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Mr. Archer’s seventh period contemporary science class was revered in Blue Valley. It was a tough, hands on class filled with group work that was not for the faint of heart student. But it was two college credits and looked amazing on college applications.You had signed up for it, you were not a science student, that was Rick’s domain. However, you had dreams of leaving Blue Valley far behind and this was a step out of the door.On your first day in class you were not surprised to find it filled with mostly seniors, you were sure you would be the only junior. You were surprised to see there was only one other, Henry King Jr.Henry was a jerk, everyone knew it. There had been a time that you could look past his misgivings, but that time had passed. After what he did to Yolanda, you wanted nothing to do with him.Fate was never on your side because Mr. Archer made sure you pair you two together. Everyone else got to pick their groups for the year, save you two. “I figured since you two were the only juniors it would make sense to keep you two together. I know it will make things more difficult, but I will take that into consideration when grading,” he later told you.You were less than pleased, but did not push it. Mr. Archer never changed the groups no matter the circumstance. Plus you had spent years skating under the radar and were not stopping over him.So during seventh period you pushed aside your disgust and contempt for Henry and focused on whatever class work was assigned. It was easy at first, you quickly figured out a system between you two: you wrote everything thing down or drew and Henry tested different things. You two worked surprisingly well during class and ignored each other any other time.Until one day after school you bumped into him while leaving. You had just finished color guard practice and were tossing your guard rifle waiting for Rick to get out of detention when you heard your name. Hearing it startled you making you lose rhythm and miss catching the plastic rifle. It landed on your forearms and hurt a bit when it landed, but you were used to it. You turned to see Henry jogging up to you. You shouldered your bag where you kept your guard gear. This was the last thing you wanted, Henry talking to you outside of class. “Hey.”Henry stopped in front of you, panting slightly. You were confused for a second before remembering that the football team had practice today too. “You okay?” You were confused until you saw his eyes on your guard rifle, meaning he saw your mishap.You twirled your plastic rifle awkwardly, embarrassed anyone saw your stupid mistake. “I’m fine, it happens all the time.”Henry raised a brow, “that thing came down fast, it looked like it hurt. You could probably take someone out with that thing.”You shook your head at the idea of hurting someone with your plastic rifle. It only ever hurt when it landed on you when you spun it up in the air. And even then it wasn't that bad, just a tiny bruise. “What’s up?”“Uh, I’m going to miss class on Friday, the team has to head out during sixth period to get over to Belmont for the game.” This caused an issue because the project was due at the end of class. And while you had been working on it, you needed that entire period to finish. And it was far too late to ask for an extension and Mr. Archer was not known to give them. Especially for things like sports.Henry continued, “but we can always meet up after school to finish.” As much as you did not want to spend extra time with him, you needed to get this project done.You nod, “yeah that makes sense.”Henry smiles, he was expecting you to be angry. He knows that despite you being civil with him, you are not his biggest fan. He assumed you would snap since he sprung this on you last minute. “I’m free after 3, coach gives us a mini practice the day before to go over stuff so it shouldn’t take that long.”“I don’t have guard until six so I’m free until then.” You have practice most days, more than he does. Blue Valley’s color guard was number one in the region for a reason.There is a slightly awkward lull in the conversation. Now you actually have to pick where you two are going to meet. You know your house is out of the question.Henry ends the tense silence, “we can meet at my house. My dad will be at the hospital so it’ll be just us.”You hate the idea of being alone with Henry, you know what he is capable of. But you need this project done, “yeah that works for me.”He smiles because although he knows you do not want to be around him he enjoys being around you. “Okay, I can pick you up after I finish practice.”“Y/N,” you know the sound of Rick’s voice anywhere. And you can tell he is not happy. Then again he had been grumpy since you were young.You turn to your brother and give him a small smile. “Hey Rick, ready to go?” Rick eyes Henry, not trusting the ginger. He knows what Henry has done in the past and wants you to stay away from him. He knows about you two working together and is not happy. He almost went to Mr. Archer himself to ask for you to be put in a different group, but you talked him out of it.You say bye to Henry and leave with Rick. As you two leave Rick makes a point to look back at Henry and stare him down. Silently telling him to stay away from you.~~~The only sounds in the kitchen are of your pens writing and the occasional sound of a page turning. When you two work you are silent but focused on whatever you are doing. You never needed to talk, you hand him what he needs or he points to a mistake you make on your page. It is rather impressive that you two can work so fluidly without saying a single word.Time passes quickly at first, then you can feel your brain losing focus. After an entire day of school and now hours of homework you can feel the mental fog creeping in.Henry seems to notice, “do you need a break?” He can see your leg bouncing faster than it normally did and he sees you erasing and rewriting more often than usual.You are glad he notices, “Honestly if I look at another equation my brain might explode.”Henry chuckles, “do you want a drink or something to eat?” He can feel himself getting hungry so he assumes you might be too. He knows you must be thirsty, you drink more than any other person he has ever met.You shrug, the thought of a snack sounds good, but you feel guilty accepting. Henry stands and goes to the refrigerator. He returns with a bag of chips and bottle of water and hands the bottle to you. You accept the water not wanting to be rude.You open the water and start drinking. You did not realize how thirsty you were until you guzzled it down all at once. Henry’s eyes widen, “jeez, you could have asked me earlier for some.”You blush, embarrassed because you just chugged an entire bottle of water in front of him like it was nothing. He moves the bag of chips toward you and motions for you to have some. You shake your head, you would love to have some but you feel weird eating food from his house.The two of you begin talking, really talking. You share stories and learn about each other. You make a joke and Henry laughs so hard his face turns as red as his hair. And despite you not liking Henry that much, you are enjoying the conversation. Its natural and fun. Eventually you two realize you only have an hour before you have to leave for practice so you two go back to work.This is what starts a friendship between you two. No, friendship is too strong of a word, more like acquaintance-ship. Being class mates seemed to be under-simplifying it because the conversations were too deep. Neither of you talk outside of class, but when you two are working together you act friendly.Henry starts asking if you want to finish work at his house. You two get so busy talking that you lose track of time and have work left undone at the end of class. You agree. Henry may be a jerk, but when it is just the two of you and a science worksheet he seems, what’s the word? Nice?You find yourself going over Henry’s house a few times a week. Rick hates it, but you remind him that there is only two of you in your group while everyone else has at least three or four. Work begins to pile up.Sometimes you two have nothing to complete for science and just do your homework together.You both sit in his family room, there are papers on the coffee table and you both have binders on your laps. You both sit on opposite ends of the couch, facing each other. You have your legs tucked to the side and he has his arm thrown over the side of the couch.You two are going back and forth talking about your elementary school days. You had made an off hand comment about Mrs. Sheldon’s class and you two began reminiscing. “You used to push me down at recess all the time in fourth grade.”Henry rolled his eyes, “well yeah, in the third grade you broke my heart!” You tilt your head in confusion, “I had the biggest crush on you back then. One day at recess I got down on one knee and asked you to marry me and you told me I had weird hair and you ran off.”“I didn’t,” you thought he was messing with you. Up until this moment you two had been joking around, but he shook his head and his face told you he was not. You covered your mouth in shock and to hide a smile, you had no memory of that happening. “Well I’m sorry for what I said to you when I was eight.”Henry shook his head, “it completely crushed me, I haven’t recovered.” You throw a pencil at him and he laughs as he blocks it. You both have smiles on your face and are clearly joking around.“Junior,” you both stop dead and turn to the doorway where the voice was from. There stood who you assumed was Henry’s father. You had no doubt he was Henry’s father, the looked so similar. You had yet to meet him, he worked long hours at the hospital and you were long gone by the time he got home.“Dad,” you noticed Henry had tensed like he had been caught doing something he should not.Ignoring the tension you stand with an out stretched hand, “hi Dr. King, I’m Y/N Harris, Henry’s science partner.” You know it would be rude not to introduce yourself, plus you have been invading his house for the last few weeks.He shakes your hand and you give a small smile. For some reason you feel like you are doing something wrong and that Dr. King does not like you. You sit back down awkwardly. “Is your science partner staying for dinner?”You shake your head, “no I have to be back at the school at six for practice.” Now that he was here you wanted to leave. The way he was staring you down was making you nervous.Dr. King shakes his head, “it’s only not five yet, I can order you two a pizza while you finish up your work.” His eyes flicker to the books you have on the coffee table and the binders you had on your laps.You shake your head, "I appreciate it, but I have to leave for color guard soon. If I eat too close to practice I'll be nauseous." Something you had done before. And something told you that even he didn't want to get a pizza for you.Dr. King nods, "another time then." With the way he says it, you don't think he means it.Everyone knows Henry's father wasn't the nicest person ever, but something told you he did not like you. He probably didn't want a country bumpkin sitting with his pride and joy on his antique couch in his mansion. Suddenly your extra aware of the dirt from the dirt road on your beat up sneakers, your cheap jacket your wearing as a shirt, and your jeans that ripped and worn out from wearing for days on end. You feel like you're dirtying up his house with your presence. He leaves and you and Henry are frozen on the couch. With the way Henry has tensed and looks you can tell he is just as scared of his father as you are of Matt. Henry's asshole-ish behavior makes a lot more sense. If that was the man who raised him, it wasn't too much of a surprise Henry turned out the way he did. It's still not an excuse for his behavior, of course. But the insight does answer a few questions.For the time being, you two work quietly. It was as if you were transported back to the first weeks of school when things were awkward between you two. You find yourself missing the conversations you had been having.But then Henry breaks the silence, “can I ask a favor?” You nod, “I’m having trouble with my history assignment.”“I might be able to help, what’s it on?” While you were in all honors classes you might be able to help him anyway. Henry started to get his notebook out, “well we were talking about how during WW2 art curators hid different pieces so the Nazis didn’t get a hold of them.” You had talked about that, even watched a few clips from movies. “And we were given a question to answer for homework: what would you sacrifice in order to protect something you cared about? Money? Safety? Your life? Another’s life?” He shows you the piece of paper with the single question and the large blank space.“Okay,” you chew your lip as you look it over and let the question sink in, “let’s start with what you do understand.” After years of staying up late and helping Rick under a lamp light, you had learned how to tutor someone who had no interest in learning.Henry understood why they did what they did, to keep the art from bad people. He wouldn’t have liked to see a picture filled with Nazis next to The Nike of Samothrace, a piece associated with liberty. “I just don’t understand the question.”Something told you he would not be a philosophy major. “It’s asking what you personally would give to keep things you cherish safe.” He still has a blank look on his face. “Like what would you give to keep the Statute of Liberty or the Declaration of Independence safe? Would you give up your money, safety, your life?”This seems to make sense to him, “I see.” But you’re not done, “I mean it doesn’t have to be something historical it could be personal. If someone had a gun pointed at you and wanted the thing you cared about most, and if you knew that taking a bullet stopped them from having it-““I’d take the bullet,” Henry says with a kind of certainty you didn’t think he was capable of. But then again, you were learning more about him every day. “Okay but what if the gun was pointed at your dad? Or Cindy? Or anyone else you cared about?”“Like you,” Henry whispers. He didn’t mean that like that, did he? He couldn’t. He was dating Cindy. There was no way he could like you like that.So you ignore that thought and continue helping him, “but what if, it was someone you didn’t know? Would your answer change?” You look over at his face, “me personally I would give my life if I cared that much.”Henry’s brow furrows as he thinks. It takes him a moment longer to decide, “I couldn’t sacrifice someone else’s life, it’s not mine to bargain.”You had no problem ruining Yolanda’s life. Of course that thought stayed in your head. “That’s what the question is asking, how much would you sacrifice to protect something you loved. Where would you draw the line.” “I couldn’t take one either,” he looks up at you, “like I couldn’t kill someone, I mean.”That you were not expecting, “well you should include that.”“What about you?” He fiddles with the paper.Would you be able to kill someone for something you loved? You weren’t a violent person, you hated fighting. You couldn’t see yourself ever hurting anyone. “I think everyone is capable of hurting someone if they are pushed in a certain way. And if someone I loved was in danger I might be capable of that.” If Rick was in danger you don’t know what you would do, how far you would go. But you know you would do whatever it took.Ignoring that thought you start packing up your stuff, “I got to get to color guard.”Henry nods, but is more focused on staring at the paper in front of him. Until you get up to leave, “thanks for helping me.”“I should be charging you for this,” you shoulder you bag, “I’m your science partner not your history tutor.”Henry shakes his head, “and here I thought we were friends.”Friends. You didn’t have friends. It was only you and Rick. You didn’t dare think that Henry was your friend, he was Henry. Sure you too had joked around and swapped stories. Did that make you friends? Or did making ramen and talking about your extracurriculars make you friends? Did you even want to be friends with Henry? He was a jerk. But you could see under that persona he wore he at school, he was more than a stereotypical asshole jock. You could see that he was actually nice to talk to and caring. That Henry you could be friends with. Only he kept that version hidden under his letterman jacket.Before you can answer Henry’s dad walks into the room making you both shift awkwardly. "I'll see you tomorrow.""Yeah," Henry says awkwardly. The weight of his father's stare is heavy on both of you. "Bye.""Bye," you smile at Henry's father again before scurrying out the door.~You look at the instructions, you use your shoulder to move the safety goggles back into place. Cursing at how they kept sliding down your face, but you continue to read from the packet, “it says we have add the solution in the blue bottle to each port and look at the reactions to see what ‘blood type’ each liquid is.” It wasn’t actually blood (this was a high school after all) but liquids that behaved like blood.“Okay,” Henry nods and unscrews the liquid and uses the eye drop pipette to take the liquid out and drop it in each well in the pellet plate. You both watch the containers for a moment, “how long is is supposed to take again?” You roll your eyes and shake your head. After a few minutes some of the liquids become cloudy, only one remains the same. “It looks like the blue bottle is type A positive.” You saw as you write in your answer in the packet.“What makes you say that?” Henry knows you're right, but he feels like you’re the smart one and doing all the work. You get the answers and know things he doesn’t. You’re the one who writes everything and draws the diagrams, he only test things. He feels like he’s holding you back. Also he is a bit of jerk.You point to the other wells with cloudy and clumped liquid, “well does your blood look like that when it comes out?” Henry can’t help but snort at your sarcastic answer. One thing he has learned about you is that while you are quiet you are full of one liners and smart-ass answers. He enjoys hearing you say them, especially when they are directed at him.“We should clean up now so we don’t get stuck here after class.” Henry can see the clock behind you and the minute hand is getting dangerously close to when the bell rings.Henry begins to gather the supplies you had grabbed while you tuck the packet away in your class folder before joining him. You put the different bottles away and Henry goes to the sink to wash the items you used. Once you have everything put away you join him at the sink so you can dry the items he had washed. But one look at them told you they had to be rewashed.“You don’t ever clean at home do you?” The well pellets still have splotches of fake blood in them, the pipette has soap both inside and outside of it, and he clearly only washed the outside of the wash bottle. You had noticed the way he wiped the table down yesterday too that he wasn’t used to cleaning.