The Awakening of a Princess: IC (Nydie & Dman)

[Nydie]

*Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep*

Hand darting out from underneath the blanket, Kira slammed down on the annoying beeping machine on her nightstand, barely casting a glance at the time. Eyes drifting shut, she settled her head back against the pillow, sighing in contentment as she snuggled back into her blanket. Her moment of peace was broken by the sound of a male voice outside her bedroom door. “Ki, you missed your bus. If you want a ride, you have ten minutes to be in my car, or else you’re shit out of luck.”

Golden brown eyes shot open, and like a Jack-in-the-box the girl sprung out of bed, shoving her blankets off her petite form. “Shit! Why didn’t you wake me up sooner, jerk? You know mom will kill me if I’m late again.” There was no response, but she hadn’t really expected one. Her brother wasn’t known for sticking around when she was willing to give him an earful.

Yanking her sweatpants off, Kira hopped her way toward her bathroom where she quickly brushed her teeth with one hand while trying to run a brush through her tangled mop of auburn curls with the other hand. A quick glance in the mirror and Kira groaned loudly. “Holy hell…I look like I belong in the zombie apocalypse!” Wiping the white foamy remains of toothpaste from the corners of her mouth, bent down to scrub her face quickly under the cold water. Popping back up again to examine her reflection, she frowned at the puff of auburn hair that graced her head. Knowing that time was running short, she grabbed a scrunchy from inside her drawer and threw her hair up in an extremely messy bun.

Tossing off the rest of her sleeping attire, she let the clothes fall in a crumbled mess to the floor which eventually she’d end up tripping over in her haste to get ready, but for now her concern was getting dressed. Rummaging through her drawers, she grabbed the most conveniently close articles of clothing and threw them on, lifting a brow in question when she glanced down to examine herself. “Jeans…okay. Hello kitty p.j shirt…got to go!” Ripping the shirt over her head she reached in her drawer to retrieve another, this time making sure to actually look at what she had in her hands before throwing it on. “Plain black tee-shirt. Works for me!” She sang, slamming her drawer closed with her hip.

Stumbling over her discarded tank top, she grumbled to herself about remembering where she threw things and moved to grab her sneakers by her bedroom door. Sliding her feet into them, she did a mental checklist of things she needed in order to make it through her day. ‘Bookbag is down stairs. Homework is in my bookbag. Purse is with my bookbag. Phone is…Phone is in my purse?’ A thoughtful scowl marred her brown, her mind retracing her steps in order to remember where she had left her phone. “It’s under my pillow!” Taking a running dive onto her bed, she reached under her pillow to retrieve her cell, casting a glance at the blank screen. “I’ll check it later. Come on Kira, get on the move.” She chastised herself.

Moving back to her bedroom door, she kicked her abandoned sleepwear out of her path, reminding herself to throw them in the hamper when she got home from school. Casting one final glance around the room, she went over her checklist again but was distracted by the dozens of drawings pinned securely to the corkboard hanging on the wall. The main subject of each image was always the same, but the scenes varied. The female looked like an older version of herself, and Kira had always wondered if that was how she saw herself in the future; she hoped not, because even though the female was constantly surrounded by people, she always had a look and feel of sadness to her.

There was an image of the woman sitting in a room that was richly decorated and full of flowers, plants, and even a small potted tree standing sentinel in the corner of the room. The woman was resting on an old fashioned sofa, a faint smile curling her lips but her eyes were far from happy. Only one thing troubled Kira about the pictures, and that was the strange set of wings that were always present. She didn’t understand why she always drew the wings, but no picture felt complete until they were drawn.

In the next picture the woman was at a long dining table surrounded by a group of men and women dressed formally in tuxedos and gown, the other in the picture were drawn well, but the focus and most of her skill had been used to draw the woman. Her hair was done up in an elegant bun, and a small crown adorned the top of her head. The others in the image looked amused, but the woman looked bored. Her lips were pressed together in a thin line, and she wore a readable expression that she would rather be anywhere else in the world than in the room she was in.

Kira’s favorite drawing was in the center of the corkboard, this one had been taped carefully to the board instead of held with thumbtacks. It was her most recent drawing, and it was the first time that the woman actually looked happy. Her smile was subtle, but her eyes were actually brimming over with happiness. She was sitting in a room that clearly was not her own. The decorations and furnishings looked like a teenage girl’s dream. Kira had the idea that the bedding and curtains were a light shade of pink, she didn’t know how she knew, but something told her that her thoughts were correct. The woman was sitting on the canopied bed, her hands resting at her sides and she was staring into the open air, but she looked at peace and that was what Kira liked about it the most.

Kira smiled at the image, letting her gaze linger for as long as she could. Before she could shut off her bedroom light and close the door, she whispered into the room, directing her words to her drawing. “Have a good day.” It was an everyday occurrence, at least since she had started hanging up her work rather than burying them in a drawer in her desk. The girl found herself talking to the woman in the pictures often. She knew that it was probably insane, but she felt compelled to do it.

“Come on Ki, one minute and I’m rolling. Get your ass down here.” Her brother shouted up to her, causing Kira to slam her bedroom door and charge down the stairs, grabbing her backpack and purse on her way out the front door.

Jogging to her brother’s beat up Cavalier, she yanked the passenger door open and tossed her things onto the floor of the car. Turning her head, she stared up at her brother who was in the process of locking the door up, Kira shouted up to him. “Hurry up, jerk. You rushed me out the door, you should already be in your car waiting.” She smirked when Noah dashed down the porch stairs, flipping her off in the process. “Love you too, big brother. Now come on before I’m late!” She snapped playfully before sliding into the passenger seat of the car and closing the door.

