FEATURING: Beckett Atticus, Kai Laurier, Damian Wayne
WRITERS: 🌸, 🩸, ✨, 💎
Beckett and Kai were walking together down the busy school hallway, on their way to one of many student council meetings. Beckett Atticus, top of her class at Monarch Academy with a flair for the dramatic and known for her work as head of the student council. Kai Laurier, a weird loner who was roped into being the treasurer by Beckett. Together they make up a strange yet dynamic duo.
"Hey, did you hear the news?" Beckett smiles and leans forward a little while walking. "A new transfer student is going to be joining our class. I heard he's the son of an eccentric billionaire who sent him here as a kind of boarding school." She's absentmindedly blabbering about all the rumors she has heard about this mysterious new student.
"Oh. A billionaire, huh?" Kai deadpans. "I wonder what he's like."
"Really? You're actually INTERESTED in something?" Beckett giggles. "That's not like you, Laurier."
Kai doesn't say anything, just continues to walk silently down the hall.
Beckett is the first to open the door to the student council meeting room. There, sitting in the head chair (BECKETT'S chair), is a small boy with black spiky hair. "Who the HELL are you!?" Beckett yells.
The boy tuts in disapproval. "The new student council president."
A moment passes.
Then another.
Kai looks over at Beckett. Her eyes are wide, mouth agape. Kind of like a fishy… Kai thinks to himself. "The NEW-? The-? What? No, you're not. I'm the president of the student council. That hasn't- what?"
The boy- wait. Is he only nine? Why is a nine year old in a high school?- crosses his arms unimpressed. Kai glances over to the gathering of students sitting quietly in their seats. They seem almost… concerningly well behaved.
Kai squints.
Are those knives pinning down their clothes…?
The actual 9 year old sniffs. "The masses have agreed that my lead is best. They were resistant at first, of course, but they saw reason. Your lead was adequate, they said. It's not your fault that I'm more qualified for the role."
Beckett and Kai turn to look at each other while the kid continues monologuing about his 'experience' in the 'world of leadership' and how he, as the 'son of the Demon', has been preparing for a moment like this his 'entire life'. Beckett mouths the words 'what the fuck' while Kai points over his shoulder at the students pinned to their seats.
"-And, furthermore-"
"Okay, that's enough!" Beckett sighs. She looks absolutely exhausted. "I appreciate your… enthusiasm, but you can't decide these things on your own."
"I didn't. I asked the group at large, defended my piece when they disagreed, until they saw my point."
Kai and Beckett glance at each other again. Holy shit, they thought in unison. This is going to take all fucking day.
"Um. Do you know what democracy means?" Beckett asked carefully, turning back to the nine year old.
"Of course I do! I'm not an imbecile! Democracy is a form of government in which political power is ves-" He started going on, before being interrupted by Kai.
"We don't need a definition. We all know what it is." He said, his voice still deadpan. "But since the student council is a democracy, I don't believe it's fair for the voters to have maybe been… intimidated into making a vote."
The Nine Year Old scrunched his face and turned up his nose. "Unbelievable! I gave them a fair vote-"
"Well, did you let them vote anonymously?" Beckett interrupted this time, using her gentle parenting voice. "Because that's how we typically do it here."
"Well, no, but-"
"Did you at least give them options that weren't you?" Kai asked as well. The nine year old finally actually seemed considerate.
"Alright. You two have made fair points. I see why you were the previous student council president…" Spikey small child said. "Okay. Fight me on it then."
Both Beckett and Kai paused at this.
"What!?"
"What."
"Fight me! The first one to back down is the loser, and the winner is the president!" He exclaimed, standing up on the chair to get closer to Beckett's eye level. He pointed a knife at her (Where did he get that?)
Kai moved slightly in front of her instinctually. He couldn't let someone he cared of get injured over such a meaningless thing. He was about to speak when Beckett put her hand on his shoulder.
"It'll be fine. I can take him on, probably." She assured.
"He's got a knife." Kai stressed, glancing slightly at the nine year old waiting for an answer.
"He's like. Nine. It can't be that difficult to take him on?" Beckett said, turning back to the child. "Alright, little man. I accept your game. May the best fighter win." She said, gently pushing Kai to the side as he looked at her in disbelief.
Barely a second had past when Kai heard an ear-deafening scream. He turns to Beckett, only to see that bastard of a nine year old had already stabbed her!
"This is it", he thought. Beckett needed him, and Kai wasn't one to sit on the sidelines as his only friend was lowkey eating shit against some nine year old.
As the child raises his arm in the air, preparing to strike Beckett once more, Kai kicks his legs, sending stumbling to the ground.
"OOOWWWWWWWW! OW! OW! OW! OWWIE!!!! THAT REALLY HUR-". The child looks back at Kai, who stares at him judgementally. "I mean-uh, it would appear you caught me in a moment off-guard. Swift move on your part, but you are not in this competition correct? Or has a new challenger entered the arena?".
