated seeing Milo like this, so down and worried - he wanted his happy friend back and he wondered if this was just a blip, or this was because of his relationship with Ava. "Are you happy with her, Miles?" He asked suddenly, looking at his friend with a curious expression. "I'm not insinuating anything, I'm just... asking." He shrugged his shoulders.

BS JH FM MS AH: "Oh, right. Because that's me, isn't it? I make something out of nothing? Do you think i'm an idiot, Aaron?!" Alba snapped at him. She was being harsher than she needed, she knew that. And she also knew that she wasn't angry with him. Not really. He was just there, someone for her to take her anger out on. No-one else had given her even a seconds of attention to get it out, after all. "I didn't say that! When did I say that!" She called back, "But it's a little fucking different when it's your ex girlfriend, Aaron! How would you have liked it if I was hanging round Barney all night!?"

BS JH FM MS AH: Bridie nodded her head, "You're probably right." She muttered. She wondered if there was a part of Elias that truly believed what he said to her - that she was pathetic to keep come crawling back to him. Should she try and not let it happen this time? Already she could feel herself thawing. She didn't want too. A life without Elias just didn't seem worth it to Bridie. She didn't see how bad that was. "Nah. I wouldn't claw Aarons eyes out. I actually like him." She laughed. She was well aware that she had messed that situation up. Aaron was a good guy and Bridie had managed to destroy that one. If she had any sense, she would've clung to him as hard as she could. "I'll come back out with you." Bridie nodded as she finished her cigarette as well.

BS JH FM MS AH: As she got into the car, Fleur felt defeated. She didn't know why she kept doing this shit. She so wanted to change. She really tried - even if it didn't look like it. But she just couldn't make it stick. Which meant that Gomez would never want her again. And the very thought managed to crack her heart that little bit more. "I don't want to decide, Gomez. Please will you just pick?" She asked, as she glanced over to the other. He really was the best person. She didn't know why he was there. She wasn't his responsibility anymore. He didn't have to come and rescue her. In fact, he had made it pretty clear that he didn't want to be that person for her anymore. And yet here he was. She couldn't wrap her head around it, it was too confusing. "Do you have any water?"

BS JH FM MS AH: "I keep forgetting you and Alba dated." Milo joked. He obviously didn't mean it. It hadn't been that long ago. But if there were two people who Milo just didn't understand being together, it was the two of them. Not that he had said anything. If Barney was happy, then Milo was too. But he had been glad to have his friend back when things ended between them. "Don't. She terrifies me. I still haven't gotten over when she broke one of my toy cars when we were kids because I wouldn't let her have it." He smiled as he looked at Barney. If there was one person who could make him feel a little better, it was going to be him. Though at the others question, it stumped him for a moment. It shouldn't have stumped him. "Of course I am. Look at her. She's amazing. Of course I'm happy." He nodded.

EH AG BC AM MA: "No! I have literally said none of those things, Alba." Aaron was trying his best not to rise to what Alba was saying, but he could feel himself getting annoyed - he felt like she'd already made up her mind to be annoyed at him, so nothing he could say or do would change that. "And I just said that I'm sorry if that upset you, but that's clearly something we need to have a conversation about. I'm happy for us to set boundaries, I'm happy to know what you are and aren't comfortable with but I don't think it's fair that you're getting mad at me for something I didn't even realise I was doing!" He turned away for a second, trying to collect himself - he really didn't want to get angry with her. She had enough of that at home. "I would trust you and I would trust that it was nothing to be worried about. If I didn't like it, I'd bring it up to you - but not like this, Al. You can't make me feel like a shit boyfriend because you don't like that I was comforting a friend, who also happens to be an ex." He sighed.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Usually am." Ava grinned, shrugging her shoulders. She was just glad that Bridie had calmed down, that they were going to be able to salvage the night - she hated seeing her best friend that way, even though it happened so rarely. "I thought this, but I just wanted to make sure. He's too good-looking not to have any eyes." She laughed, picking up her drink from the kitchen side as they moved back into the room. She was glad to see that Fleur had gone, although she had no idea who had actually gotten her to leave. She reached and squeezed Bridie's hand gently, before she made her way over to Milo. Just seeing his face made her feel happy, and calm; like everything would be okay. "Hey." She smiled, as she reached him. "Wanna go for a chat?" She gestured outside - everybody in the room would be on high alert for any further gossip, she knew that and she wanted to check that he was actually okay. What Elias had said was shitty.