Noah climbed into the car shortly after her, reaching over to tug on her bun. “Nice hairdo. Stick your finger in the socket to wake yourself up?” He teased, flashing her a grin while starting the car up.

“Bite me. Not all of us were gifted with the ability to roll out of bed perfectly groomed.” Kira snapped, her hands straying to her hair to attempt to fix the disaster that was her hair. “I wish I had inherited the perfect hair gene. It’s not fair that you and mom have hair that stays perfectly in place and I’m stuck looking like a troll doll if I don’t spend an hour straightening my mop.”

Noah snickered, turning his head to glance down the driveway in order to back out into the street. “Yeah, well it’s not my fault you got the bottom of the barrel when it comes to genes. Let’s face it kid, not everyone can be a blonde haired, blue eyed dream like me.”

Rolling her eyes, Kira’s gaze traveled to the passenger side window, skimming over the middle class homes that lined her street. It always amazed her how people managed to keep their yards immaculate; hell, even the kid’s bikes and plastic turtle sandboxes seemed perfectly in place. It was annoyingly perfect with not a branch out of place, a blade of grass longer than another or a flower not in bloom. ‘Don’t these people do anything else?’ She questioned, a brow raising in wonder.

“What’s the deal?” Noah’s voice interrupted her thoughts and Kira found herself turning in her seat to face him.

“What’s the deal about what?” She responded, clueless what he was going on about.

“You were late again. Mom came in and turned your light on this morning when your alarm clock went off and you didn’t even budge.” He replied, glancing away from the street to give her a curious glance. “You look tired too. Up all night texting your boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend! He’s just a friend. And no, I was not up all night texting him. I was up finishing a drawing. I didn’t mean to stay up so late, but I couldn’t stop once I got started.” Kira beamed a smile at her brother, her eyes shimmering with pride. “It’s my best one yet No. When you get home tonight I’ll show it to you. I actually got it finished, and I’m glad too. It was worth the loss of sleep.”

“Is it the same woman? Your fairy twin?” He inquired, and Kira was grateful that he had dropped the talk of Mark, the boy in her class who had been harassing her for the past two weeks to go out with him. She had told him no a few times, but now whenever she saw him he would give her the pathetic puppy dog expression and she had been close to caving; at least to avoid getting that look again.

Nodding her head in spite of the fact that he could not see it, Kira chuckled quietly. “She’s not my fairy twin, but yes, it was her again. This one’s different though, she doesn’t look like someone just kicked her puppy.”

The rest of the ride was driven in a comfortable silence, the two siblings each lost in their own thoughts. It wasn’t until the car jerked to a stop that Kira realized that they had arrived at her school, and she bent down to toss her backpack on her shoulder. “Thanks No. I promise I’ll make the bus tomorrow.”

Just as Kira was about to reach for the handle to open the door, Noah stopped her with a touch to her shoulder. “Hey Ki?” He continued when her eyes swung back to meet his. “Think you can help me out by doing the laundry today? I wouldn’t ask but…”

“Don’t worry about it, jerk.” She flashed him a grin. “I owe you, so consider it done.” Pushing the door open, she slide out of her seat and bent into the car to grab her purse. Casting a glance back to her brother, she smiled sweetly. “And No, thanks for the ride.”

Slamming the car door shut, she bent over to wave through the window at him before darting up the stairs that would lead her into her high school. Ignoring the others that were standing around the school’s entrance, Kira walked through the front door and scurried straight to her locker. After a quick glance at her phone to determine the time, she muttered a series of curses and hastily shoved her things into her locker, grabbing her Algebra book out and tossing it into her book bag.

The first bell rang the moment that Kira closed her locker, and the girl was soon weaving and darting between students in a rush to make it to class on time. Her classroom loomed in her view and Kira made a mad dash to the door, sliding inside the classroom one second before the second bell rang.

Her teacher, Mr. Hiens, a gray, bitter looking man, pinned her with a disapproving glare, but Kira only grinned cheerfully in response. “I wasn’t late!” She pointed out, earning herself another narrowing of the old man’s eyes beneath fuzzy caterpillar eyebrows. “Good.” He replied. “Now do you think you can take your seat so we can get started?”

Kira tucked her head down and mumbled a quick apology, scrambling clumsily to her desk in the back of the room. Dropping her purse and backpack onto the floor, she slid behind her desk and prepared herself for a boring forty five minutes of Algebra.

[dman0649]

The whistle of the wind roared in the fairy's ears as he soared through the clouds, his wings rippling with power with every stroke of their feathered flesh; it was nothing short of sheer, unadulterated exhilaration. His clothing rippled in the gale as he dove downward, pressing his fingers through the morning mist and taking in the sweet aroma of tranquility. But even on a stressful day such as this, not a single thought crossed his mind. He shot toward the ground at blinding speed, but the moment before he made contact he buffeted his wings as powerfully as he could manage, saving his life by the skin of his teeth. The environment before him was nothing short of awe-inspiring; tall and strong sycamores dominated the courtyard, and their creamy bark reflected the sunlight into the heavens, creating an illusion of a circular rainbow above what would usually be an extremely crowded hub of activity. Nero adjusted his snowy white tunic slightly, and ran his finger along the gold embroiderment which intertwined with black strips of soft silk; he wore his best clothing for the occasion, and it was important that he made the right impression.

A single woman sat on a stone bench in the middle of the courtyard before him. She wore flowing robes of blazing orange and yellow, and her curly auburn locks were neatly resting beside her. She smiled as he approached, and rose to her feet as Nero stopped before her, sinking onto his right knee and bowing his head in respect. She took his left hand and squeezed his fingers, then kissed the soft fabric of his glove before motioning him to rise to his feet. He obliged quickly, and gave her a polite smile before nervously twitching one of his wings. They stood in silence for a moment, the woman's eyes glided up and down his form as if critiquing it for error, then she spoke.