“How’d you know?” Henry is stunned that you had been able to figure him out so easily. It wasn’t the first time you had called him out on something, and probably not the last. He had no idea if he was that obvious or you could read him easily. You glance down at the half-assed cleaning attempt he had given. Henry can feel his cheeks start to warm up, “it’s not like I never needed to before.”You are aware of the fact that Henry is one of the richest kids in school, his designer jeans and latest iPhone make it very clear. But it seemed strange that he would have house keepers, this was Nebraska after all. You had seen them when you went to his house to do homework.It makes you feel numb, because you had spent a good portion of the weekend cleaning the house with Rick because your uncle sure as hell didn’t do it. You and Rick had been cooking full blown meals on a budget for each other since you were seven. You could do a load of laundry with almost no detergent. You had known how to clean the kitchen and the bathroom with just a teaspoon of cleaner. Or had a problem getting down on your hands and knees to scrub the toilets or the bathroom floor. Neither of you did, the only thing Rick refused to do was clean the hair out of the shower drain since it was your hair in there anyway. While majority of this was because your uncle refused to do it for you, it still shocked you to know that a fifteen year old didn’t know how to do dishes.Instead of making fun of him, or giving a sarcastic comment like you normally did, you simply stood next to him and began talking him though the process of how to wash dishes. Or in this case, science class supplies. Henry pays attention, for a moment at least, but he get distracted by the way your ponytail falls on your shoulder, and the way your eyes shine in the overhead lights, and the way your smaller hands grip the bottle securely so the soapy water doesn’t make you lose your grip.You make a joke, Henry doesn’t hear it but the way you smile makes him smile so you think he does. He likes the way you nose scrunches and how the left side of your face is beat behind the right when you smile. He finds is adorable.Then it hits Henry like a punch to the gut. Like he had been tackled in a game of football.Henry King Jr has a crush on you.~~~There’s a comfortable lapse in the conversation until your stomach rumbles. “Hungry?”Your face heats heats up because you don’t know what’s worse: the loud rumbling sound coming from your body or the fact that it wasn’t your stomach. “I guess.”Henry sets his pencil down, “We can run and grab something or we can get something here.”“It’s fine.” You were used to having a rumbling stomach even when your period cravings weren’t bad. Matt got annoyed at how much food you and Rick would go through so the two of you learned to enough just enough to sustain yourselves. Henry shakes his head, “I’m not going to let you sit here hungry, and I’m hungry too.”Something tells you he’s not going to drop this so you relent. “Fine, what do you have?” You don’t have any money on you and you’re not going to go out to eat and have him pay. The last thing you needed was Cindy Burman on your case about why her boyfriend was buying you dinner.Henry goes to stand, “Whatever you want I’ll tell the housekeeper-“ His voice wavers at the look you’re giving him.You sit back in your seat and cross your arms, “you don’t know how to cook do you?”Now Henry’s face heats up because once agains you have him all figured out. Here he was ready to show off how rich he was with his housekeeper and now you knock him down a few pegs, again. You take his nonresponse as a ‘yes’. “Well it’s never too late to learn,” you stand and he follows.You decide on making Ramen since it’s easy and quick. “But not just regular ramen I’m showing you how to make good ramen.” There’s two packs, normally you ate three or four at a time alone, but your not going to do that in front of Henry. You grab some butter out of the fridge and few spices out of the cabinet. Henry notices the spices in your hand, “you add spices to your Ramen?”“And you don’t?” You were quiet but you were always ready with a one-liner. You put some water in the pot and a chunk of butter, “when you do it like this it thickens to more of a sauce consistency.” Adding the noodles, flavor packet, and spices you stirred the contents in the pot together. “If you add some soy sauce to this it’s even better.”Henry leans against the counter, “you do a lot of cooking at home?”You look down at the pot, “well dad works nights and its just me and Rick so someone’s got to do it.” Actually Matt couldn’t be bothered to do anything around the house so you and Rick had been making meals since elementary school. Henry knew one thing you two had in common was the fact neither of you had moms. He didn’t know what happened to yours but his died years before he and his dad moved to Blue Valley. It doesn’t take long for the noodles to be done so Henry grabs two bowls. Once you have it dished out you hold both of them to him, “which one do you want?”“You pick,” you cooked it was only fair.You shook your head, “I cooked, you pick.” It was a rule you and Rick had that has saved many arguments over the years. If he picked he couldn’t say you purposely gave him less.Henry grabbed a bowl, his fingers brushed against yours and he tried to ignore how it made him feel. Instead he moved the school stuff and sat down at the table with you. He takes a bite and fights the urge to roll his eyes back. “That’s really good.”You give a proud smile, “thanks.” You blow on the noodles and take a bite. It needed soy sauce but it would do. You did eat everything.As he waits for his ramen to cool he decides to talk to you. “So are you going to the game this Friday?”You pause with a forkful halfway raised to your mouth. Did he really just ask you that? “Uh yeah, I have to go to home games. I’m in color guard.”“Oh yeah,” he should have known since you were always carrying your guard rifle. He had seen you around school and town spinning it and tossing it up in the air. “So what do you sit in the stands the whole time?”“Pretty much,” sometimes you would help the cheerleaders with their chants. For the most part you sat with the other girls, they would talk and you would listen. “Rick picks me up after, he wouldn’t be caught dead at the school if he doesn’t have to be.”Henry smirked at that, “yeah something tells me he is not a fan.”It becomes awkwardly silent for a moment so you break the tension by saying, “you know if you actually jumped every once and awhile you might actually gain some yards.” Henry freezes when you say making your smirk.Suddenly his feelings grow more intense in just one sentence. “Well maybe instead of us getting a new coach they should just hire you.”That makes you roll your eyes, “hey I’m only trying to have you yelled at less by Artemis.” The girl had a tendency to yell at her teammates when they weren’t preforming to her high standards. Henry stares at you in awe, how does someone become more attractive just like that? “Well next time I jump and score a touchdown I’ll point to you.”That makes any joking attitude inside of you disappear, but you play it cool. “Don’t do that,” Henry looks confused, “you’re dating the head cheerleader.” And the biggest bitch in school.Henry looses his smile, remembering he has several unanswered texts from her. She may be his girlfriend but god did he hate talking to her. He thought maybe when they started dating she would be nicer, but she had gotten meaner. Now he hated spending time with her.Instead he spent time with you and he was so much happier. Hell, he had more fun doing science homework with you than he did going on dates with her. Spending time with Cindy was unbearable but here Henry was making jokes over ramen with you. Neither of you say anything as you continue eating. You finish before Henry so you get up and clean your bowl. Henry doesn’t realize it but you clean the pot while he stares at his bowl. When you return you start packing up your stuff, “I’m going to head early, my cramps are getting pretty bad.”“Yeah,” that was a good idea. Before he can fully process what you said you’re already out the door.~~~Zipping up your bag you look over at Henry, "I think we're good to turn it in tomorrow."Henry nods, "yeah," he was ready to be done with this project. Even if you had done most of the work. He starts walking you to the door and notes how dark it is outside, "do you need a ride home?"You shake your head, "no it's okay, it's not that far." Blue Valley was a small town and everything was a short walk away. At least for you, you had walked all over town hundreds of times.Henry shrugged, it's that big of deal." Having you walk home in the dark, when it was getting colder seemed like a bad idea. Even if he didn't like you he shouldn't have let you walk home alone."It's fine," normally Rick would meet you half way, but he hadn't been responding to your texts. He had been acting weird the last few days, you had even seen him talking to the new girl and Yolanda and Beth. "No, it's not, let me get the keys." Before you can argue Henry is grabbing a set of keys off the key rack. "Let's go."You try to argue but Henry doesn't listen. So you follow him to his car and get in the passenger side, "do you know where you're going?"Henry nods, "kinda."So you guide him to your neck of the woods and to the beginning of the dirt road. "You can just drop me off here."This doesn't seem to please Henry, "I can drive you all the way." He didn't get why you were so adamant about him not doing it.A nervous twist happens in your stomach. He's not going to let it go, and you can't let him anywhere near your house. So you have to come up with something. "I know it's just, if my dad," Matt, "thinks I've been with a boy," you trail off. If Henry thinks that's why you don't want him to drop you off at your door step, then hopefully he'll drop it. It's not an outright lie, but not the whole truth.Henry understands exactly what you want him to, "that makes sense." He puts the car in park for you."Thank you, you didn't have to do this," you really wish he hadn't. If anyone saw you it could mean a lot of trouble for you. "I'll see you tomorrow.""See ya," there's a split second before you start moving when Henry wants to say something. He wants to keep you in the car, close to him. But what can he say? He has a girlfriend and you had to remind him of that. Instead he watches you gather your stuff and exit his car. You start down the road and Henry can't help but admire you.~~~Like nearly everyone else, you hated gym class, especially since this year you had it in the morning. Another thing you hated was the fact that you had to get changed in front of all the other girls. It was awkward. But one of the perks of not having friends and being forgotten was that nobody paid any mind to the little scars on your body. You could quickly change and be done with it.But not today it seemed because soon Cindy Burman was standing in front of you with a scowl. "Why the hell are you going over my boyfriend's house?"Now you have everybody's attention, something you hated. Not only that you were in the middle of getting changed so you don't have a shirt on. You're frozen with it stitting on the bench. But your brain starts working so you can squeak out, "we were working on a science project together."Cindy doesn't look impressed, "you really expect me to believe that?"It was true, but you could see why she wouldn't believe that. "I have it in my bag." You go to grab your shirt from the bench because you feel exposed with so many people staring at you. But Cindy grabs it and looks over at your bag. With shaky hands you open your book bag and pull out your science folder. Cindy snatches the folder from you and starts flipping through it. She doesn't look impressed when she sees the notes that are very clearly Henry's handwriting. "Still doesn't explain why your over there so much.""There's only two of us, so it takes us longer than the other groups." The other groups rarely had to meet up outside of class, if at all. While you and Henry had to meet up at least once a week, even if there weren't projects due. "Plus he asks for help with assignments.""Why didn't he tell me?" Cindy stares you down.You shrugged, "we only talk about school stuff." Even when the conversations strayed it was still about something school related, like his football or when he asked about color guard. The only time he mentioned her was when he realized she had called and texted and he missed it, he quick texted her back and apologized for the interruption. Other than that he never talked about her. This wasn't good enough for Cindy, "why do you need to go over his house?""He doesn't get done football until three thirty and the library closes at four." A half hour was not enough time to get everything done. "My dad," Matt, "works nights so he's normally asleep and I don't want to bother him." Plus you would rather Cindy fight you than ever bring anyone to your house. You feel the need to add, "we only do school work, I swear I don't want your boyfriend."But this doesn't seem to help, "what are you saying you're too good for him?"Now you wished the ground would swallow you up and shield you from everyone's gaze. "I'm saying I'm not into him." You didn't like Henry like that and even if you did why would he ever like you? He was one of the best players on the football team and lived in a mansion, you lived on a farm and your bra that was on display was bought four years ago at Walmart on sale. "And it's not like I would be on his radar."Cindy takes a step toward you making you step back until you feel the cool lockers against your bare back. "Take this as a warning, stay away from my boyfriend or I'll make your life worse than Yolanda's." She glances down at you, her eyes lingering for a moment, "it's not like it would be hard."She shoves your folder and your shirt into your hands and storms off. It makes everyone go back to what they were doing. You ignore the redness in your face and pull your shirt on and put your folder back. You replay the scene in your head over and over again. Why did Cindy suddenly care about you and Henry spending time together when you two had been doing it for weeks?~~~The front door opens and even before you hear his footsteps you know its Rick. "Where have you been?" Matt was sitting on the couch, you had counted four beers when you walked by and he had gotten up to get more. But this was a man who needed at least two to start the day."Out," Rick responds dryly. "Out where?" Matt was buzzed, not quite drunk, but enough to be confrontational. You had been lucky, when you got home he was still functioning drinking. Of course he was been drinking, but only enough to function, it was when he was most bearable. Which wasn't saying much, but it meant you were less likely to get under his skin in a bad way."Since when do you care?" You loved your brother, but he was an idiot sometimes. Matt loved to bait him and Rick almost always took the bait. And Rick loved giving attitude to anyone in any form of power it seemed."Since I got stuck with two birth certificates that have your names on them," Matt hated that he was responsible for the both of you. "That means I have to make sure neither of you are getting into trouble like your father."You can hear Rick take a deep breath, you can picture him balling his fists. You start to get up from your bed, ready to intervene. But then Rick says, "I was out with my friends."That makes Matt let out a laugh that sends chills down your spine. Nothing good ever came with that laugh. "Yeah right, like anyone would want to be friends with your annoying ass." "Whatever," Rick's footsteps get closer and the door to your room opens.Even though you and Rick were fifteen you both shared a room. The house had only two bedrooms so there was nowhere for you to go. Your parents had said that once you all moved you two would finally get your own bedrooms. But then they left so it never happened.Rick huffs and throws his bag on his bed. It's a single bed and much too small for the six foot young man, but Matt would never replace it. He sits down on the sheets he hasn't washed in a few months. "How was being over Henry's?"You shrug, "fine, we finished out project.""Good, you don't have to keep going over there." Rick never hid how much he disliked Henry, especially in the last few days.And while you can't really blame him, you still feel the need to say, "it's not like that." When it was just the two of you, it wasn't that bad. "He's different once you get to know him."Rick rolls his eyes, "I'm sure Yolanda told everyone the same thing." He starts taking his shoes off, "I don't trust him." He had been saying this for weeks but something about the way he said it felt different. "I get that," he had very good reasons for not trusting Henry.But Rick didn't want to leave it at that it seemed. "Good, then stop going over his house." He was protective of you, he had to be. This was getting old, "the only reason I'm going over there in the first place is for school, not to hang out. And sometimes we have to work after school."Rick stood up with his socks in his hand, ready to put them in the hamper, "yeah well, you should get a new partner."Not this again, "I'm not doing that." Your teacher would not allow it and you had told him this. "I know he's not the greatest guy in the world-""You don't need to tell me," Rick puts his socks in the over flowing hamper. "He gets it from his dad."If anyone should be saying that it should be you because you had been subjected to his glare. "How would you know, you never meet the guy?"Rick scoffs, "I don't need to, I just know."This is a final straw for you, "what are you not telling me?" He had been acting strange recently. With the friends he had gotten that didn't make any sense. But he had been gone more, not answering texts, dodging questions. And most importantly not telling you everything. Being twins made you two close, but being best friends made you closer. Neither of you had spent a day apart since birth, you were attached at the hip. It was probably unhealthy, but you had no one else you could rely on. You told each other everything. There were no secrets between the two of you, until now.Rick looks hesitant, like he wants to tell you something, "just trust me."Even though you trust him more than anything, you're more hurt that he's not telling you this. "You know you can tell me anything," you say softly.Rick runs his hands through his hair, "it's complicated." He can't look at you, the hurt look on your face is making this more difficult. "If I asked Yolanda or Beth would they tell me?" His lack of response is an answer. One that hurts, "so you trust some girls you barely know more than me?"That makes Rick finally look at you, "I promise I will tell you everything, just be patient." You look away to blink back tears, "I'm trying to keep you safe.""Just tell me," you say, "if I'm in danger I want to know." You assuming it has to do with Matt, maybe something was happening with him. But nothing felt more stressful than it normally did."You will be if you keep hanging around Henry," he says gruffly."What does Henry have to do with this?" You whisper loudly, the last thing you needed was for Matt to get upset if you were both to loud. Just then the sound of Matt's footsteps make you both freeze. You both hold your breath as he stumbles by to his room. The door clicks shut letting you both relax.Rick gives you a stern look, like he's in pain. Like he's being lied too. "Can you just trust me?"The fact he even had to ask that made tears finally fall, "I'm going to bed." Rick says your name but you get under your covers and turn away from him. He sighs, knowing you won't talk to him. He finishes getting ready for bed and get in his. Rick's bed is on the opposite side of the room, parallel with yours. Once he settles and falls asleep you turn over to face him. It's the only way you fall asleep.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Henry had been unusually quiet; you had brushed it off to either is dad being in a coma or him breaking up with Cindy. But he kept clutching his head and wincing in pain. “Are you okay?”Henry looked at you with squinted eyes, “yeah just a really bad headache.” It was more than a headache, more than a migraine. He was developing some sort of power, something like his dad had talked about in his videos. It’s a lot to process, it’s even harder when he can hear other people’s thoughts at random.You smile softly, “I have migraine medicine in my bag if you want some,” Henry nods hoping for just a small sense of relief. You go into your bag and you dig for a moment. You pull out a small pouch that reminds Henry of Cindy’s makeup bag. You unzip it and dig through that too. Henry sees that you have pads stashed in there and he averts his eyes. You pull out two small bottles and hand him one, “I get really bad migraines whenever I’m PMS-ing so I keep some on me just in case.”Henry gives you a pained smile and accepts the bottle. Just as he finishes swallowing two pills he sees one of his teammates look at you and think, the quiet ones are always the freakiest, I bet she fucks like an animal. If Henry hadn’t already swallowed he would have choked on his water. He immediately gets angry and disgusted while you sit there none the wiser.