EH AG BC AM MA: The worst part was, Gomez really did believe Fleur had it in her to change - not entirely, he would never want that; he loved how fiery she could be, how she would always stand up for herself and anybody else she loved. He loved that she would always speak up for what was right and would never, ever suffer fools. What he didn't like, was the way she could be when her walls went up, when she got defensive; how she could say things just to hurt people, to deflect from how she was feeling. And he really believed she could change that... But she hadn't. It was so difficult to be truly in love with somebody, but to know they weren't going to do the thing you needed them to, so that you could be together. "We'll go for a drive, then." He smiled, taking the route up to a place they had gone quite often when they were together. It was a high up spot, so you could sit on a bench and see so far out - he'd always found it fascinating. He had blankets in the boot, so he knew they wouldn't get too cold. "Oh yeah, sorry - I grabbed a bottle on my way out." He picked up the bottle of water he had in the cup holder and passed it to Fleur.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Lucky you." Barney chuckled, although he was mostly joking - he'd really enjoyed his time with Alba, for the most part. They'd learned a lot about each other, they'd had fun... But he already knew he'd never be able to go back there. They weren't compatible, not long term. It didn't mean he didn't care about her, though - or think she was amazing. "Yeah, she was so scary when she was a kid - I mean, she still is now, but not as much." He laughed, shaking his head. "I know, she's beautiful, but --" Barney cut himself off as Ava came over, giving the girl a smile. He really liked her, he just wanted her to be right for Milo - she was beautiful, but that wasn't really the question he'd asked. He only wanted his friend to be happy.

BS JH FM MS AH: The more Aaron was trying not to fight with her, the more annoyed Alba was getting. "Do you even care?" She snapped at him. Because that was the crux of the matter. She had grown up in a household where arguing meant that they cared about one another. His refusal to argue with her only convinced her of what she was thinking even more - he didn't care about her. Why would he? No-one else did. At least that was what she thought. "Will you just talk like a real fucking person for two bloody seconds? You are infuriating!" THe logical part of her knew that he was being reasonable, he was being pretty perfect. He was trying to talk to her. But she just couldn't seem to stop herself. "A friend? Why the fuck would you be friends with her? She cheated on you, Aaron!"

BS JH FM MS AH: Bridie rolled her eyes at Avas grin but she was only joking with the other woman. She was used to losing control. Shouting and arguing was her second nature. But things had gone too far this time. And if it was anyone but Ava and Aaron who had seen her this way, she would probably get pretty pissed off. "Very, very true." Bridie laughed. Though as she and Ava walked back into the room and she could see the damage that Elias had done to her place, there was a part of her that thought she had maybe made the wrong choice. But instead of telling everyone to leave, she headed over to where Barney was on his own. "Scale of one to ten - how much do you hate me after that drama?" She joked with him. Barney - and Gomez - felt like home to her. They had been her friends for as long as she could remember it. She felt safe with them.

BS JH FM MS AH: "Oh shut up. You don't regret that relationship." Milo chuckled with his friend. He had never expected Barney and Alba together and whilst it was so clear that they weren't right for one another, Milo thought that it was obvious they had cared for each other. He wondered what might've happened. "She was ruthless." He laughed. The last thing he had ever wanted to do as a child, was to cross Fleur. He hadn't expected to hear Avas voice but he quickly looked up at her. "Yeah. Yes. Of course." Milo nodded. He wasn't going to tell her to wait. So he quickly left the room, waiting for her to follow after him. He wasn't really sure what she was going to do, though. What was there to say? His sister and Elias had, had a fight. What difference was there than every other day?

BS JH FM MS AH: There was a part of Fleur which wished that she and Gomez could leave London. Maybe if they got to have a fresh start, they could make it work. But she knew that she couldn't go. She loved her job too much. And Gomez loved his family too much to be too far away. She didn't see how things between them would work while they were here. Gomez had left her and he wasn't coming back. She was sure about that. "Alright." Fleur nodded, already knowing where he was going to take her - where they had always gone together. "Thanks." She sighed as she took the bottle of water from him.