"Nero... " She began, a soft smile gracing her features once further. "It is such a pleasure to see you again. Would you like to sit?" Her voice was soft and melodious; it struck Nero's ears and wafted through his brain like the lyrical strum of a harp. He politely shook his head, and listened intently as she continued to speak.
"You have served this kingdom well, and to your fullest ability--- for a man of your stature, you have done great things for your family, and it's name. You have guarded myself, and my subjects with utmost passion, and for that I must thank you graciously. But I must morosely relieve you of your duties as a member of my guard." Nero's eyes widened in shock as his queen's words registered in his brain, and he frantically ran his fingers through his hair before attempting to speak. She cut him off abruptly with a lift of her hand, and he bit his lip for the time being; she must have just reason for such a rash decision.

"You see... " She started, bringing a finger to her lips in pensieve thought. "I have need of your abilities elsewhere. I trust that your silence in this matter is assured." The guardsman lifted his brow in curiosity, and nodded as his matriarch continued to speak.
"Eighteen years ago, my child came fourth from my body deceased. That is, she was stillborn as far as the public knows. In reality, I hid her away amongst the humans; sealing off her abilities with a powerful enchantment until the eve of her eighteenth year. She knows not of what she is, or whom she serves-- as far as my true heir is concerned, she is a mere human. But the day is coming in which she will realize her full potential, and I require someone of utmost loyalty to guide her in the ways of the fey-- someone who must teach her of who she is, and of her heritage. She must become one with her gifts; one with her blood. I thought of many a man who I could call her guardian, but none showed potential to keep a secret as dire as this. Though after glancing over your achievements, and reflecting on your undoubtable purity and honor... I knew that you were the one who would protect my daughter."

*tap... Tap... Tap... *

"Mr. Baxter, I believe you are late for first period." A short, pudgy ball of a woman snapped her nail against Nero's locker, forcing him out of his reverry and nearly giving him a heart attack. She had a fuzzy mess of forest-fire hair adorning her cranium, and wore what the fairy assumed was a permanent scowl. He sighed deeply, forced a smile, and waved her away dismissively.
"My apologies, Mrs. Errin, I was daydreaming. My tardiness won't be repetitive, I swear on that." His voice was a strong tenor, a trait he inherited from his father. The woman only scowled further, and angled a crooked finger at a room at the edge of the hall. "We'll see about that, Zane. Now, gather your things and be off, you're already five minutes late. Your teacher will not be happy with a new student making such a horrid impression." On that note, Nero grabbed a handful of books and set off toward his first period.

"Snooty bitch... " He thought dismissively as he approached the door, giving it three solid knocks for good measure. A man at the front of the room seemed to falter for a moment, then continued to speak to the miriad of teenagers attempting to stay awake. Nero furrowed his brow slightly, then knocked again, gaining the caterpillar of a man's attention once further. He glanced at the door, then angled his brow angrily before waving Nero away. "Oh, really?" The fairy thought, setting his jaw in determination. "I'll give that son of a bitch something to be pissed about." He focused his attention on an expensive looking lamp near the side of a door, and nudged it off of the table with his telekinesis. He knocked three more times (much harder, mind you) and the lamp hit the ground with a terrible crash as the last knock rebounded through the classroom. The now angry looking teacher stormed over to the door, and opened it furiously before fixing Nero with his angriest gaze. The fairy simply smiled politely in response to the man's gaze, and cut him off mid sentence as the man began to speak.
"WHO IN THE H-"
"My name is Zane Baxter, sir. I'll be the newest student in your class today. My apologies for your lamp, I don't think it was balancing on the table very well.. I'll pay for it, if you'd like."

The teacher drove his face into his palm forcefully, then gave the simplest response that he could muster.
"You're late, Mr. Baxter. It seems as though you have a good bit in common with Ms. Madison, so why don't you take a seat next to her?" The furry man angled his fat index finger toward forementioned girl's desk, and Nero's eyes fell upon her as he began to stride toward the desk behind her. Her auburn locks were messily arranged into a bun, and a simple black shirt hung on her form above a pair of deep blue denim pants; the style of this society was so.. Strange. It would definitely take some getting used to. But what Nero did notice was her face-- golden brown irises twinkled at him as he walked past her, and her hair was the exact color of his matriarch's. Thank the gods that fairies were so inginuitive when it came to magical means of intervention with humans. The fact that he shared a class with her this early in the day was unexplainable by any other means. "I suppose I should introduce myself... " He thought blearily, sighing as he cracked his book open to the page written on the puke-green board before him.

"Zane." He said simply and quietly, ignoring the glare the teacher fixed him with. "Yourself?"

[Nydie]

Kira’s eyes swung to their corners, casting a sidelong glance at the boy who had been forced into her domain. Her cheeks were stained light pink with an embarrassed blush from being called out by the walking fossil in the front of the room, but her lips were curled into a satisfied smirk. “But sir, I wasn’t late today.” She chimed in smugly, earning her the same disapproving glare from before, but the moment that his attention switched to the boy beside her, she muttered quietly under her breath. “Unless you weren’t able to tell with those bushes you call eyebrows blocking your view.”

When the fossil of a teacher turned around to begin writing on the board and going over the explanation of trinomials and how to solve them, Kira leaned in her seat toward the new kid beside her. “Kira.” She whispered quietly, her eyes remaining locked on her teacher in case he decided to turn around to spy on the class. “Or as the old man refers to me, Miss Madison. I think he’s going senile and forgot what my first name is to be honest.”