“People are monsters,” he grits out between the pain and the disgust he feels. He glares over at his teammate, but your eyes are focused on returning the pouch to your bag. “That seems to be oversimplifying it.” Henry returns his focus to you and you finally meet his eyes. You notice how disgusted he looks and how confused he seems by what you said. “Well it seems unfair to say people are just one thing. People are these complicated things with feelings and experiences, they aren’t just one thing. They are not just terrible, or mean, or kind, or helpful, they’re a mix of all of those things. It seems unfair to just define them by one word when there’s so much more to them.” Henry doesn’t seem to share the sentiment, “yeah, they do terrible things.” They think terrible thoughts too. He almost says it but he can’t exactly go announcing that.“Well, no one’s perfect,” you shake your head, “nobody is a hundred percent right a hundred percent of the time. Sometimes people are a bit more selfish, sometimes they are more kind. Sometimes people make bad decisions because they are hurting or they think they’re right.”“Or they’re terrible people,” Henry says bitterly.You raise an eyebrow, you are getting concerned at what Henry is saying. You knew he wasn’t exactly the nicest person ever, but the fact he went to ‘people are terrible’ overnight is concerning you.“Are they though? Are people born selfish, and corrupt, and terrible? Or are they molded into who they are by the world around them and the choices that they make?” That makes Henry pause, “what’s that one quote ‘the same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg’. What could make one person turn out a certain way could make someone turn out completely different.” That makes you think of you and Rick. While you two had the exact same experiences, he became enraged at the everything and anything, you on the other hand became sad and anxious. Henry thought about what you said, but it was hard to consider when he could hear people’s vile thoughts. “People are still monsters.”You let out an exacerbated sigh, “well who died and made you king?!” You then winced at your words. “Sorry that came out horribly wrong,” in your annoyance of him repeating the same thing over and over you had forgot his dad was in the hospital in a coma. “Who made you judge, jury, and executioner? Your way of thinking is the only way, your standards are the correct way and we should all abide by them. That seems very conceited of you.”That makes Henry fully think about what you’re saying. Before he was so convinced that people were terrible creatures, but what you said was making him have second thoughts.Now that you mentioned it, Henry was a having a Holier-Then-Thou complex going on. He was acting as if he was better than everyone else, that is way of thinking was the only way. But that wasn’t the case. How could be possibly judge when he was no saint either? “Why don’t you think about that.” You stood from your seat, “I gotta go find Rick.” And you walked off. Henry’s gaze followed you as you left, still contemplating what you had said.~~~“Knock, knock,” you slowly open the hospital room door and enter expecting to see Henry quietly sitting beside his bed ridden father. Only instead you him standing and talking to his very much awake father.You almost dropping the tin foil wrapped plate in surprise. While you had hoped for Henry’s father to wake up you were not expecting it. You were happy for both Dr. King and Henry of course. Just shocked to see the man awake. His demeanor seemed less detached and more lively than you had seen him. Not that you saw him often. But it was a bit ironic considering he had to be in a coma to seem more cheerful.After taking a moment you react, “Dr. King it’s so good to see you awake.” You smile at the man.Dr. King looks confused and points to you, “Junior, is this your girlfriend?” Your eyes almost pop out of your head when you hear him say that. He had met you before and knew you were Henry’s classmate and nothing more. Plus Henry was dating Cindy up until this morning.Henry clarifies, “no she’s my partner in science. Dad, this is my friend Y/N Harris, you met her before.” You are confused, Henry doesn’t need his newfound telepathic abilities to tell. “My dad doesn’t remember some things since he woke up.”You nod because what could you possibly say? Normally you can improvise comforting words on the spot, you do have a semi emotionally unstable twin. But you cannot form a single phrase.By some miracle you do remember why you came, you present the plate. “I, uh, figured you might get hungry so I made you some cookies to snack on.” You set the plate down on the hospital tray next to you. Henry walks over to you to make the conversation a bit more private. Which was a moot point considering his father is a telepath. “You didn’t have to do this.” Henry knows money is tight at your house. That food wasn’t always on the table and you were very considerate of what you ate and spent. So baking a batch of cookies was a huge deal. You shrug, “it’s the least I can do after you let me raid your fridge.” On more than one occasion when you were over to study he had let you grab whatever you wanted food wise. He would let you eat your fill and take some home for you and your brother. Henry figured no one would notice, plus you had been giving him cooking lessons once you found out he had no idea how to cook. “They’re red velvet, you said they were your favorite. And I figured you could use some comfort.” He did remember telling you that his mom used to make him these.Henry’s heart flutters because of course you would remember such a small detail. And try to cheer him up when not even his girlfriend bothered. He gives you a warm smile, “thank you.”“I’m gonna go. You should spend time with your dad, plus I gotta track down Rick.” You shoulder your bag, “yeah suddenly he gets friends and now he’s gone all the time.” You roll your eyes and Henry laughs lightly.Henry gives you a hug, you tense for a moment. In all the time you two had spent together he had never touched you in any way. And you never thought Henry would give hugs, let alone to you. But you do eventually embrace him.After he lets go you turn to his dad. “Goodbye Dr. King it was good seeing you up,” you wave goodbye and he actually waves back. You leave and begin processing what had just happened.Henry smiles as he watches you go. You were kind and thoughtful, so genuine. This gesture only deepens his feelings.“You love her,” Henry Jr spins around to face his father, he almost forgot he was even there. He is blushing at the declaration.“I like her,” Henry knows he likes you, you are the reason he broke up with Cindy. But Love? He’s only been in your presence for a few months now and you have only gotten close in the last few weeks. So he can’t love you, yet.Henry Sr smiles and shakes his head, “that look in your eyes is the same look I had when I met your mother.” As much as Henry wanted to argue that he was not in love with you, the he only liked you, he wanted to hear more about his mother. Sr never really talked about her.~~~"Rick!" Your brother turns at the sound of his name, "there you are." You jog up to him."I didn't see you at lunch," he lamely. He looks like he wants to leave, which doesn't make any sense.You hadn't been at lunch the last few days, "Ms. Jenkins asked me to help her for extra credit."This makes Rick raise an eyebrow, "you have a ninety one in her class.""You know that's my lowest grade," you were a perfectionist. Anything that was below a perfect score wasn't good enough for you. A ninety one was two points away from a B. "I do not have a 4.7 score for no reason." While he had the GPA score, you were in all AP classes and your GPA was measured differently. The highest he could achieve was 4.0. While you could go up to 5.0 if you could bring your grades up. "It's the only thing stopping me from getting a 5.0."He rolled his eyes, "whatever." He glanced away which made you more suspicious, "look I gotta go I'll see you in a bit. Before you can protest Rick goes to clap you on the shoulder, but regrets it when you yelp. Rick had accidentally hurt you before, he has accidentally pulled your hair or elbowed you. But you have never yelped like that. Not even when he accidentally broke your nose when you both were five. The sound you made makes it seem like he burned you with a fire poker.Rick instantly recoils, the last thing he wants is to cause you pain. “Sorry,” you begin to lightly rub your shoulder, “practice must be rough if you’re in that much pain.” You make a sound of agreement as you continue to massage.While you are massaging your arm your shirt moves briefly. Just long enough for Rick to see a purple on your shoulder. Where your freckles should be.Color guard was much more brutal than people thought, you came home with bruises adorning your arms plenty of times. But not like this. Those bruises are small and more of a green color on your fore arms. This is a dark purple with red. Not something you would get from not catching your flag or rifle incorrectly.Rick’s stomach drops, “where did you get that?” Rick has a feeling he knows who gave it to you, but he hopes he’s wrong.Your entire demeanor shifts, you fail to meet his eyes. “I got it at guard prac-““Y/N,” Rick warns. You can not lie to him and you both know it. There is no use, you two can read each other like books. You know each other tells and you can detect each other’s lies a mile away. “Where did that bruise come from? Did Matt do this?” He asks in a low voice trying not to snap.You are silent for a moment, trying not to cry. You know that if you tell him he will go and confront your uncle. And that was the last thing you wanted.Finally you speak, “he just shoved me.” Rick doesn’t not take the news well and kicks the ground. “It was accident.”“The hell it was,” he yells, “he should have never put his hands on you!”“Oh so it’s okay when he hurts you.” “That’s different,” you scoff but he continues, “I can take it, I can fight back.”You are shocked at his argument, “is it because I’m a girl?” Rick does not respond.“I’m gonna kill him.” Rick starts to leave but you grab his arm. You beg for him not too, but he does not listen. “Rick you can’t beat him, he’s a grown man. He’s stronger than you.”Rick smirks, which makes your blood run cold. “For one hour he won’t be.” He pushes you away and storms off.You are crying. And for some reason you are scared for your uncle. Because the look in your twin brother’s eyes makes it seem like he has an ace up his sleeve. One he can use against Matt. Ever since your parents died Rick had been taking care of you. He had held your hand when the police informed your uncle about the accident. He had hugged you when you had nightmares. He never let anyone tease you. He had been your best friend. But most of all he had protected you from Matt. Anytime things got tense he would stand between you and Matt. When Matt would make a remark about you Rick would say or do something to focus the attention on himself. If Matt so much as looked at you the wrong way Rick would distract him. Every insult, every taunt, every smack was landed on Rick not you. Rick made sure of it, he vowed to protect you.He could say or do whatever he wanted to Rick, but if Matt ever touched a hair on your head Rick would hurt him. You had no doubt that Rick would do something to your uncle. You did not want that because one of them would hurt the other and you did not want to find out who would win.~~~Courtney, Henry, Yolanda, and Beth were being lectured by Pat when you walked into the Pit Stop. You had no idea where else to go. You could not trust the police, they would probably force you and Rick into foster care.Rick had been spending a lot of time with the teens. You were happy he had been making friends. Hopefully they could help.“Excuse me?” The group notices you. They know your Rick’s sister, so you are probably looking for him. Except you have a tear stained face and look worried beyond belief. “You guys are Rick’s friends right?”“Y/N,” if anyone had thought about it any harder they would confused as to how Pat knew you since he had never met you. As far as anyone knew he didn’t even know your name. But there were more important issues at hand. Pat, being the adult, steps forward, “is everything okay?”You bite your lip trying not to cry harder, but you cannot stop yourself. “He, he,” you stop to collect yourself, “he’s going to hurt him.”“Who’s going to hurt who?” Pat looks concerned.“I tried telling him that it was an accident that Matt didn’t mean to. But he said he’s going to, to,” you pause, “he said something about an hour, I don’t know.” You put a hand to your mouth to stop yourself from sobbing.This gets their attention. They know Rick had his hourglass, and Pat barely stopped him from using it on his uncle before. Now that he hurt you, Rick would definitely go after him.Pat places a comforting hand on your shoulder, you hiss so he lets go, “listen you stay here with Beth and we’ll go check on him, okay?” You nod. Pat turns to the group, “Beth stay here with her, we’ll go get Rick.” Everyone moves.Beth comes over to you, “come on, lets get you cleaned up.” You nod again. You pray that your brother does not kill your uncle or that Matt kills Rick.~~~By the time the group gets there Rick is barreling towards the from door. He is rushing forward with his fists clenched. Almost a decade’s worth of anger and resentment ready to put into punches. Rick had a lot of emotions he pushed down, but now he wanted to unleash them on Matt.There would be hell to pay for anyone who hurt his sister.Rick kicks in the front door, imagining it as as Matt’s stomach. Just like he did when a ten year old version of himself accidentally broke a dinner plate. He hears movement and voices behind him, but ignores it. He is too focused on his revenge. “Rick stop, hurting him won’t change what he did!” Hearing Courtney say that makes him falter. He knows, but does not care. He just wants his uncle to feel the agony and terror you felt. That both of you felt everyday for years.Rick goes to move forward again. He goes to get him but finds himself unable to move. “Get out of my head Henry!”You have to stop, hurting him won’t help her. Despite the telepath being in his head he finds him soothing. He can feel himself calming down. He knows it is because of Henry and he should be angry. But Rick is tired.Rick is tired of hurting. He is tired of resenting. He is tired of being angry.All Rick wants it for you to be safe. He cannot be sure of that, and it hurts. It hurts that he cannot protect the one person he loves. Finally Rick breaks down. Tears of frustration fall from his eyes. He is tired of all the pain.Rick feels a hand on his shoulder and sees Henry standing there. Henry offers him a sad smile. For some reason this makes Rick break even further. His resolve completely crumbles and he starts crying. Henry, who could feel his pain and see years of his trauma says nothing. But does pull the other male into his arms because he knows what it is like. Not just because he can see into Rick’s mind, but because he knows what it is like to have a family member be the root of his pain.Henry holds Rick as he cries. Years of bottled up feelings are unleashed. He feels worthless because he failed to protect the one person in his life who loved him unconditionally. He feels pathetic crying in front of his team and being held by the biggest jerk in school. But he is too emotional to care.They both stand there for awhile as Rick cries and cries. Until Henry senses his emotions dimming. “Let’s go check on Y/N, yeah?”Rick pulls away to wipe his eyes. He nods and follows Henry outside. The others follow him.~~~You and Beth were over Courtney’s house. Barbara had stopped by The Pit Stop and had seen your sobbing form. After a mom hug, something only a mom could give, she instantly ushered the both of you into her car and back to her house. Where she had comforted you and had run you a bath so you could destress. It felt weird to be pampered. But it felt even weirder to have a mom take of you. You had lost all parental love the night your parents died. Matt was not the type to offer advice or give hugs. But having Barbara look at so softly and speak the same way made a part of you melt.After laying in the bath for a while you heard voices, namely a deep on that could only belong to you brother. This made you get out of the most relaxing bath ever.Barbara had given you a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie that hung off your frame in a cartoonish way. You roll up the sleeves so you can use your hands. You ignore the mirror, you are too afraid of you reflection. Between all of crying you had done and the throbbing in your face, you know you must look awful. This morning you had seen the black eye forming so you had put on extra makeup this morning. It hurt like hell, you were still sore from your ‘fall’ last night, but you needed to hide it. Rick had even commented on your extra makeup this morning, but you gave him a gruff answer.Making your way downstairs you can hear your heart beat echo in your ears. You find Rick, his new friends, Pat, Barbara, and Courtney’s step brother Mike all talking in the kitchen. Beth gasps when she sees you, she is first one to notice you enter. All of the others turn to see you, you can see the pity in their eyes. You hug yourself and look at the floor.You hate feeling weak. Like you were worthless. You hated feeling like you could not take care of yourself. Right now you feel just like that. You feel defeated.Rick goes to step forward, he wants to know what happened, but Pat places a hand on his shoulder. Instead Barbara comes forward and places a hand on your non-injured shoulder, “are you feeling better?” You are unable to meet her eyes but you nod. “C’mon let’s get you some food, I made you a grilled cheese, Rick said it’s your favorite.”It was not everyday you got offered free food, especially your favorite, but you cannot bring yourself to eat. Your stomach is too twisted into knots to eat.Barbara leads you to the table where she has a plate waiting for you. You sit down hesitantly, Rick sits to your left and Barbara to your right. The rest of the group is gathered all around you. You sit there awkwardly with your eyes trained on the plate.Rick speaks up, “can you guys give us a minute?” Everyone else slowly filters out od the room. You fail to notice but Henry lingers for a moment. The two of you had spent so much time together since school started so you had grown close. Henry liked you, he really liked you. So seeing the reserved but strong girl he knew reduced to a shell, hurt him.Eventually it is only you and Rick. The silence in the room is painful so you break it, “It was my fault.” You hear Rick scoff, “it’s true. I got him upset.”~~
After nearly tearing apart your room looking for your book you remembered that the last place you had it was out with the car Rick was fixing. While he worked on it you would sometimes practice color guard or sit out there with him. Even if you were both doing two different things that was how you spent time together. You two did that a lot.