EH AG BC AM MA: "What? How could you even ask me that?" Aaron asked, shaking his head in disbelief. He knew he was fighting a losing battle here - whatever he said wouldn't be right, but he wasn't going to start arguing with Alba just because it was what she wanted. That wasn't his style, not at all. "If you're asking me to argue back with you, Alba, then I'm not going to. I'm not going to have an argument with you when I don't think I've done anything wrong, when there's literally no reason to be arguing at all." He sighed. His patience was definitely wearing thin, but having an argument in front of all of these people was absolutely not his style. "That -- that's not your business, Alba! I don't feel like I need to explain any of that." He didn't think Alba got to dictate why he was friends with somebody; he'd managed to forgive Bridie, he was glad they still had a friendship. It wasn't as though they hung out all the time, or even spoke that much - but he didn't like not getting on with people.

EH AG BC AM MA: Ava smiled as Milo agreed, following him into the kitchen she'd just been in with Bridie. Being with Milo was such a different experience for her; she felt like she was having to learn how to be in a relationship all over again, because everything was so different to when she'd been with Jude. "I just -- wanted you check you were okay? Everything got so fucked up out there, Elias shouldn't have said any of those things about your mum... and Fleur was being a dick and -- it was a lot." She sighed, shrugging her shoulders. "And don't just tell me you're fine because it's what you always do, only say it if it's true." She laughed softly, reaching up to touch his face. She knew how much all of the Saracens had struggled with Annabelle's death, but Milo was always trying to be there for everybody else.

EH AG BC AM MA: "You're right, I don't." Barney smiled, shaking his head. There were definitely parts of his relationship with Alba that hadn't been great, but he still thought she was an incredible person. He had been lucky to be with her for that time. He turned as Milo and Ava walked away, smiling as he saw Bridie heading towards him. He was happy to see her looking a little calmer - and even more happy that Gomez had managed to get Fleur to leave. "Oh, a strong eleven. Edging towards a twelve." He grinned, shaking his head. "No, I'm kidding - I could never hate you. You know that." He smiled. "How are you doing, Bri? You okay with everybody staying?" He asked, shrugging his shoulders. He would absolutely clear out if she wasn't, but he assumed that her coming back out to rejoin was basically her saying that she was okay continuing the party.

EH AG BC AM MA: Gomez sometimes thought that maybe if the two of them were older, if they'd had more time to become the people they were supposed to - then they'd be able to make it work. But the thought of having to wait until then to be able to be with Fleur really hurt him; he knew they couldn't go through life just waiting for one another. They drove in silence for a while, but it didn't feel awkward; it was nice just getting to be around Fleur for a little while. It didn't take them long to get there, though and Gomez pulled up, looking over to the blonde. "Wanna get out and sit over there? I have blankets and stuff in the back." He told her quietly. He would do whatever Fleur wanted, but he thought she could probably use a bit of fresh air.

BS JH FM MS AH: "You're so god damn condescending!" Alba rolled her eyes. She was a little sick of the way that he was talking to her, like she was being unreasonable and he was just fine. Like he hadn't done anything to upset her. "Of course. I've made it all up. How did I not know that?" She rolled her eyes. But as he continued, she just got more annoyed. "Oh, whatever Aaron!" Alba snapped, rolling her eyes, again. She didn't wait for him to say anything else before she turned around to leave. She wasn't quite as dramatic as her brother but she did slam the door on the way out.

BS JH FM MS AH: At Avas question, though, Milo immediately wanted to tell her that he was fine. He didn't want to think about what had been said. He didn't want to think about how it actually had made him feel. If he was really honest, he didn't want to delve into all of that, even with Ava. That probably wasn't fair but it was absolutely how he felt. "It was a lot.." Milo nodded. "But I just don't see the point in dwelling on it. It's not like Elias has ever been very nice." He shrugged. He should have expected something like that from someone like him. He was surprised that it had taken him this long, if he was completely honest. "It's - it's rubbish. I didn't like it but i'll be fine."

BS JH FM MS AH: Bridie rolled her eyes, a fond smile coming to her lips as Barney spoke. No matter what, he was always going to be like family to her. She could be a horrible, terrible person but to Barney - and a select few others - she never would. "Right. I think that might be the most you've ever hated anyone." She chuckled as she rested her head against his arm, too short to reach his shoulder. "That's more like it." Bridie chuckled. He had seen her at her very worst points and he was still her friend. She knew that she was lucky to have people like him in her life. "I'm good. I wouldn't be out here if I wasn't okay with it." She shrugged. "Where'd queen bitch go?" She had half expected to see Fleur there still when they all came out but was relieved that she'd already gone.