Straightening in her seat, Kira flipped open her notebook and shuffled through the pages, glancing over them until she came across a blank page. With her eyes remaining on the board, she brought her pencil to the blank page and began to draw; it wasn’t one of her usual drawings, she hadn’t had the urge to do one of those since she had finished the one last night, but it was her usual subject. Even without the urge, Kira could draw the woman from memory.

Whispering to her neighbor again, Kira glanced down at the marks she had started to make on her paper and then curiously over to him. Her eyes darted forward to her notebook once again and she began to speak. “I guess no one warned you about old man Hiens? He likes giving out detention, so I’d try to watch it if I were you.” She whispered quietly, taking great pains to avoid drawing the attention of her grouchy teacher. “And if you have your phone on you, I’d keep it on silent. If he even sees it in your hand he’ll snatch it for the entire week.” Her brow creased as the corners of her lips dipped into a frown. “I should know. I just got mine back on Friday.”

Kira thought she should warn the kid, at least for this class. The teacher was a stickler for rules and he had a three page list he had given each and every student at the start of the year full of them. It was her good deed for the day and feeling like she had fulfilled her quota of good deeds for the day she focused on her drawing. She wasn’t trying to be rude to Zane, but if she continued to talk she’d end up getting another day of detention and at the moment she was already walking a thin line between freedom and being grounded for a week.

Still, that could not prevent her from stealing a glance at her new neighbor, her brow creasing into a thoughtful expression when she finally took in his appearance. There was a strange feeling that came over her when she finally allowed herself to look at him, something she had never quite experienced and could not name. It almost felt like déjà vu, but she wasn’t sure if that was possible to experience when it came to people. Kira could have sworn that she knew the boy, but couldn’t think for the life of her how or where she had met him. Or maybe it was something else, she honestly had no clue. She had never experienced anything like it before and it was both perplexing and annoying.

Realizing that she had been staring, Kira’s cheeks reddened and she turned her head to focus back on her drawing. Pressing her pencil furiously over the page she continued to draw her mystery woman’s wings, her thoughts circling over the strange feeling she got from the boy beside her. She thought that she was just being silly and over analyzing things; after all it had been a long morning and she often struck with the weirdest mood after doing one of her drawings. It was easy to pass off the strange sense of knowing as a side effect from her late night drawing session, but Kira for some reason could not believe that was the reason.

Golden eyes lowered to scan her drawing, and Kira gasped in surprise when the picture was nearly complete. Her hands and mind had been running wild with only her hand actually coming up with something conclusive.

Pulling the notebook away, she examined her drawing more thoroughly. She had missed a few details, a freckle or two on the woman’s cheeks, and the small little crease in her brow right between her eyes, but other than that Kira would have called it finished. ‘Good thing too, because the bell should be ringing in a few minutes.’ She thought as she lowered her notebook back down to her desk.

Without a thought, Kira glanced back over to Zane, her head inclining slightly to the side as she examined him the same way that she examined her drawings. She concluded that she would not make any further judgments until more time had passed, but in the meantime she would watch the situation carefully.

Pulled from her thoughts by her teacher’s command to the class to pack up their things and get ready to head to their next class, Kira flipped her notebook closed and slid it carefully into her backpack. Turning in her seat to face Zane, she flashed him a smile. “Welcome to Falls Creek High.” She said cheerfully as she rose to her feet and hefted her backpack and purse onto her shoulder. “And I wouldn’t worry too much, if this is your first class, it can only get better from here.”

[dman0649]

It took Nero about fifteen seconds to realize that human schools weren't nearly as interesting as those in the domain of the fey. Luckily for him, all of the information presented throughout his classes was pre-inserted into his subconscious by a multitude of intellectual enchanters. From algebra to british literature, Nero knew everything a senior at Falls Creek high should. Though it was needless to say that Nero wouldn't be paying a single bit of attention to any of the teachers within this gods forsaken establishment. No wonder humanity was so troubled-- with places of learning resembling prisons, children had to feel chained down and stressed beyond belief for hours on end. As much as the fairy wanted to spread his wings and feel the wind on his face, he'd have to suck it up and roll with the punches as they came. The young woman before him was his priority, after all. He'd just have to figure out how to nudge her into something she couldn't possibly believe was true.

"Kira." The girl stated quietly, her twinkling golden globes focused on the teacher's back. "Or as the old man refers to me, Miss Madison. I think he's going senile and forgot what my first name is to be honest." The corners of Nero's lips tugged upward slightly as the light jest fell upon his ears, and he listened intently as Kira explained a few rules of the class to him. He supposed it would be important to blend in as well as he possibly could, so he hung on every detail. She didn't say much after that; her attention fell to a piece of paper in front of her, and her face morphed into one of perplexed concentration as the strokes of her pencil quickened. She shifted her attention to him for a moment, and they locked eyes for the briefest of moments. He lifted an eyebrow as she turned a deep shade of scarlet, then let out a soft chuckle before glancing at her drawing. The fairy's eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he realized what she was illustrating; a portrait of her... Actual mother? How in the name of the almighty did she know who she was? She had nearly every detail down to a science, the freckles on her cheeks, the crease in her brow, even her wings. Nero bit down on his tongue softly as she finished her drawing, and acted as if he hadn't a clue what she was doing. He wanted with all of his being to address it, to tell her that the woman she drew was her mother, but Kira's most likely reaction wouldn't be favorable. She'd laugh in his face, think he was a blasphemous oaf, and go on her merry way. So for the time being, he'd have to play possum.