You went outside expecting to find your book only to find your uncle Matt going through Rick’s car parts. He was probably going to sell them, it would not be the first time. “What are you doing?”
Matt did not seemed fazed, “collecting rent.” He often hung it over your heads how he paid for everything. Food, water, heat, electricity, clothes. And that if it was not for you two he would a millionaire by now.
“Okay, if it’s that bad I’ll get a job, don’t take our stuff and hock it.” You were not about to let him take Rick’s things, not when Rick had been saving up. And you had noticed quite a few of your things had gone missing.
Matt grabbed the car part, if you remembered correctly it was the second carburetor Rick had bought, but you stepped forward. “Back up, princess.” You hated that nickname anymore. You dad used to call you that affectionately, but your uncle used it to taunt you.
“I’m serious, stop taking our stuff,” you stared him down. Deep down you knew you were no match for him, you had seen him take down Rick far too many times too count. But you sure as hell were not about to let him just walk away with his prize.
“Don’t make me say it again,” despite the fear of him hurting you again, you did not back down. In fact you tried to grab the part from him. You did get a hold of the piece and tried to turn away but Matt was having none of it. You grabbed you by the shoulder and pushed you forward.
When you landed, you landed on the damn car part. Well, your face did at least. You hissed in pain from both your face and where Matt had grabbed you.
Your uncle was not done with you. He stomped on your shoulder and you yelped. He pressed into it and you cried out in pain. “You god damn kids ruined everything!” He kept applying pressure despite you squealing.
Eventually he got tired of tormenting you and lifted his foot. You crawled with your good arm away and curled into yourself. You had not realized it but tears were running down your face from both the pain and the shock of what you had just gone through.
~~Your eyes remained on the plate. Unable to look at him, you don't want to see the look in Rick's eyes. "I shouldn't have fought back like that.""You shouldn't have had to," Rick's voice sounds bitter, it did anytime either of you talked about what Matt did."Neither do you," you hate how he always makes it seem like it shouldn't bother him. He always talks about how unfair it is to you, but never himself. It's almost like he thinks he deserves it."Well now I can do something about it," he says it was same way he did before he ran off. You don't like the confidence in his voice, you know that there's something else."What does that mean?!" You ask exasperatedly. You face him so you can look him in the eye. “What is going on?! You’ve been acting weird the past few days.” You cross your arms ignoring the pain in your shoulder. You know Rick better than you know yourself. You know he responds to things, how certain things make him feel. How he hates being angry so much it makes him more angry. So you know when he is hiding something.Rick avoids looking at you when he says, “nothing.”“Bullshit, four days ago I was trying to convince you to actually go to school for once and you cornered me after my shower and lectured me for twenty minutes about to stay away from Henry. Now you’re actually going to school and you have friends. And to top it all off you had lunch with Henry King of all people and he threw something at you and you’re just cool with it?”You try to look into his eyes but he won’t meet them. He knows that if he looks at you he will sing like a canary. He will tell you everything and that is the last thing he wants.“You’ve been telling me to make friends,” he says awkwardly.“Don’t try to change the subject on me.” You point a finger in his face. “Tell me right now, what is going on.” He still avoids looking at you and remains silent.You start to get up and Rick blurts out, “mom and dad were murdered.” This makes you stop dead. “Dad was a superhero and he was tracking down some villains and he got too close and they got murdered. Dad was Hourman.” Rick explains everything from your father’s journal to why your last name suddenly became Harris instead of Tyler to him using your father’s hourglass. He can’t show you the hourglass because Pat took it to stop him from hurting Matt, and Rick knew he wasn't going to give it back. He does pull out another one; it is much smaller than his, or rather your dad’s. He goes as far to place it over your neck and turn it, he hopes that maybe it will finally work. It doesn’t and Rick is at a loss because he doesn’t have any other way to prove what he is telling you.You remain silent as he rambles about what he learned the last few days, listening to what he says. Once he is done he waits anxiously for you to respond. “Holy shit,” Rick sighs in relief because at least you’re not yelling. “Out of everything you could have said that was the best lie you could come up with?”Rick’s relief falters, “it’s not a lie!”You scoff, “you expect me to believe that our father, the man who played G.I Joe with you and had tea parties with me and couldn't bring himself to put us in time out also went out at night in a skin tight costume and was a crime fighting superhero?” Rick shuffles awkwardly, “well when you put it like that it sounds stupid.” He did his best to explain what he had learned but he knew it would be much easier with Beth’s goggles.You are in disbelief, “I honestly thought you would be the last person to lie to me. But I guess I was wrong.” You take the hourglass off and shove it into his chest. With tears in your eyes you stand up to leave. Rick calls your name, but doesn’t stop you. He knows better than to try to stop you.As you storm outside Henry calls your name. You stand on the patio and he comes over to you nervously.You and Henry may have only gotten close recently, but you have come to know him rather well. So you noticed he had been acting weird in the last day or so. At first you thought it had to do with him and Cindy breaking up, but something told you that was not the case. He has been fidgeting and looking at you from the corner of his eye. Then you thought it was because of your injuries, but his behavior had started before that. It could not have been because of his father because he had been in the hospital for a while now.Henry fidgets nervously, he had been debating on how to go about this all day. When he saw you with that black eye he decided to wait. But now that you are here and in front of him looking at him so softly he cannot stop himself. “Do you want to go out with me?”You think he means to hang out so you clarify, “like you want to get out of the house, sure I don’t know where you want to go.”Henry nearly groans, “no like do you want to go out a date with me?” Your eyes widened, “like a date, date? One where we hold hands and stare into each other’s eyes kind of date?” Henry becomes nervous because you don’t seem very receptive to the idea. Especially when you give him a soft, “no.”His heart breaks when he hears that. “Please,” you avoid his eyes and remain silent, “I really like you, just give me a chance.” You pick at your nails for a moment before you respond. “Henry I can’t trust you like that. You broke up with Cindy not even a day ago and now you suddenly are into me? You’ve been with her for a while and you need time to process that. Plus after what you did to Yolanda, I could never date someone who would do that to someone they claimed to love.” “Cindy did that!” Henry interjects.You lightly scoff, “oh now you say that. Why didn’t you say something when her family disowned her? Or when all of her friends abandoned her? Or when people bullied her? Oh that’s right you were right beside Cindy. You shamed her for something you caused. You ruined her life and you didn’t do a thing to help her.” You are right, a hundred percent right. He has never admitted it, but everything you said is true.Henry knows you could not be anymore right, but he does not know what to say. “I’m sorry.”You rolled your eyes, “why are you telling me, I’m not the one you slut shamed for the past four months. I’m not the one who lost all of her friends all because she wanted to make her horny boyfriend happy. I’m not the one who was betrayed by the one she loved. She is. You should be apologizing to her, not me.”Henry can feel tears in his eyes because you could not be more right. You were the only person who would say that to him. Well that could get away with it. It hurt to hear, but not as much as it must have hurt Yolanda.There is a painfully awkward silence since Henry is processing what you said. “Maybe one day, when you’re not a jerk and you’ve gone through, like, seven years of personal growth and actually start caring about people, maybe then. Maybe. But until then the answer is a hard no, because you’re an asshole.” With that you get up and leave Henry alone with tears and thoughts.You begin walking down the street back to your house processing what Henry had said to you. Henry liked you, in a romantic way. You had a feeling that he had liked you, but you pushed those thoughts away. You hoped that you were reading too hard into your encounters but you were wrong.Just as you were about to turn the corner you saw one of the gym teachers, Mrs. Brooks standing there. You jumped in surprise. “Mrs. Brooks, you scared me.”She smiled and you were not sure why but it unsettled you, “sorry about this.” You suspicion was confirmed when you felt impossibly strong arms squeeze you and something jam into your neck. By the time you realized what was going on you were already asleep.~~~Rick stood there, quietly. His arms were crossed over his chest. Anytime someone would try to talk to him he would deflect. He was too busy thinking about your exchange. I honestly thought you would be the last person to lie to me. But I guess I was wrong. Hearing you say that with a look of betrayal on your face hurt. He couldn’t stop replaying that conversation in his head. Maybe if he had worded it better, or got Pat or had Beth use the goggles-Then a feeling of absolute dread filled him. It made his heart stop and fear course from his head to his fingers to his toes. When you both were young, the two of you thought you had twin telepathy. You knew each other so well it was easy to ‘read each other’s minds’. Spending every day together since birth made it easy. As you got older you realized you two just knew each other better than you knew yourselves.However there were moments that made both of you wonder if you really could read each other’s minds. If you somehow had telepathy or an emotional link. Because you both just knew things about each other that there was no way you could possibly know.Rick knew how badly he hurt you when he accidentally broke your nose. You knew when he broke his arm falling from a chair despite being in the kitchen. Rick knew when Matt was being mean to you even if he was in the other room. You knew Matt had beaten him badly despite being at the store. Rick knew when you were getting your period before you did (you didn’t understand that one either). You knew he spilled his water bottle on himself in history class because you suddenly felt cold despite being in gym class. Rick knew about your attempts; not before he could stop you it seemed.Sometimes you both got gut feelings about each other. You feel his anger, he could feel your sadness. It was hard to describe, feeling something that wasn’t your own. But you would both feel a wave of emotion or physical feeling and every fibre of your being saying ‘it’s not you it's me’.Rick was feeling one right now. It wasn’t pain or sadness, it was fear. Then nothing. Not a lack of the feeling, just nothing. It felt wrong.He had felt something like this before, it was one of you attempts. It was the closest one too. He had been out and felt it. When he rushed home he found you passed out on the bathroom floor and you pulse weak. Very weak. It scared him so bad he still had nightmares.This feeling wasn’t quite the same, it was different. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. But he wasn’t too worried about that, he was more worried about you. After your talk, who knows what kind of mental state you were in.Rick starts moving, “Rick what’s wrong?” Barbara can see the panic in his eyes, she’s concerned. “Need to find Y/N,” he goes to surge forward.Pat stops him, “easy, she just needs to calm down-““Something’s wrong, I can feel it!” He yells, trying to push forward. Henry pulls out his phone and tries calling you, but you don’t answer. It makes sense that you don’t. Courtney sees what he is doing and asks for your number, she tries calling to no avail.This doesn't help Rick so he gets up and starts walking. Everyone jumps up to follow him. He goes out the door and seems to not and not know where he is going at the same time. Everyone watches him carefully waiting for him to bolt. He slows down at the end of the street and looks around. He begins pacing, “don’t ask, I can’t explain it,” Rick is walking in circles and not making sense, “I know how this looks but,” he trails off.Pat points at Rick, “should we-?”Yolanda shakes her head, “Courtney gave the biggest hot head in school an hourglass that gives him super strength for an hour. And his sister, his only living family is missing. We’re just happy he’s in our line of sight.”Rick stops at a certain spot, he looks at the ground. He stares for a moment, as if something is showing him. Then he sits down, “here, she was here when,” he pauses, “whatever happened, happened.”Beth turns to Pat, "they wouldn't take her, would they?" She was still getting used to this new line of thinking, of living actually.Pat knows they most certainly would, they had killed your parents years ago and a few days ago they killed Joey Zarrick. But he doesn't want to say for sure, "we need to find out." He looks to the rest of the group, "suit up." He looks directly at Rick, "I'll get your hourglass."~~~Henry stares at his father, wondering if he ever really knew him. There were so many sides to him. The one he had known for most of his life, the one everyone knew as Dr. King, the father Henry knew from before his mother died, the husband who used to kiss his mother on a certain spot on her neck just to hear her laugh, the one who killed her.Now he was staring at Brainwave, who was somehow all of these versions of him, but not at the same time. “Jordan didn’t kill your mother, I did,” hearing his father, the one he had been sure could be redeemed say that hurt almost as much as losing his mother. And that changed his whole life. Now he did not want to save his father, he wanted his father to die.Henry Sr. was not done. “Nine years ago I made a choice, I had two options. And now so do you. You can try and leave and I will have to kill you both.”That made an already angry Henry, angrier. He used his newfound abilities you pick rocks laying about and hurl them at his father. “I will never join you.”Henry Jr was no match for his father, what took a good portion of his abilities his father cast aside with ease. “I was afraid you would say that. While I was not sure of your abilities I did create a back up plan to get you by my side.” While this confused Henry it only made him angrier.That is until he heard you cry out in anguish, “stop please, oh god stop, it hurts!” All of the anger Henry felt was replaced with ice cold dread. Because they had you. Less than an hour ago you had given him the lecture of a lifetime. And you had left the Whitmore-Dugan house in tears from both him and an argument with your brother. You were bruised both physically and emotional but you were fine. Now you were screaming in agony and begging to be let go.“Your other option is join me and your girlfriend here lives. It would be such a shame to have to kill another Tyler when they could be of use.” Rick freaks out behind him, screaming for his sister to be let go, threatening the telepath. But Henry does not hear that, he can only hear you. You are in so much pain, more than you had ever been in. It hurt more than any beating your uncle had dished out to you or your brother.He feels the pain you are feeling as if he is one experiencing it. But the most concerning part is the fact that you want to give up. You don’t want to be in pain any longer or fight it for that matter. You feel so defeated already.Henry is concerned because no mentally sound person should be feeling this way even if they were being tortured. He can feel the mental exhaustion and the depression you have felt for the last nine years.Henry doesn’t think, he just acts on instinct. The instinct to protect you and to stop any pain your feeling. “I’ll do whatever the hell you want, just let her go.”“I’m afraid I cannot do that, but if you join me she will live.” Henry has a feeling that his father is telling the truth.Henry turns back to the rest of the team, the one he is not sure he is even apart of. “I have to,” he can see Courtney, Yolanda, and Beth trying to argue with him but he is focused on Rick, your brother. “I can’t let them hurt her. I’m sorry.” He focuses on Yolanda and Courtney, “you were right, people are good, don’t let this change that.” Rick looks like he is being torn apart and his thoughts say the same. I’ll try to protect her.Henry turns to face his father. “I’ll do it, just don’t hurt her.” The older man smiles and reaches his hand for his son to take. And even though it makes Henry die a little inside, he takes it.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
For someone who had tried to end their life before, you found yourself realizing you never wanted to die. You wanted the pain to stop, for the agony you felt inside to end. You didn't see another way for that to happen before. You had thought you had wanted to die, but in reality you wanted life to stop hurting.But now you truly wanted to die rather than have the needle that was creeping closer pinch your skin. "No please.""It will hurt, but it will make you better," Dragon King's voice sounds slippery, like he's escaping something. "There will never be a more perfect weapon than you."The needle jabs your skin and whatever is inside is pushed into you. With the way your heart rate was increasing you knew it would make whatever was happening happen faster.You took it back again, you would rather die than feel the pain the drugs are making you feel. It's like your entire body is on fire, every nerve, every cell is burning inside and out. It completely washes over you, taking over your mind and body. You're not sure if you scream. You can't think or act, only feel the pain. It's like your brain shuts down. You don't see anything or hear anything. You just hurt. You lie there in pure agony feeling every part of your body explode in pain. Just pain. Pat. Pain. Pain.Pain.Pain.Pain.Pain.Pain.Pain. Pain. PainPain.Pain. Pain. PainPain.Pain.