BS JH FM MS AH: There was no-one else that Fleur could stand silence around but with Gomez, it didn't feel bad. She didn't feel the need to have to fill it all. She was just glad that the two of them were still about to be like that. Even after everything, he was her safest place. Which made it sting even more that he didn't want her. She glanced to where he pointed before she nodded quickly. "Yeah, that sounds good." Fleur said, a small smile on her face. She kept the bottle of water in one hand, her phone in the other and struggled out of the car. She really wished that she hadn't had the last bit to drink. It had certainly not helped anything.

EH AG BC AM MA: Aaron didn't even bother to respond this time - he knew there was no point and everything he was saying just seemed to be making Alba angrier. He didn't know if he could actually do this or not - he liked her so much, but he didn't think relationships were supposed to be like this when you were only nineteen years old. He sighed as she walked away from him, nodding his head; it was what he'd assumed would happen and to be honest, he was pretty grateful - it meant the argument was over. He turned and poured himself another drink, not wanting to leave until he knew how Alba was going to get home. He didn't want her trying to walk home on her own.

BS JH FM MS AH joined the chat

EH AG BC AM MA: Ava knew that Milo's instinct was just to tell everybody that he was fine, because he had spent so long being fine for everybody; but sometimes she wished he would just let it all out, let her in. "You've got a point there." She sighed, nodding her head. "No, I know. It was shit. But -- all that stuff Fleur said.. you know that's not me anymore, right? I was an idiot back then. A sixteen year old idiot who wanted to fit in." She hated that she'd ever been like that, but she hoped Milo understood that she had grown so much since then.

EH AG BC AM MA: Barney chuckled as Bridie's head went against his arm, moving so that he could wrap his arm around her; she felt like as much as a sister to him as Maggie did, if he was honest. "You know I've never hated anybody." He grinned, shaking his head. He didn't think he had it in him to hate anybody. "She... We called Gomez." He admitted guiltily. He didn't think Bridie would like that Gomez had had to come to Fleur's rescue, but it was the only way she would have left. "We didn't think she'd go otherwise and... something told me you didn't want her here when you came out." He admitted.

EH AG BC AM MA: As they parked up, Gomez ran round to the boot and got out the blankets, before moving over to Fleur's side and holding out his hand to help steady her. He thought the fresh air would definitely help with how drunk she was - he wasn't surprised a situation had happened if she was in this sort of state. He led her over to the bench and sat beside her, handing her a blanket. He loved it up here, it was such a peaceful spot - he still came on his own sometimes. "So what happened, Fleur?" He asked softly, turning to look at the other.

BS JH FM MS AH: Milo thought of himself like an open book. He let people in, they knew how he thought, what he felt. But when it came to the really tricky things, he struggled. It was why he had been so bad after Annabelle. He hadn't known how to process all of that. And, even now, Milo struggled to know what to do with his emotions. It was easier, for him at least, to paper over the cracks. "Yeah, I know." He nodded. "It's - I mean, it's not nice to hear but I get it." He smiled. Like he'd told Barney, he wasn't stupid. Fleur took the mick out of all of them. He just hated that Ava had been one of those girls back then too. "I just - I forget. That you were one of them."

BS JH FM MS AH: "Still think that you need to work on that." Bridie laughed. She couldn't understand how Barney could be so chill with some people. She often wished that she was a little bit more like him. She wished she could let things go as easily as he seemed too. She sighed and rolled her eyes, though, as Barney mentioned Gomez had come to get Fleur. "I mean, it's definitely good that she's not here still but..." She shook her head. "I don't get how many times Gomez needs to tell her that he's done before we all listen to him." Though she thought that it proved Milo and Barneys point that Gomez had come to get her. "We should be celebrating that the witch is dead, not enabling him."