"Two minutes until the bell, gather your things." Mr. Hiens chirped autonomously, dropping his chalk in the board's tray before taking a seat at his desk. He focused his attention on the computer moniter on his desk, and began typing away as if his life depended on it. Before Nero could so much as sigh in relief, Kira spun around in her desk and graced him with a polite smile. She welcomed him to Falls Creek, then rose to her feet and began to walk out of the room. The fairy gathered his own belongings, and fell in step next to her. "I seriously hope so. " He started, staring down the jam packed hallways before him. "Because as much as I love chemistry, my least favorite person in this building's the teacher. Mrs. Erran, is it?" His tone sunk to one of total irritation as the woman's name danced on his tongue, and a sheepish look crossed his features as he realized he had no idea where he was going. "Hey, I don't mean to be a bother... But do you mind helping me to the chemistry room? Nobody cared to give me the tour around the place." His cheeks reddened a bit as he spoke for a simple reason; he was so unfamiliar with human schools, that he had no idea how to address an authority figure and ask for assistance. He didn't know if they were as friendly as Kira was, or as bitter as Hiens could be. But before Kira had time to respond, another student approached her with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"Kira, just the beautiful lady I was looking for!" He beamed, glancing at Nero and wrinkling his nose slightly. "Is this the reason you've been turning me down? He looks like he made his clothes out of a racing flag." Nero narrowed his eyes at the interloper before glancing down at his clothes. A black and white checkered zip up hoodie clung to his arms and shoulders, and it was unzipped; the shirt underneath was black with the words, "Red Hot Chili Peppers" emblazened on the chest in bold white capital letters. A similar colored checkered bandana hung out of his back left pocket, and his jeans were as black as his shirt. The teen did have a point-- maybe he should've been a little less color coordinated for his first day on the job. He cleared his throat after the boy finished his tyraid, and introduced himself.
"This racing flag has a name, you know. I'm glad you care to know what it is. I'm Zane, and yourself?" He queried as his emerald eyes softened slightly.

"I'm busy." The boy answered in a dismissive tone, lightly pushing Nero away from Kira in an attempt to grab the girl's attention further. The symbol on Nero's arm began to burn itself onto his skin, but the fairy inhaled deeply, slowly allowing the air to escape before he got himself too stressed out. Humans were so... Ignorant. "Nice to meet you, busy. Mind sparing me your smart ass remarks and keeping your hands off of me?" His tone oozed with loathing as the teen stared daggers at him, but Nero simply gave him a tight lipped smile in return.
"I'm Mark. Now please, can we have a moment alone?" The boy seemed to be growing steadily more irritated by the moment, and Nero lifted his right hand in mock surrender before chuckling and beginning to walk toward a row of lockers down the hall a bit.

"I'll be down here when you're ready, Kira."

[Nydie]

Kira was oddly pleased when Zane appeared next to her, at least that’s what she assumed the slight flutter in her stomach and the skip in her heart meant. She could feel the corners of her lips tugging into a smile on its own accord and she bit down on her lower lip to stop it. It was stupid to feel happy over something so trivial, at least in her opinion, but once more she found herself blaming her odd behavior on her drawing. ‘Next time I get the urge to draw at eleven o’clock at night, I’m ignoring it. I obviously need more sleep my brain’s gone haywire.’ She thought to herself, but her thoughts were forced away when she realized that Zane was talking to her again.

Her lips parted to speak, about to agree to walk with him since she was going to the same class anyway. The truth was she honestly did not want to part ways with him just yet. Kira wasn’t about to state that fact out loud, it would have made her look like one of those silly girls that she couldn’t stand that acted idiotic the moment they saw a cute guy, and Kira was hardly one of those type. She wasn’t even sure she even found Zane attractive; probably because she’d never found any boy in school attractive, even Braedan Phillips, the one boy in school that every girl seemed to fawn over. Her feeling toward males in general was pretty much indifferent, and the fact that it wasn’t the case with Zane had piqued her curiosity. She tried to convince herself that walking with him was an experiment of sorts, but she wasn’t buying that for a second; she was walking with him because some part of her wanted to.

Before she could speak, the voice of the most annoying boy in the entire school, at least in her opinion, reached her ears, and unable to say anything else she watched as he began to harass Zane. Normally she would just have just passed the behavior off as a ‘Boys will be boys’ kind of thing, only this time she could not ignore it. Her eyes narrowed into a heated glare and she could only scowl angrily at Mark. Kira didn’t trust herself to speak for several moments, at least until she saw Zane walk down the hallway. Her eyes softened a bit as they followed his path, at least until Mark decided to speak once more. “So? Are we going to the dance next week or not?” He asked, clearly ignorant to the heated stare that she was giving him, or the way her shoulders tensed as he stood in front of her.

“You stupid ass jerk!” She snapped. Dropping her purse down from her shoulder to her hand, she clutched the strap of it and began to swing the purse at the now stupefied boy. “Are you really that dense? I’ve told you no at least a dozen times, and after the way you just asked you think I’d actually say yes?” Giving him one final blow with her purse, Kira stepped forward, her index finger poking none too gently into Mark’s shoulder. “The whole testosterone act might be cute to some girls, but I find it annoying and immature. You’re eighteen, not ten, and I’m not a toy to be fought over, I’m a person.” Adjusting her purse back onto her shoulder, Kira smoothed down her tee-shirt for no other reason than to get herself under control. She had always known she had a temper; it was quick to rise whenever she and her brother fought, but this was different. She never felt the need to defend anyone before, especially a guy, but that was exactly what she was doing, even if it was under the guise of rejecting an idiot.
“What?” Mark had finally managed to overcome his shock, and reached out to grab Kira by the elbow when she turned to move away from him. “What are you saying?”