Kai merely rolls his eyes, giving Beckett a chance to pull herself up. She makes her way to the knife, strewn across the floor. She winces with each and every movement.
the child notices what she's doing, and makes a beeline for it. But he's too late.
"Kai! Catch!".
The knife soars in an arc, landing right in Kais hands. He walks up to the child, brandishing it.
"Hey, hey. We're all adults here" says the child, so clearly far from adulthood (or even puberty for that matter). "We can be civilized I'm sure. No need for this-".
Kai picks up the kid, and carries him outside the meeting room.
"I'm pretty sure this counts as you being defeated. So can you like, get out. These meetings run pretty long, and I'd like to get home before-"
"Well, just make them shorter then", says the child.
"huh".
"Just make them shorter, you are the president now after all."
Kai takes a second to process that information, as the child skitters away like a funny little creature. The voice of another brings him back to reality
"Kai!". Beckett runs up to him, hugging him tightly. Good job class president!"
"And for my first order of business", Kai begins as he hugs her back.
FEATURING: Kai Nightingale, Wren Atticus, Cain Corbin
WRITERS: 💎, ✨, 🩸, 🌸
Kai enters the graveyard, dull and reaking of death. He takes a step, and then another, forcing himself forward. Finding himself in front of the tomb, he forces himself to look up:
"Willow Farhner".
It had been a year since her death. He had hoped some of the pain would have alleviated by now, but his grief was relentless. Tears threaten to break through, but he blinks, and forces them back into confinement. He was here to pay his respects, and nothing more - anything else would be far too painful.
A few minutes pass, before he realizes he's not alone. In the corner of his eye sits a young boy, a few graves away. Curly hair and glasses, he places flowers in front of two different graves. Kai thinks he hears crying.
He sat down between the two graves. Well, sat was not the correct term as it seemed like he simply fell to his knees and stayed there. Kai could just barely make out the slight movement in the boy's shoulders as he cried.
Kai doesn't know how long he had been sitting there watching this familiar stranger cry at these graves. He had never seen this person here before, despite coming here almost every day for the first few months.
Something in Kai forces him to stand up. He starts to move forward before looking at the entrance of the graveyard. A figure stands waiting for him, a friend he had met not too long ago through one of his coworkers. He gave a slight nod before he kept walking towards the figure.
"Hey, man… You alright? Haven't uh… Haven't seen you here before." He said, extremely awkwardly. The boy turned to him, and despite the red-rimmed eyes and never before seen glasses, Kai managed to recognize him. "Oh fuck!" He jumped back slightly as Cain did the same, hastily wiping his eyes.
"Oh- uh- hey- uh- hi. I. What are you- No that's a stupid question. Um… Didn't. Didn't expect to see you here." Cain managed to say, his words jumbling a bit together. Kai managed to get a closer look at the gravestones, they were a pair that hadn't been cleaned in what seems like ages. Nor had he ever seen anyone put flowers by them. Kai had kinda assumed that they were abandoned.
The two existed in silence together, neither really sure what to say. They weren't really that close together, existing on the same team, sometimes arguing, but they don't know much of each other outside of their vigilante personas.
"Oh. Um. I'm here to visit a friend." Kai mumbled
Cain shifts awkwardly where he sits. "O-oh, uh…" he rubs the back of his neck. "I'm… sorry."
Kai lets out an uncomfortable cough. "Uh, yeah, sorry to uh… you, too." The words leave his mouth and the conversation comes to a close. A stuffy, persistent silence hangs in the air, and-
And, damn. Kai doesn't really want to be the one doing all this emotional bonding shit, but… But, well. He told himself he would try and be… better. For her. For himself. So, with an achy breath, he works himself up to utter, soft and sorrowful, "who, uh, are you here for?"
Cain lets out a jagged, ugly laugh, one that's less from genuine amusement and more uncomfortably forced out of him. "Uh, my, uh. My parents."
Kai doesn't need to say anything. The words linger in the air between them as they gaze down at those forgotten, moss-ridden slabs. Well- forgotten to all but one person, it seems.
"Isn't it funny?" Kai begins, and hey, he's getting better at that. Making that first step. "They're right next to each other. Almost like you were always meant to crash our mission."
Cain blinks. Maybe, Kai thinks, this isn't the best time to make a joke, but Cain doesn't seem to take it to heart. In fact, he seems almost-?
"Kind of a shitty destiny." He wheezes this time, something more sincere.
The silence that falls between them isn't as thick, anymore. The skies are still looming with a storm on the horizon, but light still flickers through the gaps.
It's nice.
Kai turns, and Cain is gone, and he feels like a weight's lifted off his chest. Maybe things are looking up, he thinks to himself as he walks through the cemetery gates.
And, in the distance, a cold, magical boygirl stares into the sunset. "I, too, am in this fic."