BS JH FM MS AH: Fleur was incredibly grateful for Gomezs support as he led the two of them to the benches. It would've taken her a lot longer to get there by herself. She gave a content sigh as she looked across the city. She felt at peace there, looking across the city that she loved so much. She could almost forget that the two of them weren't together, that she had kissed someone else. As his question, though, the memories of that evening came flooding back. Fleur looked to her hands on her lap. She couldn't look at him as she said it. "I kissed Elias. And all hell broke loose." She still thought it was ridiculous. They were grown ups. They could kiss whoever they wanted. But she knew that she had messed up. Everyone knew Bridie and Elias' history. She had known it would cause drama. That was what she wanted to do. Why was she like this?

EH AG BC AM MA: "I know. I do too." Ava admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "It's like I don't even know who that person was - I don't think I knew then, either." She rolled her eyes. She had been such a mess - she still was, but maybe not quite as much. So stuck between wanting to be the perfect girl everybody thought she was, and feeling so trapped in it at the same time. "But I hate that I was ever like that - especially to you." She told him, shaking her head. "It was shitty - and I'm sorry." Milo was such a good person, it made Ava aware of the fact that she hadn't been - and sometimes still wasn't, but she wasn't going to let him walk around thinking that she thought the way she'd been was acceptable. She had been the kind of girl she'd hate now.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Maybe you can give me some lessons." Barney laughed, shrugging his shoulders. His parents were essentially the most chilled out people on earth, so it wasn't hard for him to follow their lead - both of them were big on letting things go, on letting people do as they wanted and knowing that you couldn't change that. "Do you think he is done with her, though?" He asked curiously. "I mean, they've been best friends since we were all kids and we all knew he was in love with her the entire time... Do you think that just goes away?" He raised an eyebrow. He wasn't so sure. He didn't know if Gomez would ever be truly done. "Well, nobody sang the song yet. Maybe that's why." He joked, chuckling quietly. "I didn't know how else we were going to get her to leave, though - not without calling Tommy. Or maybe Emilie, and then Gomez would've known anyway."

EH AG BC AM MA: As Fleur spoke about kissing Elias, Gomez felt his heart sink - it wasn't fair, he knew that. Fleur could kiss whoever she wanted, he had been the one to end their relationship and yet that didn't stop it from hurting. He hated the thought of her being with anybody but him; which was completely unrealistic, because to him she was the most beautiful girl in the world. Anybody would be stupid not to want her. "I'll bet that didn't go down very well with Bridie..." He sighed, raising an eyebrow. He didn't want to let on to Fleur how much it hurt him; he wanted her to be able to live her life, after all.

BS JH FM MS AH: Milo chuckled, "I don't think anyone knows who they are at that age. It's all a learning curve, right?" He raised an eyebrow. He was pretty sure of himself - but only because of his dad. His dad had always been his role model and Milo had wanted to be just like him, his entire life. It was when he was a teenager that he really started to become his father ... and he loved it. Milo shook his head quickly as Ava apologised, "It was a long time ago. You don't have to apologise for that." He muttered. And he did mean it. He didn't want her to feel like she had to make up for something that she had done when she was a kid. He didn't think that it would be very fair of him to hold that one against her, after all.

BS JH FM MS AH: "I can absolutely give you some lessons. I have enough practice after all, right?" Bridie laughed. There were very few people that she felt like she could let all walls down with. Even with Ava, there was still a little something there. She didn't have a single secret with her best friend but there was that childlike nature she hid from Ava, that she could let free when she was with Barney or Gomez. It felt like she could take in a deep breath when it was just her and them. "I don't think i'm the right person to ask, do you?" She scoffed. "If it could, don't you think i'd be done with him?" She questioned, nodding to the hole in the wall. She wanted to be done with him. She wanted all of the dramatics to be over. But she knew that it wouldn't be. No matter how long they were annoyed with one another, they always came back together. "Right okay. But next time you gotta be Glinda, okay?" She laughed. "You're probably right. I just fucking hate that he has to clean her messes all the damn time."

BS JH FM MS AH: Fleur couldn't look at Gomez as he took in what she had done. They weren't together. She had no reason to feel guilty ... and yet here she was, feeling guilty. And she knew why. She was in love with him. She didn't think that, that feeling would ever go away. How do people get over their first loves? It just seemed like such a foreign concept to her. "Exactly." Fleur nodded. "Poured her drink over us ... to start." She rolled her eyes. She was pissed off that the other had ruined her dress but she knew that she would've done that - and maybe worse - if that had been Gomez kissing someone else. "And then they really got into it. Elias brought up Annabelle." She looked up at Gomez then. She knew how upset the other was about all that had happened with her. "And I got into an argument with Ava so...Great night. I'd call it a success."