Pain.
Then... nothing.You're weightless. Floating. Not awake. Not asleep. Not dead. Not alive. Just...Nothing.Nothing. Nothing.All at once everything comes back. Like you are slammed back into existence outside of the pain. Your sight, your smell, your hearing, your ache, not feeling, ache. It comes back so hard and so fast everything seems to be dialed up to 20. You can hear everything around you as is you were next to it, pressing your ear for a closer listen. You can hear each breath Dragon King takes as if your right there. You can the sound his apron makes as he moves. You can hear the steady rhythm of his heart rate as if you had your head pressed against his chest. And the slower thump from each of the mindless drones he has. And others from farther away."I told you, it would be painful," he's touching is equipment. "Now it is time to test it." He turns to you with a scalpel in his hand, "where should we begin?"~~~Henry’s head hurts. It had been hurting a lot these last few days, but now it feels like he left his head in a microwave. It aches of over use and strain.He wants to collapse right there. He wants to fall over and sleep for a few days so he can forget about the pain and heal. But he doesn’t, he can’t.His father had promised him, that if he went through with this test that he could see you. The thought of seeing you was the only thing keeping him upright.Despite his exhaustion he stumbles behind his father. Henry had been training with his father this past week, and every time he made progress he got to see you. It was only for a short amount of time, the most he had spent with you was twenty minutes after he had been forced to kill someone for the power it gave him.Brainwave uses the keypad on the door to unlock it. The door is barely open before Henry is pushing himself forward.You are laying on a table with large metal straps keeping you in place. They are on your wrists and ankles, plus a large one around your mid section. That’s how he finds you each time he’s let in.Henry rushes to your side, “Y/N,” he lays a hand on your face. Your eyes flutter open and you give him small smile. You weren’t asleep, you had been unable to sleep properly since you had been brought here.“One hour,” Henry turns to look at his father. He looks uncaring, but he always did. “You did a good job today, son.” The older man then exits and closes the door and locks it.The first thing Henry does is free you from restraints, even if it is only for a short amount of time. You are grateful he does because it gives you time to stretch your aching body.For almost a week you had been through hell both physically and mentally. First you had been tortured for information on the JSA, but you knew next to nothing. When they couldn’t get information out of you, Dr Ito had been given permission to do whatever he pleased with you. Instead of brainwashing you like the rest of the ISA had thought, he had been using experimental torture on you. He had been keeping you awake, starving you, letting his minions beat you, and pumping you full of god knows what kind of chemicals.“Henry, I think they did something to me.” As of two days ago something had happened. Whatever chemical cocktail you had been given had changed you. You felt stronger than before, more powerful. And you had been healing.Henry shook his head, “Y/N, I think the lack of sleep is getting to you.”“Dragon King chopped off my finger this morning,” you had gotten annoyed with the evil man and given him the bird through your restraints. He had noticed your new healing factor and decided to test it further. He had already made incision after incision, so he amputated your middle finger. “And it grew back by lunch.” You showed him your hand to reveal a perfectly looking finger.Henry didn’t need to read your mind to know that what your saying was true. He could hear your screams of agony each day. He does decide to change the subject, “I spoke to Pat telepathically,” your head snaps up. “My dad made me test out this machine, and I could hear so many people’s thoughts. I could feel what they were feeling." He shudders at the memory of being overwhelmed, "I felt Pat’s mind, I told him where we were and that you’re alive.”You are silent for a moment, processing what he has told you. You know he is getting more powerful, his father is making kill for that power. And you know something is going to happen, that a shoe is going to drop. You hate the fact that you are being used as leverage to get Henry to comply. You hate the fact that you are strapped to a table and tormented daily just to see how long it will take you break.You also hate the fact Rick is probably losing his mind right now. That he must be worried about what is happening to you.You want this all to end. “Henry I need you to do something for me.” You reach forward to grab his face, “I’m developing some sort of power, I can feel it inside of me. I’m getting stronger. This power might be able to stop your dad.”“What are you saying?” Henry thinks he knows where this is going, but he is hoping he is wrong.“Kill me,” Henry’s heart stops for a second when you say that. He could feel your hopelessness before, but hearing you want to give up hurts. “Please, it could help you get away from your dad. And I-““What about Rick, you dying would crush him.” It’s the only argument he can think of.Tears fall from your eyes and Henry reaches forward to wipe them, “he’ll live, it’s better than worrying about me.” Henry doesn’t respond, “Henry please.”“I can’t,” he knows that he can’t bring himself to do it. And even if he did he would never forgive himself. Rick would never forgive him.“I want to see my parents again,” you whisper. That makes Henry’s eyes start to grow misty. He knows how much it hurts you to live without your parents. That you miss them like crazy. And Henry gets it because he misses his mom too.“I’m sorry,” Henry reaches into you mind and puts you to sleep. He had promised himself that he would stay out of your mind but he does it anyway. He doesn’t want to argue for what little time he has with you. He justifies it in his mind by reminding himself that you are so sleep deprived. He choses a memory as your dream, he wants to stop you from having a nightmare. He can see it as you dream it. It warms his heart too.~~~
Normally you woke up first, but this particular morning Rick woke you up. The first thing he did was walk over to where you slept all of ten feet from your bed. If only you were a light sleeper like him. Or didn’t try to fight it.
The two of you left your shared bedroom and started to the kitchen. You could hear music playing softly. You both peaked in to see your parents by the stove slow dancing to the song playing from the radio. It was ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ by Frank Sinatra but more importantly their first dance song from their wedding. It didn’t come on the radio that often but when it did they would look at each other dreamily and talk about their wedding. Rick would always make a face but you loved hearing about it.
You two watched your parents dance around in their own little world. They were too busy looking into each other’s eyes and smiling to notice you and Rick peaking from the doorway. They looked so happy and in love. The held each other close, save for when your dad spun your mom around.
Eventually the song ended and your parents kissed. You and Rick made your presence known by making fake gagging noises. This made your parents turn to you both, “Incoming.”
The both of you rushed forward into your parents waiting arms. You were scooped up by your dad and your face was peppered in kisses. Rick was getting the same treatment by your mom. “Switch!” Then your parents swapped you two out and repeated the process.
Once you had stopped giggling you announced, “I’m hungry.”
“Me too,” Rick added.
“Okay, how about I make some pancakes,” your dad set Rick down, “while you two go get dressed.” You whined and cuddled further into your mom’s arms. “Or you can stay in your pajamas for a bit longer I guess.” You cheered.
Rick ran off presumably to get dressed while you stayed in your mother’s arms. For some reason you didn’t want to be put down. Your mom didn’t seem to mind, to much. You played with her necklace while she set the table.
To you it was the prettiest necklace in the world, and really fun to play with. Just as she was finished setting the table your dad stepped forward with a large plate of pancakes. Before either of them could say anything you yelled at the top of your lungs, "Ricky, pancakes!"
"Thank you for that," you mom grimaces and tilts her head from you. You did just yell directly in her ear. She set you down so you and Rick could sit at the table next to each other as always. Your mother tried to sit next to you dad, but he never let her. Instead he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her onto his lap. "Rex knock it off," she would warn with a smile on her face.
"I love you Wendi," he said. He would always say that to her.
"I love you too," she said. She always said it back too.