Jerking her arm out of Mark’s grip, she spun on her heels to glare back at Mark again, considering how short she was compared to him; it was actually kind of funny to watch him take a step away from her in defense. Kira probably would have laughed, if it wasn’t for the dozen or so students that had circled around her and Mark. Feeling extremely annoyed and awkward with so many eyes on her, Kira decided to ignore them and focus on Mark. “ What I’m saying is, and let me use small words so you pea brain might be able to understand. I would not go out with you if you were the last boy on Earth. Get it? Now excuse me while I go apologize for your lack of brain cells.” Kira once again turned away from Mark and began walking away, pushing through their little audience to make her escape. ‘I give him three seconds to…’

“Does that mean you’re going to the dance with him?” Mark’s voice came out with a combination of anger and embarrassment, and Kira smirked in satisfaction.

Without turning around, she paused and said. “Yes, I am.” Her mind screamed at her asking what the hell she was doing, but Kira ignored in favor of dealing a few more blows to Mark, hoping that if she crushed him enough he’d finally stop pestering her to go out with him. “At least he knows how to act around a girl, and has an IQ high enough to understand the word no. Since it’s a two letter word I wouldn’t think a person needs an IQ level that high, but apparently I was wrong. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to walk the ‘checkered flag’ as you called him to his class, because…well, I like him better than you.” She could hear the group that had gathered laughing and her cheeks began to flame.

Grateful that her head had been turned to Mark and he could not see the reddening of her cheeks after her little speech, Kira crept slowly down the hallway to where Zane had made his retreat. Lifting her eyes up to his face, she could feel her cheeks heat up more and she wished that there was suddenly a fire drill so she wouldn’t have to explain what was said. “Sorry…about him. He’s kind of an idiot, but I didn’t think he was that much of an asshole to actually put his hands on someone.”

Casting a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw that the once filled hallway was emptying out, and only a few students were now littering the hall. Her head turned so that she could look back at Zane, and she was struck with another fluttering in her stomach. Breath caught in her throat, the girl floundered on what to say or do next, but before she could censor her thoughts, her mouth was running off. “I kind of said that we were going to the dance together next week. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to use you like that, but I was pissed and well…when I’m mad I generally don’t think before I speak.” Her confession was spilled in one breath and she gasped in a lungful of air after it was said, her eyes widening in surprise. “And now I feel like a total freak…” She mumbled miserably, her gaze lowering to the ground. Mentally chastising herself, she began to walk, nearly forgetting that she was supposed to be showing Zane to their next class. ‘After that nightmare, I doubt he’ll want to walk with me anyway. Stupid Mark…stupid mouth…I think I should invest in a muzzle.’

Glancing over her shoulder at Zane, a tense smile flickered over her lips. “Sorry again. Class is this way, and we’d better hurry because…” The bell cut her off and Kira cringed at the shrill sound that caused her ears to buzz annoyingly. “Shit.”

Trudging back to Zane, she was about to reach out and grasp his wrist, a habit that she had whenever she wanted to pull her friends along somewhere with her, but she stopped just short of actually doing it. “Look, just play along with me. Mrs. Erran doesn’t seem to like boys, but she loves me. Let me do all the talking and you won’t get in trouble, okay?” Kira didn’t give him a chance to respond before she darted down the hall. Zane had only been three classrooms away from the chem lab, so she didn’t really have much of a distance to go.

Pulling the door open with a quick yank, Kira managed to pant for air, doing her best out of breath impression. She frowned thoughtfully at her teacher, her head lowering in disappointment. “I’m so sorry Mrs. Erran. There’s a new student and no one wanted to help him find his way here. The poor kid was standing in the hall looking confused, so I stopped to help him. He’s on his way now though.”

The woman looked at Kira and nodded. “Alright Kira, get to your seat.” Kira flashed her teacher a grateful smile and walked to her usual desk, making sure to keep as quiet as she could until her teacher began to talk again. “Perhaps you should show this new student around during lunch, so you both can avoid being late tomorrow.”

Kira grimaced, her shoulders slumping down. “Yes, ma’am.” She replied quietly, and quickly finished the short journey to her desk.

[dman0649]

It started out as a simple little sentence that Nero couldn't hear, and quickly escalated into Kira slapping the asshole with her purse repetitively. When that began, dozens began to crowd around the quarrel, putting in their two cents to one another and laughing hysterically as Kira began to raise her voice. The fairy found himself chuckling at the bits that he heard, and he immediatly came to the conclusion that the young woman had definitely inherited her mother's hot temper. He could only hope that she wasn't as much of a short fuse as her father. Nero sighed at the thought of the girl's dad; it was his duty to protect her from anything that might come to harm her, and that meant anything from muggers to assassins sent to collect her head. As unlikely as that possibility was, the fey was well equipped to deal with any sort of confrontation that may arise in the near future. He glanced through the growing crowd of students at the precise moment that Mark grabbed Kira's arm, and his eyes began to glow a very violent shade of purple-- his energy pumped through his veins at tremendously high speeds, and he was prepared to sprint through the crowd of humans and break the weakling's arm off of his flabby shoulder. Though to his relief (and mild irritation) the girl broke free of his grasp. He let the energy fade away from his eyes, and could only hope that he didn't foolishly expose himself to any humans nearby. If he did, it would surely be the end of his facade.