EH AG BC AM MA: "God, mine was more like a learning fucking rollercoaster." Ava laughed, rolling her eyes. Sure, she had been a classic bitch for a while back there - and then she'd gotten pregnant with her boyfriends best friend and been the subject of pretty much every bit of gossip around their college, she'd learned exactly what it had been like to be the brunt of the joke. "Just 'cause it was a long time ago, doesn't mean it feels nice to have Morley shouting her mouth off about it." She shrugged her shoulders. "There's nothing else, right? Nothing else on your mind?" She raised an eyebrow. She wanted them to be able to get back to having fun, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something Milo was holding back from her.

EH AG BC AM MA: "This is my thinking. I'd be learning from the expert." Barney grinned, pulling a goofy face at Bridie. "Yeah, I get that... But that's exactly what I mean. Even if he knows his life would be one hundred percent easier if he could let go of her, it doesn't mean he can." He sighed. He thought Gomez was always going to love Fleur, if he was honest. "Yeah yeah, I'll take my turn - but you're not allowed to pull faces when I hit those high notes by whatever means necessary." He laughed. "I know... I do too. But then, I dunno - isn't that kind of what you're supposed to do for the people you love?" He raised an eyebrow. He knew that he'd do that for any of his friends, or his family.

EH AG BC AM MA: "Ah, that explains the stain on the dress - I did wonder." Gomez smiled softly, nodding his head. He hoped Bridie was okay, but he knew there were plenty of people still at the party who would be taking care of her. He cleared his throat at the mention of Annabelle - it was something he hadn't managed to unpack yet, something he'd held off to be able to be there for his friends... but he felt so much sadness at the fact she was gone. "He shouldn't have done that. That -- it's... unforgivable." He sighed. Unfortunately though, he knew that it wouldn't be - for Bridie, at least. "You and Ava will be fine. You always are." He reminded her, reaching out to squeeze her leg gently. "If I'm honest, I think the whole thing will blow over. Worse things have happened."

BS JH FM MS AH: "Yeah, I know." Milo joked. It had been hard, watching Ava and Bridie go through their teenage years. They had, had to go through so much tubulation and all he had wanted to do was to help them. They had all had their own shit to contend with but it just seemed worse for the two of them. Milo shrugged his shoulders, "She's not as scary as she thinks she is. Barney and I were just saying that she was scarier when we were kids." He laughed, bringing the joke he had, had with his friend. He quickly nodded his head, though, as Ava continued, "Yeah. Everythings good." He smiled. "Did you have anything?" He couldn't bring up how he felt about her and Jude, not now. It felt like he would be rubbing salt into the wound.

BS JH FM MS AH: "You absolutely would." Bridie laughed. She nudged Barney as he pulled the face at her. These days, she was even closer to Barney and Gomez than she was her actual family. They were like extra family at this point. "He's already done much better than I have." She shrugged. "He broke up with her and it seems pretty permanent, don't you think?" She hoped so. She wanted Gomez to find someone good, someone worthy. He didn't think that, that was ever going to be Fleur. "Pull faces? Mate, i'll be cheering you on if you can hit them." She joked. It was easy to mess around with Barney. She didn't have to worry, not ever. "It's fucking shit, though." She huffed, shaking her head. "Why can't we all have what your mum and dad do?" She asked. Though Bridie knew she'd be bored in a matter of seconds.

BS JH FM MS AH: Fleur nodded, "Masterpiece from Bridie Saracen." She hugged. She couldn't understand why Bridie had so many people around her and yet she was always made out to be the bad guy. Bridie was always causing problems. Like she was. Yet the other got everything excused. It infuriated her. "It won't be though." She shrugged. She wondered what would happen at rehearsal next. Elias went without saying anything, after all. She had no idea where that left her but she wasn't going to say that. She'd see how things would go. "She's a totally different person now." Fleur sighed before she took a sip of her water. Goosebumps ran along her skin at his touch. God, she missed him. "Probably. Though she's never going to like me, is she?"

#chatzy #gen 2

1 note · View note