Even though you think kissing and romance are gross you can't help but want that when you grow up and get married. You want to find someone who loves you like your parents love each other.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Everyone was expecting Rick to slam doors, curse, throw things, something. Like he did when Courtney was hurt, but he didn't. He sat there on the couch with red rimmed eyes and stared off into space.Rick glances at the journal, "I should have told her." He should have come clean sooner, Rex's legacy was just as much of yours as it was his. You would have been able to figure it out by now and saved the day. "She's the smart one," you had been getting straight A's for years and if it wasn't for you he would have repeated freshman English, "she's the one who's going to do something with her life." If either of you deserved the title, it was you. Not the school delinquent. "It should have been me."Pat steps forward and looks into Rick's misty eyes. "It shouldn't have been either of you." None of them should have been subjected to this, they were all too young. Pat should have fought Courtney on this harder, he should have never let a group of kids into this mess. No matter how much he wanted justice and knew he couldn't get it himself. He should never have let it get this far, they were just kids.Rick glances back at the journal, "I should have-"But Pat cuts him off, "don't do that to yourself." He knew exactly where Rick's mind was, he had been there himself. "Take it if from me all of those 'should haves' and 'what ifs' will not do you any good."Everyone in the room seemed to understand where he was coming from. Pat had been there that Christmas Eve, he had been one of two to make it out. And now he was the only one left. He had an entire decade's worth of those thoughts creeping inside his head. "What do we do now?" Beth's voice is hoarse from the crying. She can't stop herself. She can't get the sound of you screaming out of her mind, or Henry's pained face when he followed his father. All eyes in the room turned to Pat, their unofficial leader. And while he's flattered and has always wanted to be apart of the JSA, he didn't want it to happen like this. "Right now, we take five," after what they had witnessed they needed that break, "once everyone's got their heads on straight we go back to normal." That makes them all confused, "we pretend like everything's okay so they don't catch on, but we'll actually be working on stopping them." That seems like a good idea to them. "Rick you focus on your dad's journal and we'll come up with a plan."Courtney placed a hand on Rick's shoulder, "we'll get Y/N back.""And Henry," Yolanda adds. She may have hated him for what he did to her but that didn't mean she wanted him to suffer. At least she assumed he was suffering. Rick doesn't 'take five' like Pat said, he can't. He starts pouring over his dad's journal, he needs the distraction. He tries not to go down that 'what if' rabbit hole like Pat mentioned, but it's hard. You were the most important thing in Rick's life and you were taken from him. And he left you behind. But he was going to bring you back.Rick spends the next two days going through sheets of paper trying to solve this equation, but nothing's happening. Beth gets some chemistry books from the library, because Rick going there would have been a huge red flag, and he pours over them. But learning about the inner workings of advanced chemistry doesn't solve the code. He can't solve the code. No matter what group of numbers he puts in he comes up empty."Damnit!" Rick slams his pencil on the table, tears pooling in his eyes. He couldn't tell if they were from frustration or sadness anymore.Once again Pat is the one who comforts him, "it's going to be okay Rick.""How do you know that?!" He asks bitterly. He's being an asshole he knows. He doesn't care. "She's hurting," he knew you weren't dead but that connection you shared made him feel the affects of your pain. "I'm sitting here trying to solve an equation and she's in pain."Pat sighs, trying to word his next sentence carefully. "We will find her," Rick glances at Pat, "you know how you know she's in pain, well I know we'll find her. Call it a father's instinct." Rick scoffs, Pat wasn't your dad. "The second we come up with a plan, we'll go and get her." If they knew where you were or what the tunnels would have looked like they would have been down there already. "Why don't you go get some rest. You staying up can't be healthy."Rick wants to argue that he can't 'rest' while your missing. But he's been up for two and a half days straight, and he's tired. Rick shuffles over to the couch and flops down on it. He doesn't bother taking off his shoes or jeans. Within a few minutes exhaustion wins and he finally get some sleep.Barbara watches with a heavy heart. She's angry at Pat for pulling Courtney into this and not telling her. But her heart still breaks at the sight of Rick and what he must be going through. She looks at Pat, "the poor thing."Pat glances down at Rick, "I don't know what else to tell him." Nothing would comfort him until you were home. He turns to look at his wife, knowing this next conversation won't be easy.~~~Even though Rick skipping school was a normal occurrence, he wasn't allowed to stay behind. No he would much rather be in the garage working on the formula or training. But now he's listening to his English teacher drone on about Beowulf. He doesn't bring the journal to school in case someone sees or it get ruined. Rick doesn't have much left of his dad and he's not about to loose it to Gabby Marks knocking over her bubblegum pink Hydroflask. He wishes he had written down the equation and could work on it, but that was too much of risk. Instead he scribbles possible solution on the side of his paper. It was better than the little drawings he normally did, you would scold him for not paying attention and wasting space. Rick's lip quirks at the thought, he did miss your nitpicking. If Rick was your protector than you were his look out. Always on his shoulder looking over with a critical eye. 'You spelled that wrong', 'that three should be a two', 'did you even read the book', you would say in his ear. It infuriated him most of the time, but he realized you were only trying to help him. If you had not pulled multiple all nighters with him two springs ago, he surely would have had to repeat freshman English. Things like metaphors and vocab were not his strong suit. You would scold him now, 'Rick the teacher is literally giving you all the answers'. You had been excited to read Beowulf, it was a classic, you had told him something about a burnt page. He hadn't really been listening, he should have been though. He should have done a lot of things.All of those 'should haves' and 'what ifs' will not do you any good, Pat had said. But it's hard when Rick is sitting in his English class when you are being hurt and he's too stupid to figure out how to save you. He dribbles down another number, it's random. But at this point he is willing to try anything. The bell rings and he gathers his stuff. There's one more period so he decides to risk it and slip out the door. "Mr. Harris," being called that makes his blood boil even more now knowing who his father was. Rick turns to look at his English teacher, "I just wanted to say, it's nice to see you paying attention and taking notes." He probably thought you were doing his work, like all his other teachers. Because how else would an idiot like Rick Harris Tyler ever pass his classes if his straight A, honor roll, goody two shoes, color coded notes with annotations twin sister didn't step in? If only they knew you would refuse you do it for him, no matter how much he begged, and he would beg. But then Rick would pull out his lack luster notes with your brightly colored additions and annotations on his several rough drafts to prove you did not in fact do the work for him. And whatever teacher would let him go with a huff.Rick gives a tight lipped smile and leaves. He's buzzing, he needs to get to the garage and work on this. Who gives a shit about his math class anyway, he needs to save you. It's the one thing he actually cares about.~~~It had been nearly a week since you had been taken and the walls were closing in. Sportsmaster and Tigress had tried to kill the Whitmore-Dugans, but they all got away. Now they, along with the rest of the team were at a cabin, getting ready for the battle. Rick was showing the map of the tunnels, "this is where they're building the machine."Pat spoke up, "Henry said it was big and that when in use a lot of people will get hurt." It had been odd to have someone speaking in his mind, but Henry had given a lot of useful information. Yolanda was the one to speak up, "do you know where Y/N is?"Rick's face hardened, "I would have to guess here." He pointed to a spot in the center or the tunnel, "Dragon King has mini labs all over the place but these ones are closer enough to the machine." He wouldn't want you to far from where he was. It made Rick's stomach turn.Pat nodded, "Henry said it's not a far walk." He turned back to Rick, "she's going to be okay. We're going to get her and Henry." Rick gave a nod, hoping the older man was right.They go over the plan a few more times before going to rest up. Once again Rick can't rest, he takes the first patrol. But he's not alone, Yolanda comes to join him with two cups of coffee that she's not sure are decaf or not, "hey.""Hey," he glances at the girl, "can't sleep either?"She shook her head, "figured you could use the company." He shouldn't be alone, she thinks. Not because he couldn't be trusted, no Rick had proven he could be trusted, but because of everything going on. Rick shouldn't listen to the downward spiral his mind is in, she knows he's in, because she is too.Neither of them say anything for a moment, but Rick speaks up, "she's going to hate me." It makes Yolanda look at him, "for not telling her sooner." For letting you get kidnapped, for not telling you everything sooner. You two had spent nine years believing your parents abandoned you, "she deserved to know the truth."Yolanda wasn't an expert on comforting, but she had been comforted enough to know what it was like. "You were trying to protect her."Rick turned away, "and look how that turned out." You were kidnapped. You weren't dead, Rick knew that without a doubt, but you weren't safe. You were hurting. "My parents tried to protect us and look what happened." Not telling you the truth earlier led to you being in danger.Yolanda felt her heart break a little, "Rick, it wasn't your fault.""But I could have saved her," his voice sounds broken, so defeated. He was your brother, it was his job to protect you. Even if you were older than him. Dad had told him to take care of you, and he failed him. He had one job and he failed. He wasn't sure he deserved the hourglass at this point.She watches him pick up the second hourglass, it was so much smaller than his. "Did it work for her?"Rick shook his head, "and Pat had taken my dad's so I couldn't prove it to her." He examines it, "why keep an hourglass if it doesn't work?""Did Pat know why he made it?" He was their main guide on all things JSA, Wikipedia could only do so much. But Rick shook his head again so Yolanda asked, "maybe he never got to finish it?""Then why assemble it?" Rick had seen the blue prints, it was completely assembled like the other one. "It's exactly the same," but smaller, "so why won't it work?"Yolanda wants to know too, she had so many questions about the original JSA. And Pat could only give so many answers. But now they had a rescue mission to execute, no that was a bad word, they had a rescue mission to complete. "We're going to find her.""And Henry," Rick adds quietly. He knows Yolanda cares about him, even if she doesn't want to admit it.Both of them grab their cups and clink them together, telling themselves they're ready. But both know they are not.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It had been a while since you heard anyone. In the time you had been here you had always heard someone. Dragon King walking around, his mindless drone shuffling along, Jordan coming to taunt you, Henry Sr training his son, Henry Jr coming to see you. But it had been painfully silent.If it wasn’t for Henry coming to see you, you would have no idea how long you had been here. Dragon King’s “sessions” went on for hours, but felt like entire days. And the time in between felt about the same. When he came he told you had long it had been and what he knew. The longer you laid there, strapped to that table, the less weak you felt. Yes, you were still tired and hurting but you felt the slightest bit.. what was the word… energized? Little by little, the exhaustion faded away.You had stopped trying to escape a while ago. It was pointless, you knew that. You were trapped somewhere with a bunch of super powered villains, there was no way you could fight them.You tried shifting your body for the smallest bit of comfort, the straps were digging into your skin too hard. You could barely move they were so tight. So you used as much effort as you could muster so you could shove yourself to the side, hopefully you could wiggle enough to relieve some of the pressure from the healing gash on your arm.To your surprise you moved with ease, in fact the table creaked from the force. It took you a moment to realize what you had done. You shoved yourself again, this time noting the table moving along with you. There was no way little old you could do that, so you did it again. And had the same result.If you could force the metal table to sway, what else could you do? Could the straps move too? You had to try, you couldn’t not try.There was a strap across your abdomen, one across your legs, and one over your shoulders. The ones on your wrists and ankles are gone since Dragon King wanted to keep you in place this time. You decide to try and free your hands this time, it would be mush easier with your hands free.Again, to your surprise, with all of the force you can muster, you are able to break the strap. The band seems to snap completely off the table. You freeze for a second before a shocked laugh leaves your lips. Disbelief fills you, did you really do that? You reach back and try to grab the band across your shoulders, you can’t get your hands on them enough you grip them from the top. This time instead of just pushing, you pull and try to sit up to add extra force. It works because you are able to sit up with ease. Well, with pain from the last few days was still there.The strap across your legs comes up even easier, you don’t even pull or push, you kick it away.And just like that you are free from your restraints. You stare in shock for a moment, trying to process how the hell you just did that. There was no way you could have done that. Except you did.Staying was not an option, the people here will come back eventually. So you slowly, because you still were in a lot of pain, swing you legs over the table and go to stand. Standing was a lot more difficult than you thought, you legs were weak from not using them. You had to grip the table to stop yourself from falling flat on your face. The ache itself almost made you cave, but you had to get out of here.Stepping forward took a lot of effort, it was hard when your legs were shaking so damn hard. But you needed to leave, you needed to push forward.Once you started going it was easier, putting one foot in front of the other was much easier once you got into a pattern. Now you felt like you could do this.Until you got the the door. You pulled at the handle and it wouldn’t budge. It made sense that the door locked from the outside, what kind of cell wouldn’t lock its prisoners inside? But that didn’t help you.Tears pricked in your eyes, you had stopped crying a while ago. Any sliver of hope you once had was gone now, how the hell were you supposed to break down a metal door?In your frustration you slammed your fist on the door only to hear a creaking sound. It makes you pause, did you do that? There was no way…But you did get out of those restraints, didn’t you? So who’s to say you didn’t make the door make that sound?This time you prepare yourself, you take a step back and wind your arm up. Instead of a fist (like Rick would have done) you flatten your palm. This way you wouldn’t hurt your knuckles and the force would be more evenly distributed.The door creaks again and you can feel it shift from your hit. An equally confused but excited cry leaves your lips when you realize. Somehow you have enough strength to move the door.As much as you would love to wonder how you got it, you had a more important issue, Getting the hell out of here. Wherever here was.Hitting the door again and gain, bits of hope fill you when the door creaks. You realize that hitting the door wasn’t going to be enough.You take a step back and slam your non-injured arm against the door. That makes the door creak even more. You do it again, but this time you crouch slightly to get more leverage.The door is moving, you can see the area by the handle starting to come off the frame. You could see a glimpse of the outside hallway.That glimpse drives you to hit the door harder with you shoulder, making the slit a fraction wider with each hit.Once it was open far enough you stop body slamming it and instead stick your fingers through the crack. Once you get them stable enough you begin pulling the door back. Instead of creaking the harsh sound of metal bending hurts your ears. But you don’t care, not when you’re so close to getting out of this damn cell.When the door pulls back a bit more you only stop to readjust for a better grip. But other than that, you pulling on that door with everything you had left in you. You were getting out of here.You thought about Rick, he must have been so worried about you. You worried about him too, the ISA knew who both of you were. Brainwave had told you how he planned to kill him and how he would would make it painful. But he wasn’t dead yet, he would have bragged about it if he was. And you had a gut feeling, your twin instinct. You knew he was alive, looking for you.Rick was your main motivator. You were getting out of here and seeing your brother again. You were going to apologize for not believing him about your father being Hourman and you were going to smack him for not telling you sooner.Eventually the door opens enough that you can get in between the door and the frame. Somehow you wiggle your way into the gap and through the door. It’s not pretty, it’s tight and there’s metal digging into not fully healed ribcage, but you get through. Not all at once, your torso get out first so you have to put your hands on the ground and pull yourself out the rest of the way. But eventually you are completely outside the door.There is no time in bask in victory, or gawk at what you had done. Now you had to find a way out of here, and fast. Lifting your aching self from the ground, you begin walking again. Instead of walking, you stumble around. You’re in a lot of pain and can barely catch your breath. Also you have no idea where you are or where you are going. Only that you needed to get out.The sound of a fight catches your ears. It's far away but you can voices and the clanging of metal. You had seen Rick in enough fights to know what one sounded like.You should probably be going the other way, but something tells you not to. That you need to go towards the fight. So you stumble forward.You’re above the fight, at the end of a long hallway there is a railing. You can see down to a floor below you, somewhat. There’s people down there, Dragon King’s drones, a giant monster, and Cindy? You thought you were hallucinating.But then you heard a voice you knew better than your own, “I’ve got five minutes left, and it’s all for you!” His back is turned but you knew, without a single doubt in your mind, that is your brother. You recognize him, even if the swagger of confidence was foreign.You go to call out to him but there is someone not far away from the railing. What you see makes you forget about the fight and the pain you’re in. Because panic fills your veins.There were very few things in this world you could count on. The sun rising in the east, there being sixty minutes in a hour, one plus one equaling two, and Rick. Your twin wasn’t perfect, but he was always there for you. He would do anything for you, no questions asked. And so would you.Rick was your rock, if it wasn’t for him you don’t know what you would do. He was the one who sat with you when you were sick. He was one who made sure you got your school assignments done even though you were the one who turned assignments in on time. He was the one who went with you to buy your first pads. He was the one to wipe your tears and offer you awkward sibling hugs. He was the one who hid your razors when he saw the cuts adorning your body. He was one helped you after each of your attempts. He was the one who was there for you.He was your best friend, your only friend. The one living person who you loved unconditionally. Who you would do anything for with no hesitation, apparently.Or at least that’s what happened when you saw Jordan Mahkent turn to ice and aim at your brother’s head. You didn’t think, you didn’t hesitate. You reacted.Maybe it was your instinct, a primal desire to hurt others. Or maybe it was the drugs they had given you, making you think unclearly. Or maybe it was your newly rewritten DNA taking over. Or maybe it was the fact you hadn’t eaten properly. Or maybe it was the sleep deprivation, eleven hours of sleep in a span of seven days can mess with a person’s mind. Or maybe it was being tortured for seven days on end. Or maybe it was being locked in a cell and your only human interaction was with you kidnappers or Henry. Or maybe it could be something else entirely.It could have been any of these things that made you do what you did. It could have been none of these things. It could have been all of the them mixed together equally or some factors made more of a difference than others. But the fact of the matter was the same: you killed Jordan Mahkent. You saw him aim at Hourman’s head. Even though you didn’t believe Rick when he told you, and he was far away you had no doubt it was him. You heard Hourman speak and it was Rick’s voice. And you would know your twin a mile away.You lunged at him. If you had been paying closer attention you would have noticed how far and fast you moved. Even if you weren’t weakened by the previous week’s events you still would never have been able to move so quickly.You tackled him with ease, he clearly wasn’t expecting an attack. You had him pinned in an instant and had your hands around his throat. You weren’t thinking, you were reacting. You saw someone aim at your brother’s head and you reacted. Plain and simple. Or at least until you killed him that is.You squeezed his throat. You squeezed and squeezed. You didn’t mean to kill him. You didn’t mean to let him live either. You didn’t mean to do anything. You just reacted.