Kira's face was a deep shade of crimson when she finally returned to Nero's side, and she began to apologize profusely for the boy's actions. Nero wanted to say that she shouldn't be the one apologizing, but his jaw fell agape when she mentioned that she said he'd be attending a dance with her. It wasn't so much for the fact that she wasn't an attractive girl, or that she didn't have a charming personality... It was more so that he had yet to talk to this woman for more than five minutes, and she already made up her mind about something they were going to be doing. He chuckled light heartedly at her obvious discomfort with the situation, but waved her off dismissively before attempting to speak again. Yet again, she interrupted him, and he began to lose his patience before she darted off toward the chemistry lab, looking exasperated as she threw the door open. The fairy sighed in defeat as he began to march toward his next monotonous portion of the day, and decided that at least he had a reasonable oppurtunity to keep her close to him. Now he had something to work off of. Nero calmly tucked his hands into his hoodie's pockets and began to stroll up the hallway, then pivoted to his right and entered the lab. A miriad of eyes immediatly focused on him, and he returned most of their gazes-- he probably looked about as confused as they felt about him. The fairy sighed lightly, then glanced at Mrs. Errin before giving her a curt and tight lipped smile.

"Mrs. Errin, you only get more gorgeous as the day goes on." He smirked triumphantly as she narrowed her eyes at him, and he barely held in his manic chuckling as she (just barely) dignified him with a response. "Flattery will get you nowhere in this class, Zane. Take any seat you like." Her tone was flat and even as the fairy turned to see what seats were open, but ironically enough he was now at the mercy of her own brand of sarcasm. The only available seat was directly in front of Kira, which just so happened to be suspiciously close to the back of the room. Either fate was helping him out tremendously, or something suspicious was at work here at Falls Creek high-- though he suspected it was the former. He casually strode through the lab tables and took a seat by his lonesome at the long oaken table. It took about three seconds for the ginger to begin praddling on about the different methods of ffiltering solutions, but even Nero knew that the information was something that a freshman should know; so as expected, Nero lost interest almost immediatly. A sly grin began to work it's way onto his features as he thought of a way to first hint at his true identity, but he'd have to take things slow. The last thing he needed was to expose himself in a crowded lab like this. So he patiently waited until the teacher explained the lab they'd be doing, then spun around in his chair and kicked his way over to Kira's table.

"Room for one more?" He queried serendippitously, pulling a pair of goggles over his eyes as he spoke. He plugged the bunsen burner into the gas outlet, "accidentally" turned the gas up a little too high, and "just so happened" to place his hand a little too close while sparking the burner. Just as the fire ignited, a soft blue shimmer coated his hand as the fire warped around it, and he drew back quickly and blunk rapidly for effect. "FUCK! Fuckfuckfu- Oh, nevermind." His hand remained perfectly in tact; no burns, not even a singed hair. If it wasn't for the fact Kira's lab partner had been staring at a boy two tables ahead of them, she probably would've seen it. But Nero knew that Kira was the only one who could've possibly laid eyes on what had just occurred. Forementioned lab partner jumped out of her haze as the curses rang out of the fairy's lips, and paled as she looked at Nero.
"Woah, wait-- what happened? Are you okay?" She sounded panicked, and talked very fast for someone so easily distracted, but Nero dismissed the observation and showed her his sleeve. "No worries, thought I caught my sleeve on fire.. Should probably roll them up." Immediatly after the phrase left his lips, he withdrew his arms from his sleeves and let the hoodie fall limply onto the chair behind him. He propped his head on his hand as he lowered the gas on the burner, then focused his energy around his guardian symbol. It burned itself onto his flesh near-instantaneously, and the girls looked at it after pulling their goggles on.
"What, a senior in high school can't have a tattoo?" He smiled cryptically as he met Kira's gaze, and gave her a quick wink before diving into the preparations for the lab.

Everything went through without a hitch. All of the materials were seperated from the solution with ten minutes left to spare in the class period, and it gave Nero a bit of time to talk to Kira about what he was most curious about; her drawing. There was absolutely no way in hell that the girl could remember her mother's form so flawlessly if she was switched at birth, so he had to find out how exactly she knew what the woman looked like. He glanced at her notebook while she wasn't paying attention, then "sneezed" and knocked it off of the desk.
"Shit, my mistake. I got it." He leaned down to grasp the tiny booklet in his fingers, and as he picked it up a loose article fell onto the floor. Another drawing of Kira's stared mercilessly into his pupils, and he quickly scooped it up before examining it a bit more closely. The detail was flawless; the pattern of the wings, color placement, even the blending of shadows and use of two point perspective was rather impressive for an amateur artist. He handed the paper off to Kira, then directed his eyes down at her notebook. "That's a beautiful drawing," He started, relaxing his posture and acting nonchalant. "What is she supposed to be? An angel? Because the detail is flawless... I wish I could draw like that." He smiled as he spoke, lifting his goggles over his head and placing them on the table near her notebook.

"I'm a bit of an artist myself, but in a different way." He finished cryptically.

[Nydie]

Kira had barely been paying attention to class; her thoughts were circling themselves over the incident in the hallway. If she had thought her classmates would consider her completely insane, she would have banged her head on the table repeatedly. Not only did she feel completely out of character because of how she felt around Zane, but now she had to deal with the fact that she had inadvertently made herself look like an idiot by running her mouth off while she was angry. ‘One of these days I’ll learn…’ She thought morosely.

When their teacher started giving out orders for the day’s lab, Kira managed to get her thoughts together and focus on the task she was supposed to be carrying out. As usual her lab partner Sara, a girl that Kira barely knew was off in her own little world, and Kira went about working on the lab herself. She glanced up towards the front of the room just in time to catch Zane little accident with the burner. Eyes widening, she was about to open her mouth when Sara pulled her head out of the clouds and beat her to it. ‘Did he really? No, I must have been seeing things. If his hand had been anywhere near there, the room would smell of burnt flesh and he would be being rushed off to the E.R.’ Shaking her head, Kira blinked her eyes and glanced toward Zane’s which was not even red. ‘That’s it, no more late night drawing sessions, no matter how strong the urge to draw is, or how well the image turns out.’