“Y/N, stop,” you barely heard what had been said. It sounded miles away. You didn’t even know who said it.Then you felt a hand on your shoulder, “he’s dead.”Hearing those words brought you back into the present. You jumped back like you were being shocked. You seemed to snap back into reality. Now you could hear the battle going on down the hall. You could feel the strain in your hands and the ache in your arms. You could think again.You backed away until you pushed up against a wall. Reality began sitting in. You killed someone. You put your hands around a man’s throat and choked the life out of him. You remembered the life leaving his eyes, something you weren’t paying attention to. There was a sharp crack of ice breaking that you had ignored. You watched as he died, as you squeezed his neck.You stared the man, he had been alive a few minutes ago. Now he laid half icy but fully lifeless on the ground, all because of you. His eyes were wide, bulging out of his head, still staring up where you had been above him. Already there were purple fingerprints on his neck and idents of the ice that was there. From your fingers. His face was red, frozen in time, forever. He would never get up, or wheeze another breath. He would never hurt your brother because you choked the life out of him. He would never see anything, or anything. Because you killed him.Finally you tore your eyes from the dead body. You curled into yourself, hugging your knees as tears pooled in your eyes. You killed someone. That someone was lying lifeless in front of you. “I,” even though you weren’t looking at him you could still see his eyes bulging and his face turning red from the lack of air, “I didn’t mean to.” You were shaking, shaking like your arms did as you choked him. “He, he,” you sobbed, “he was aiming,” you made a crude motion with your hand, “he was aiming at Ricky. I,” you felt like you could barely breathe, “I don’t know I fucking panicked.” You hiccuped on air because, oh yeah, you still needed air, “I just reacted.”You felt a hand on your knee and looked to see Henry. He looked so concerned for you, “Y/N,-““He’s gonna hate me,” you said with certainty. You could live with the guilt of killing this man but not the guilt of Rick hating you. He was the one thing you couldn’t live without, you couldn’t handle him hating you.“Rick could never hate you,” Henry said softly.“You don’t know him,” you shook your head. “He’ll never forgive me.”Henry reached into your mind, not that he needed to. Ever since that night when he put you to sleep it seemed like he was always connected to your mind. He could hear your thoughts and feel whatever you were feeling. While he could hear everyone’s thoughts, there was always a mental barrier he needed to push through. But with you there was no resistance, you were an open book at all times. That’s how he knew how to find you so easily, and what you were feeling as you felt it.Still he knew you needed comfort, Rick loves you more than anything, he could never hate his twin. Your eyes snapped to Henry’s, he was expecting you to chastise him for entering your mind, but you didn’t. In fact he could feel the comfort you felt from him entering your mind.Henry offers you his hand, “c’mon, let’s go find the others.” It seemed having Henry speak in you mind did just the trick because you took his hand.Henry guides you out of the tunnels, you’re both silent. What could be said? Plus you were still in shock. You are moving in a robotic way, still grappling with the fact you just killed someone. You couldn’t believe it, because just one week ago you were an ordinary high school student and now you were a superhero’s daughter with powers who killed someone.You’re still processing everything, but it all goes out the window when you see Rick. He is hugging the other JSA heroes. Henry had told you all about them.“Rick!” Seeing you brother makes your inner turmoil worth it. He is alive and well. And will be okay.“Y/N!” You rush forward at a slightly too fast speed and meet Rick two thirds of the distance from where he was standing. You both hug each other like you life depends on it.Neither of you had ever been good at expressing your feelings, years of repressing thoughts and emotions would to that. But you had come to the point of showing each other you cared in other ways. Rick could only handle physical touch to an extent and neither of you could articulate how to say what you meant. So you mainly spent time together or did little things for each other.Every so often Rick would hug you, mostly they were awkward hugs shared between siblings. But sometimes he would give genuine hugs that warmed your heart and comforted your soul. He didn’t give them often so when he did made them even more special.But the hug he gave you now put all of the other hugs to shame. This was a hug meant to show you how much he cared. To explain that you were his lifeline and that he couldn’t do this without you. That he was sorry for not telling you sooner and leaving you out. It held the agony he felt while you were gone and how much he worried about you over the last week. And how much he loved you.You seemed to understand, “I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m here,” you rubbed his back as you hugged him. Three counter clockwise circles then one clockwise, just like your mother did.Rick looked up with misty eyes to see Henry slowly approaching. Not wanting to ruin your reunion. Thank you, he thought to Henry. The small smile he saw was proof that he heard him.The other girls give you two a moment before stepping forward. While the wanted to give you a hug as well, they realized Rick wasn’t quite ready to let go. However Courtney does wrap her arms around you too. She barely knew you, but she liked you from the start. Beth and Yolanda follow suit. Henry stays where he is, knowing full well they didn’t trust him. Even if he had helped them defeat the ISA and apologized a thousand times. He knew better than to expect forgiveness.Yolanda turns from the group for a moment to face Henry, she reaches an arm out to him. She hasn’t quite forgiven him for all the pain he caused her, but he did deserve to celebrate with them. Trying to fight back tears he joins the group hug, happy to be apart of the JSA.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Walking into the Whitmore-Dugan house you feel a huge sense of relief. There wasn’t one when you and Henry stumbled out of those tunnels, clinging to each other for dear life, you were too busy thinking about what you had done to Icicle. But now you had Rick on one side of you and Henry on the other. Barbara gives you a soft look, a mom look that makes your heart melt. “How are you holding up?”Somehow you muster a half smile despite the week of trauma flashing behind your eyes. “Better now that I’m here.” Anywhere was better than that damn cell. And you knew you were safe here just from that one afternoon you spent there.She smiles, “why don’t you go get washed up and I’ll grab you something to eat.” Just like before. You give a small nod and start to head to the upstairs bathroom.Rick and Henry are right behind you, helping you up the stairs. Your legs stopped shaking a while ago but they don’t trust that.Once your in the bathroom Rick follows you in, Henry has the sense to stay outside. Looking up at your twin brother you have never been so glad to see him. You saw him all day everyday for all but one week of your sixteen years life, and it had been hell. Now you didn’t want him to go anywhere, and neither did he.“I’ll keep the door open, yeah?” You knew if there wasn’t a house full of people he would have stayed in the bathroom and adverted his eyes. Growing up in a shared room gave you little to no privacy, you tried to maintain it, but sometimes you had to forgo certain aspects. Modesty was one of those things, it was worse when you were younger and both starting puberty, but eventually you two just accepted that sometimes it was impossible to keep it up at all times.Rick nods before giving you another hug. His arms feel secure, like home. You know that he will do everything to keep you safe. And that he’s glad you’re home.Eventually he pulls away and steps out of the bathroom, you prop the door open and finally get ready to shower.It had been over a week since you had showered properly. Wipe downs down by Dragon King’s mindless drones didn’t count, they were only to prepare you for the next procedure or torture session.You shed everything, your tank top which had become grimy, your blood soaked bra, and the black pair of shorts you had been given that didn’t fit right. Just taking off the clothes felt like heaven.Getting under the water made you sigh relief. It was warm, warmer than the water at your house in West Farms. It helped soothe your aching body and began washing away the blood and sweat. Not trusting yourself, you sink down onto the floor and curl into yourself. You’ll wash up in a minute, shampoo and condition your greasy hair, use soap, the whole nine yards. Right now, you are going to sit on the shower floor of the Whitmore-Dugan bathroom and cry because you are finally safe.~~~Rick sits outside of the bathroom door, Henry sits on the other side of the door frame. The only sound is from the running shower. “I did what I could,” Henry breaks the silence. He wants Rick to know he tried to keep you safe. “I did what my dad said so she wouldn’t get hurt but it didn’t matter.” He hangs his head.“What do you mean?” He knew Henry meant it when he said he would try to protect you. Even if you were clearly hurt when he saw you again, he knew Henry tried to help you.Henry looks over at Rick. “They didn’t take her because you and your dad were Hourman, they took her because of me. They took her because I like her, being Hourman’s daughter was just an added bonus.” Henry looks away in shame, “they tried to make her a weapon, to have a JSA legacy on their side, but they didn’t finish before she escaped.”The two of you look nothing alike, but Henry can see a resemblance. The faces you two make are identical, and the gestures. But this expression is the same as yours when you realized you had killed Icicle. A hard, almost unreadable look comes across his face. One that makes a chill go down Henry’s spine, again. Tears well up in Rick’s eyes, just like they did yours. He doesn’t try to blink them away, he probably didn’t even realize he was starting to cry just like you didn’t. He looks away, at nothing, trying to process this, just like you. The only difference was Rick went stock still whereas you curled into a ball. You two were more similar the more time he spent around you.“What did they do to her?” Rick whispers, his eyes on the ajar bathroom door. He knew you were hurt, alive but hurt, the entire time you were gone. Something deep inside him told him that, and that he would see you again. He worried about what had happened, if Henry somehow did something to hurt you. But it didn’t matter, you were hurt either way.“Let her tell you.” Henry knew, he knew full well what they did to you. His father told him, and he went into your mind more than once. He was well aware of the torture you endured, it made him feel like he got the easy way out despite having to kill people. “It’s her story not mine.”Rick nods, as much as he wanted to know he knows you would tell him when you were ready. Henry adds, “she was worried about you.” Rick turns to look at the ginger. “She kept thinking about you, and what you were doing.” You had been worried that he would do something reckless trying to save you. “It’s what she thought about the most.” He still couldn’t believe after all of that torture you were more worried about Rick than yourself. He doesn’t respond, because what could he say to that? You were being tortured and you were worried about him? Despite the circumstances it warms his heart just a little.At this point Barbara walks up making both lift their gazes. He’s holding some clothes, “she’s going to want to change outfits.”Rick stands and grabs the clothes, “thanks.” He carefully raps his bruised knuckles on the door, “Y/N, I’m going in to bring you some clothes.”“I heard,” your voice is soft. Rick steps in and places the clothes on the counter before exiting, leaving the door slightly open. Rick sits back down with Henry and they remain silent until you emerge. Once again you are in a pair of sweats that are far too large. But it felt good to be warm again having spent the last week shivering. Barbara has walked back over, “feel better?” You give her a small nod. “Pat’s running to get some food, but there’s snacks downstairs if you’re-“Before she can finish your stomach lets out a long, loud rumble. You feel yourself blush, “I, um, could eat.”Barbara gives you another comforting smile, “c’mon, I’ll make you a sandwich.”You sit silently at the table, sandwiched between Rick and Henry. Rick keeps glancing at you, but you’re staring off into space. He wonders what you’re thinking about. Were you thinking about the torture you went through? Were you trying to think of a way to tell him? Or were you simply soaking in the feeling of being safe again?When Barbara places a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in front of you, finally you look more alert. “Thank you,” you take the sandwich and begin eating.You had always eaten fast. Your mother used to scold not only you but also Rick and your dad. But your dad would argue, “you know I have a fast metabolism, Wend’.” Which you and Rick would then parrot.Of course when Matt moved in and complained about how much you two ate, you both started eating fast to get away from him and the table. You learned to keep snacks hidden in your room and if you ran out chugging water before bed so your stomach thought it was full. But this was the first time you had eaten in a while, and it tasted good. It was hard to screw up a peanut butter and jelly, but still. Barbara placed one in front of Henry but he slid it to you, “you can have it.” You needed it more than him. Henry had been having three meals plus a goodnight’s sleep the past week. You eat that one just as fast. And it tastes just as good. But then Pat returns with takeout containers from Richie’s and the smell has your mouth watering.Again you devour your food, you don't feel like you've eaten enough. Even when Yolanda and Beth slide you their leftovers, it feels like you barely ate. Barbara grabs a bottle of ketchup, "don't use that it's expired."She looks at you in surprise, "what-?" She trails off but looks at the expiration date and sees that it did expire a few weeks ago. "How did you-?"All eyes are on you, you hate the attention. "I, um, can smell it." It was weird because you could smell everything in the room and then some. You could smell what was in the pantry and the closed refrigerator. You could smell the different products each of them used along with their natural scents. You could smell so much it was overwhelming."Bull," Mike says, "there's no way you could smell that." He thinks you must have seen the small print somehow. That didn't make much more sense, but just enough.But you could smell each ingredient in everything around you. "I can, I-" The bag Pat had brought the food falls off the island in the kitchen. Without thinking about it you take the butterknife you had been given and toss it. You are faster than the bag so the knife goes sailing through the air. It not only reaches the bag but pulls it back as it embeds itself in the island.You sit frozen, shocked at what you had done. Not being the only one surprised the entire room is frozen. Your hand in still in the air, the hand that wrapped around Icicle's throat. It just sent a butterknife flying into the air. There were people around you, you could have hurt. But you know that you wouldn't. Because that throw was specifically not to hurt anyone around you."Did she just-" Mike trails off, glancing back and forth between you the bag with a butterknife sticking out of the kitchen cabinet."I am so sorry," you say quietly, your fingers twitch before you lower them, "I didn't," you didn't know you could do that. Taking a breath you say, "I can pay for the damages." Pat shook his head, "it was an accident," clearly. Out of everyone he seemed the least bit surprised which made alarm bells go off in your head. But this was Pat, you knew you could trust him. When he gets up and pulls the knife out of the kitchen cabinet you find you can't look at him.~~~“They know we have a guest room, right?” Barbara asks Pat, but it’s more of a rhetorical question.Pat put his arm around her, “well if you want to wake them up and tell them, be my guest.” Neither of them moved, they couldn’t bring themselves to disturb the scene in front of them.You had fallen asleep on the couch, finally getting the rest you needed. Rick had fallen asleep on the floor, facing you. His hand was up on the couch, gently holding your wrist. To most people, they would have thought he was worried you would disappear again, but he actually holding your wrist in a way that he could check your pulse. Some of your hair was hanging off the side of the couch, it moved with every breath Rick took.Henry walked over to where they stood, he had just gotten out of the shower. Though he wasn’t anywhere as dirty as you, he still felt gross. He didn’t ask how you were doing, he could sense that you were doing much better.