Kira rolled her eyes at the girl’s concern. ‘Sure, stick a boy in front of her and she’s all talk, yet if I had caught myself on fire she’d have continued to stare off into space.’ She let out an annoyed huff, but was stopped from complaining when she heard Zane talk about tattoos. Swiveling her eyes in his direction, she glanced at the mark that he was talking about, a brow lifting in curiosity. She was about to answer, but her lab partner cut in with a comment about tattoos being hot which caused another round of eye rolling. ‘Someone help me before I slap this girl upside the head to knock some sense into her head.’

When all was said and done, they had some time to kill until the bell rang, and Kira decided to work on her drawing a bit more. Yanking her notebook free from her backpack, she placed it on the table and went to dig out one of her pencils when she heard the unmistakable slap on the ground of her notebook hitting the floor. Eyes shooting open wide when Zane started talking about her work, Kira’s face paled and she quickly snatched her work back. Hugging her notebook to her chest, she turned her head away from Zane and stayed silent on the topic. She was used to her mother and brother seeing her work, and of course her art teacher Miss Evans was her biggest fan, but the work she showed others was usually drawings that she had little connection to. The woman in her drawings meant something to her; exactly what Kira didn’t know, but she did not like sharing those drawings with anyone she was not close to.

Not wanting to be rude, Kira responded to Zane’s question with a shrug of her shoulder. “It’s just a drawing, nothing else.” She replied softly, nearly cringing at her own words. It felt wrong for her to pass off the woman in her drawings as something insignificant, but it was too personal for her to say anything else, at least not to someone she had just met. Still, she felt compelled to say something for inferring that the woman was just some random subject that she drew. “I have more at home. I’ve just always drawn her. It started when I was little. I dreamed of her one night and just started drawing her. I guess maybe she was my imaginary friend or something…I don’t really know.” Kira shrugged her shoulders, finally prying her notebook away from her chest to place it back in her backpack. “I draw other things…there’s a few of my drawings hanging up in the art room, but they’re not all that great.”

Kira failed to add that she hated the drawings that her art teacher had insisted on hanging up, they actually scared her. Her mystery woman was thankfully absent in them, but there was a subject that she drew often in a few; a man, who like her mystery woman also had wings, only his were more moth-like and not nearly as pretty. She hated when she drew him, she always felt a weird sense of foreboding afterwards, which was probably due to the fact that whenever she drew the man he was doing something violent, or had such a sinister look on his face she just assumed that he was planning something evil.

“I can show you some of the stuff down in the art room, if you want to see.” She added in a quiet voice that was just barely above a whisper. Her sensitivity to her drawings was unfortunately for her extremely obvious. She never did understand why. Her art teachers had always praised her work, but Kira just did not like showing her drawings off to anyone outside her house, it was the main reason that she had never invited her friends over. To Kira it felt like showing others something that they were not meant to see. However, lately there had been pictures that Kira had drawn that she was only too glad to get rid of, often offering them to her art teacher the moment they were completed. ‘The trio.’ She thought with a shiver. ‘I hope there’s no more of them in my mind anywhere. Those pictures are scary.’

Before Kira could give any further thought to the beings from her nightmares, the bell sounded and she hurried out of class before anyone could say a word to her. She remained distant in her next two classes where oddly enough Zane ended up being seated either beside or behind her. His proximity to her was distracting at best. Through each class she fought the urge to turn around to talk to him and apologize for her behavior, but she couldn’t find the right words to explain why she was so bothered without sounding like a complete whacko. ‘Hey Zane, sorry for being a bitch. I just didn’t want to explain that I draw things without even knowing what I’m drawing. My hand just moves on its own and presto!’ Although that wasn’t true for all of her pictures; she could draw her mystery woman with her eyes closed after years of practice, the strange moth winged man too, but the trio was still too new so she could only managed to roughly sketch them.

When the bell rang for lunch, Kira decided to finally say something to Zane. Not only did she feel guilty about ignoring him for the past two classes, but there was something in her mind that was urging her to talk to him again, insisting that she make amends.

Gathering her things she glanced over at Zane and smiled tightly, still unsure exactly how to phrase her apology. If she told him about her drawings, would he consider her crazy? It was bad enough that her mother worried about them. Her compulsion to draw certain images would often put her into a daze and when she finally did complete the image she would instantly fall asleep. Kira herself often didn’t understand what went on, but it didn’t scare her the way it did her mother. She wondered briefly if she told Zane about them if it would scare him off, and the troubling thing about that idea was the mild panic the Kira felt.

Deciding that she was willing to take a risk, Kira got to her feet and went to catch up with Zane. “Hey, wait.” She called out, jogging down the hall to walk beside him. “How’s your hand?” She asked casually, her eyes lowering to see if there were any signs of injury. Seeing that there was not even a blister, she shook her head. ‘I was definitely seeing things.’

“Sorry, I thought…” She started, but paused realizing that enough craziness was about to come out of her mouth. “Never mind. Listen…I’m sorry about earlier, I just didn’t want you to think I was crazy, but I guess it’s a bit too late for that now.” A sad smile tugged at her lips and Kira struggled to avoid looking in his direction. “It’s lunchtime, and if you weren’t in a rush to go eat I thought I’d take you to the art room to show you some of my other drawings.” Inhaling deeply, Kira exhaled a small sigh. “I’ll explain why I’m so funny about them if you want me too, just promise not to judge me too much, alright?”