“At least she fell asleep naturally this time,” he mumbles. The confused faces and mental auras from the two adults makes him explain, “he wouldn’t let her sleep properly, she normally passed out,” from either pain, exhaustion, or drugs. “I helped her one time, but only because she was so upset.” He ignores the memory of your pleas.Barbara softens, “the poor thing.” Her heart ached at the sight of you, you looked so broken, even in your sleep. The only time Barbara had seen you was when you were suffering it seemed.Pat shared a look with his wife, she nodded. He turned to the ginger, “Henry we wanted to talk to you about something.” This made him nervous, with everything that had happened it could anything. And Henry’s mind was not giving him good suggestions. Of course he could read their minds, but the thought made him feel sick. “Since your dad died,” this words should make Henry feel something but he only feels numb, “and you have no other relatives, we were thinking it might be a good idea for you to stay here.”This makes Henry freeze, even though he had been thinking the worst he still wasn’t expecting that. “Wha-?”Pat continues, “well it would make sense, you wouldn’t have to change schools and you could stay close to your team.”“And you need a stable place to live,” Barbara adds. She glances at Pat, “you can take the guest room or we can make space in the basement. It’s up to you.”Henry blinks trying to process what they are offering. In all honesty he hadn’t processed his dad was dead. It didn’t occur to him that he was an orphan or that he couldn’t live in his own house without a guardian. That he was in line to go into foster care.But he didn’t have too. Pat and Barbara were looking at him with soft, caring eyes telling him he had a place in their home. After all he had done, everything they had been through, they would let the son of a villain stay in their home.Instead of a verbal answer, Henry nods and cries. In the entire week since he walked off with his father he hadn’t shed a tear, he had gotten close when he was with you, but he didn’t cry. Even when he felt his father dying and was gifted his powers. Not when he had to hurt people.But this, being showed love and affection from people he looked up too, is what made the waterworks flow. Barbara steps forward to give him a hug, which makes him cry harder. She rubs his back to comfort him. Pat even places a hand on his back to help. It feels nice, it feels like home.~~~A weird part about being a superhero was that when not in costume, you were just an ordinary human being. And you had to pretend that you were normal.You wouldn’t call yourself a superhero but like everyone else around you, you have to suck it up and go to school the next day.24 hours ago you were being held captive and tortured. 22 hours ago you killed Jordan Mahkent. 21 hours ago you were washing away the blood from a week of experiments. 20 hours ago you finally got some sleep. 10 hours ago you woke up and went back to Matt’s house, and he didn’t even notice you were gone. 8 hours ago you feel asleep again. 7 hours ago you woke up from a nightmare. 6 hours ago you stared at yourself in the bathroom mirror. 5 hours ago you shower again. 4 hours ago you stare at your hands. One hour ago you got ready for school. Now you’re walking inside the building like nothing happened.There’s no bruises on you, unlike Rick and the others. So as far as anyone is concerned you just didn’t show up for a week, which isn’t too out there for you. But you go to your locker and grab your books, trying to ignore all the sounds and smells around you.Rick walks with you to homeroom, as always. Henry is already there, you feel a sense of comfort seeing him. “Hey, how are you holding up?”Only you would go through all of that just to ask how he’s doing. “I’m okay, how are you?”You give him a nod, but don’t meet his eyes. “I’m doing okay,” Rick says from behind you. He clearly doesn’t like whatever you two have going on. The three of you sit together, which is odd. But you no longer have to pretend to not be friends. You all make awkward small talk, knowing this is not the place to have the conversations you wanted. But soon the bell rings and the day starts.After second period you couldn’t take it anymore. There were too many heart beats, to many conversations, too many perfumes and colognes, the clock in room 103 was off by seventeen seconds, writing with chalk made the hairs on the back of your head stand, Michelle Conners was chewing her gum too loud in D Hall, Stephenie Carver was listening to the most obnoxious K-Pop song in her ear buds. Even though you were ‘the good one’ you knew how to skip just like Rick. It was easy to slip out the side door and walk farther and farther from the school. You take a moment to send Rick a text that you had to get out of there. But where to go? You weren’t about to risk seeing if Matt was awake at the house. Anywhere else would probably call the school. So you just start walking. You find yourself outside the Pit Stop, you know Pat is in there. His car is visible along with the ‘Open’ sign, but you can hear his familiar heartbeat. Walking inside you see him leaning over the hood of a car. “Pat?” You watch him jump six feet and drop the wrench on the floor. “I’m sorry!” You step forward and grab the wrench. His heart beat sky rockets before slowing down.“It’s okay,” he wipes his hands on his towel, “just give me a warning next time, my heart ain’t what it used to be.”“I’m sorry,” you can’t believe you scared him so badly, after all he had done for you.“What are you doing here?” Pat was worried about you, everyone was. But something seemed different about his concerns, you couldn’t put you finger on it.You shift awkwardly, “I, uh, took a wrong turn on the way to algebra.” He obviously didn’t believe you, “I needed to get out of there.”Pat leans on the car, “did something happen?” You shake your head, “it was just too much. Too many sounds, too many smells, too many everything.” You hug yourself, “I thought I could handle it.”Pat softens, “Y/N, with what you went through I don’t think anyone would expect you too.”He’s pitying you, you didn’t want him too. You hated when people pitied you. “It’s not that big a deal,” you had survived. “I’ll get over it, I just wasn’t as prepared as I thought.”Pat sits down on his work stool, “being tortured isn’t something you get over.” You still have the wrench in your hand, it would make a great weapon. “You know you can talk to me if you want.”Talking to someone was a foreign concept, you only had Rick to trust. You knew Pat was there for you, you could talk to him. But how do you open up when you had been shutting down your whole life?You ran you finger over it’s edge, “everything is so loud anymore.” The wrench had curved points that wrapped around the screws, you had already figured out how hard you would have to push down to stab someone with it. “People, smells, feelings, my thoughts.”Pat studied you, “well we know your senses are enhanced.” You could smell when food was bad at his house, you could hear things none of them could. That they had realized almost as soon as they got you back. “But what do you mean your thoughts?”You had probably said too much, but it felt nice to talk to someone. Still, you didn’t know how to explain all of the cruel, bloody thoughts circulating in your brain. You play with the wrench in your hand. “This would make a great weapon, it takes 1,100 pounds of pressure to fracture someone’s skull. Add some more, plus the right angle and they die on impact.” You place the wrench down, “I used triple that to breakdown the door to my cell.”Pat shifts in his seat, his heartbeat increased, he had starting sweating, he moved into a position that he could easily get up from. All subconscious decisions, you missed having a subconscious. Every move you made you thought about first.“You’re afraid of me,” you say simply, you did just casually talk about smashing someone’s skull in, “I don’t blame you.” He should be, “I’m afraid of me.” You look down at your hands, they were the same ones that stitched Rick’s cuts and killed someone. Would you ever be able to look at them the same way again? Would you ever look at yourself the same again? You stared at your hands, “it’s all I’ve been thinking about.” Everyone had intrusive thoughts now and again, but yours were all day everyday. “And I can’t shut it off or make it go away, I just keep thinking about hurting people.”The panic starts to well up inside you. You try to steady your breathing, but it’s hard. You’re exhausted. No matter how much sleep you got or how steady you kept your heartbeat, you never calmed down. You had been on edge every second of every day. And you’re tired, you just want to shut it off and relax. But you can’t relax when you mind is constantly on fire.Pat gets up and wraps his arms around you. You weren’t used to physical contact, hugs never really happened. But his felt so soothing it made tears form in your eyes. His heartbeat and scent felt so comforting, you knew you were safe here.A sob escapes your lips, “it’s okay, you can let it out.” You do for what feels like a while. Pat lets you cry for as long as you need it. You wind up cutting it short because while you trust him it felt weird crying in front of him. Wiping your eyes you say, "sorry for interrupting you at work."Pat shakes his head, "it's not a problem." It wasn't busy and you were more important than any car. He gets back to work while you calm down. But eventually he asks you to grab a tools from a shelf in the other room.It's a simple request so you get up and go to open the door to the other room. What you didn't know was that door sometimes got stuck so you would have to push hard. But you figured it out and pressed just a bit of effort. But with your newfound strength the door went flying across the room and landed with a loud thud.Pat looked over at you, your hand still out stretched and your eyes wide. It takes you a moment to face him, "I am so sorry, I didn't mean-""It's okay," he walks over and puts a gentle hand on your shoulder, "are you hurt?" You shake your head, "that's good." He glanced at the door which was bent oddly, "I have a feeling this is going to be a normal occurrence for a while huh?"You nod.~~~There’s a tag on the back of you shirt you didn’t cut off, and it was going to drive you crazy. It’s itchy and annoying and every piece of you wants to rips it off. Of course you could reach back and pull it. But the teacher could mistake you for raising your hand. You could pull too hard and rip your shirt in the middle class. That would be embarrassing.Of course the girl next to you, Abby, has a charm bracelet on, one of charms has a sharp edge, you could use that to cut your tag. Taking it off wouldn’t be hard, the bracelet had a simple clasp. You could do it with ease and without her noticing. Or you could simply rip her hand off with the same about of ease. But everyone would notice that.“Now to solve this,” you needed to figure out X, which was 24. The final answer was 192.84. But you had figured that out when you took the quiz yesterday. But the Chris Thompson had asked for this problem to be gone over, and Miss Woods agreed. She was at the board with her back to you.The pencil in your hand was lightweight, but if you threw it at the right speed, with the right force you could send it through her skull and to the board. If you threw it a little less hard it would stay inside her head but stick to the board.There’s a bird outside the window that doesn’t open all the way. You used to think it was stupid that they only opened part way, what if there was fire or a shooter and you were all stuck inside? That made no sense. But you now realized it was too keep people from getting in. Which wouldn’t be hard. The lock on the door’s was child’s play and there were plenty of blindspots. You and Rick had been skipping for years and while the school knew, neither of you had been caught.“Then you divide by seven to get 24,” Miss Woods continues. She’s wearing Passion by Elizabeth Taylor, you not sure why you were programmed to know that. But you do. She is wearing too much, so much that even before the programming you would smell her before you saw her. It clashes with the other scents in the room, all newer and smelling juvenile.Holly Carver is chewing minty gum and has music blasting in her headphones, a pop song you had heard on the radio. She got the gum from Jenny Williams who lazily chews hers.Micheal Davis taps his finger on his pencil to the seconds on the clock, which he has been staring at for most of the lesson. He has OCD, you realize. He does things like that all the time and with the way he keeps his books organized.“Then you have to,” put a different function in the calculator. Jenny’s phone buzzes, she got a text. Based on the way Brian moves it’s from him. He likes her; she likes the attention. His heart beat was fast, based on wear his fingers were when they were typing he asked her if she was free over winter break.Ben Gordon has been bouncing his leg all class and it makes you want to take his fancy ball point pen and shove it into his thigh, pinning his leg to the seat. He’s a dick anyway, he keeps trying to convince Lori Saunders to go on a date with him, but she knows all he wants is to get in her pants. She denied him this morning, which is good because you can smell that she’s ovulating. “Minus negative 2,” Brian is scratching his face in nerves because Jenny hasn’t lifted her phone yet, since she’s paying attention. He has a pimple right there, you want to punch it so hard it will pop. The metal bar in your desk would make a great weapon. It won’t take you much effort to pull off and start using it. You could have everyone in the classroom bloodied before they could get to the locked door. The iron smell of blood would over power all of the perfumes, cologne, aftershaves, deodorant, lotions, and vape. Zachariah’s heart beat slows down because he was fallen asleep. He makes Jason Nelson take his notes anyway. He claims he’s tired from track practice, but he’s actually hungover. You can smell his drink of choice, Smirnoff mixed with Sprite, the heathen. He also makes Jason do his urine sample which is how he never gets caught.There’s a textbook under the chair in front of you, it would slow down a bullet. Of course you could take a bullet and spit it back out.“Y equals 192.84,” Miss Woods circles the answer. That expo marker has a week at most before it stops working. The sound it makes on the board is driving you insane. The tag on your shirt still itches.You hear the buzz of the sound system before the bell rings, but half of the class is packed up anyway. Putting your worksheet away you start packing your back pack.Now it was so much louder with everyone around you moving. Their heartbeats are much faster now that they are all up and moving, it’s more nerve wracking when everyone is moving. But you focus on putting you binder away.As you’re walking out the door Rick starts walking in. Neither of you say a word, but you bump your shoulders. Then you’re off to gym where every sound will be amplified in the gymnasium and you will have a headache afterward. ~~~"Just ease into it okay?" Pat's voice is reassuring and calm as always. But it's not helping your nerves. The watchful eyes of your friends and brother aren't helping, either.Taking a calming breath you toss your color guard rifle in the air and watch it disappear into the sky for far too long. Then it comes tumbling back down at a too fast speed. Everyone braces themselves for the crash landing, but you catch it with ease. It barely even stings your palms.Staring at the plastic rifle you whisper, "I'm going to have to quit." There was no way you could hide your strength when you had to toss your rifle at certain speeds."You don't have to quit," Rick knew how much you loved color guard. It was your main hobby along with reading. "We can make it work, it will take practice," Pat reassures, "let's try it again."After a while you stop tossing your guard rifle as high and figure out exactly the right amount of strength you needed. It was barely any effort but which was weird, but it wouldn't hurt anyone. Now you could do your routine without worrying about hurting anyone.It makes you feel accomplished, maybe you can be normal after everything. That you don't have to let your powers define you and tell you what you can and can't do.Only until you break a table you were leaning against. But Pat just gives you a comforting smile, "we'll keep working on it."~Sometimes you think that you don't deserve all this after what you did, and by sometimes you mean a lot of the time. You killed someone, you didn't deserve a group a friends that treat you like family. Having someone other than Rick to reach out to was a foreign concept. The idea of having people around you that wanted you around seemed far fetched. But here you sit on the Whitmore-Dugan couch watching a Christmas memory unfold. It feels surreal to be celebrating Christmas after all these years. Any holiday spirit in your house left with your parents. Still you are enjoying yourself, even if you're alone. Everyone knew you got overwhelmed easy and tended to sit alone. They understood why and tried not to bother you too much. You were learning to live with your powers, hence the sign on the whiteboard in the garage that said 'Days Since Y/N Has Broken Anything With Her Strength' you had finally made it past eight days. But being in the house was much easier to deal with that school or your house. Everyone's heartbeats were familiar and comforting, and you knew that you were safe here.Henry sits next to you and hands you a present. “I thought we were exchanging gifts later?”“Yeah, but I wanted to give you this in private,” despite how nervous he is Henry still has a smile on his face. You slowly take it from his hands, “when everything was happening I put you to sleep that one time. I used a memory of yours to comfort you. I saw this and it reminded me of something in that memory.” You raise an eyebrow but unwrap the gift. You unwrap to reveal a box that seems suspiciously like a box of jewelry.You open the box and gasp, “oh Henry.” Inside is a pendant that is strikingly similar to the one your dad had gotten your mother. It was simple necklace, but in your child mind it was the fanciest thing in the world. It was of a butterfly; its wings were a dark purple amethyst (it was her birthstone) shaped into teardrops with little pink gems on the edges. The stem of the butterfly was small diamonds that hooked onto a gold chain. You and Rick had very few things from your parents, what they didn’t take with them Matt had hocked and gotten the money for. Some things you two stole so you could keep a piece of them, but any jewelry was long gone. You could feel your eyes getting misty, “you shouldn’t have.” Henry smiled knowing that you liked the gift. “Can you put it on me?”Henry removes the necklace from it’s box while you turn around. He reaches over your head and you gather your hair so he can place the necklace around your neck. It takes him a few tries, the chain is small and he’s never done this sort of thing before. But eventually he gets the clasp working. “There.”You look down at the necklace for a moment, “I feel guilty, I got you a wallet.” Henry smiles; he knows that money is tight for you since every penny you come across is being saved for college. You had even mentioned that almost everyone is getting homemade gifts for Christmas. But he is touched that you bought him something.You look up at him for a moment before leaning forward and press a chaste kiss to his cheek, “Merry Christmas, Henry.” You then get up. Henry sits there for a minute with a hand to his cheek where you had kissed him. And he knows that he would do anything to have you react like that again.