The Skeleton and The Raven (The Janitor & Revon)
Note: The Janitor belongs to @the-trinket-witch (Happy [belated, I'm so sorry] Birthday I love you!!!). Revon C. Crowley belongs to me.
Alongside the cafeteria and the alchemy lab, the hallways were the hardest to clean. Dirt and grime, discarded chewed gum, scrunched up pieces of paper - just the start of the long list of things one might find along those covered walkways. Some days were worse than others; one time there was a huge fight between two students - a cat and a red-headed boy - that left magical residue and charred ashes in their wake. Guess who had to clean all that up? Certainly not the students, that was for sure. The Janitor alone received a (demeaning, like they were some pet) pat on the head from the headmage as he smiled and said, “I’ll leave you to it! Keep up the good work!”
Was it wrong to want to chuck the man that allowed your existence to continue into the garbage? Perhaps. The Janitor couldn’t dwell on it - there was work to be done. Floors to be swept and mopped; rugs and runners, big and small, to beat and sweep free of lint and tiny debris; windows to wash; furniture, banisters, and other surfaces to dust and polish. Most of those task had been taken care of throughout the day. The Janitor left most of the hallways for last, as there was far less traffic passing through them during the night. Aside from the rare passing of a ghost or professor, the Janitor simply enjoyed the peace and quiet of the night as they set to work.
The birds, fireflies, and other nighttime wildlife were their only company. They would think their nightly chorus was music to their ears if they had some. The darkness wasn’t too much of a bother; whatever magic had brought them to life allowed them a sort of nightvision. Sure, there were a few shades of dark they couldn’t see into, but paired with the moonlight above it wasn’t too much of a time navigating and picking out any stray grime. It was at the corner of that eyesight that the living skeleton spotted movement a few feet behind them. Something small and black and feathery. When they looked back, the Janitor saw it was a raven, perched comfortably wall lining the second floor hallway. On the recently cleaned wall.
The Janitor wasn’t really one to bother the local wildlife. As someone sometimes poked and prodded at by the occasional troublesome student who thought they were some puppet or prop, still unbelieving they were alive, the Janitor understood what it was like to be disturbed. Still, cleaning up bird poop was not on their to-do list tonight, and they’d rather avoid yet another task tacked onto that list. The Janitor stepped closer to the bird and made a shooing motion with their boney hand. The raven did not move. A small rattling sound came from the skeleton as they repeated the motion, this time with a bit more urgency. The raven only cocked its head to the side, as if studying the Janitor - or challenging them.
They didn’t have time for this. If they had eyelids, the Janitor would have narrowed them at the offending avian. Though the faintest pang of guilt poked at their existence (Soul? Heart? Whatever they had.), the Janitor took their broom in both hands and batted the dusty head in the bird’s direction. That certainly got the raven to move, but not too much. It jumped from side to side, avoiding the rough bristles. The Janitor grew more frustrated as the bird continued to refuse to vacate the area. In a quiet fury, the Janitor shook the broom this way and that in long swoops, nearly hitting the raven as it batted its wings and flittered into the air.
Not far enough for the Janitor’s liking, the skeleton continued their assault. The skeleton did their best to avoid striking the bird, but in their frenzy they lightly brushed the raven’s foot. This threw the raven off-balance; it sputtered for a second, dropping a few inches in flight before regaining its barrings and flying up through one of the open archways that served as windows. Before the Janitor could try and sweep it out of the hall and back out into the courtyard, a flurry of feathers briefly obscured their vision. The Janitor hurriedly took a few steps back, afraid the raven was coming to retaliate with beak and talons. Instead, as the feathers cleared, the raven had vanished - and in its place was someone the Janitor recognized.
“Hey hey hey!” the woman yelled, waving her arms to make the Janitor stop. “It’s me! Put the broom down. You’re going to take someone’s eye out with that thing!”
The Janitor lowered the broom, though it remained tucked close to their chest. A few wisps of blue hair getting caught in the rim of their glasses. For the moment, the skeleton was too distracted to tuck them out. Their piercing gaze stared at the substitute professor, who had seemed to appear from nowhere. The raven was gone and she remained. ‘It’s me!’ she’d said. The puzzle pieces soon fell into place in the skeleton’s mind.
They glanced back at the wall lining where the raven once sat, then looked back to the woman. A silent question. She answered it before the skeleton could sign it. “Uh, yeah, that was me.” The woman chuckled nervously as she tucked a midnight strand of hair behind her pointed ear. “Please keep it to yourself, okay? I don’t want it getting around, at least for now.”
The Janitor continued to stare in silence, bones ceasing their rattling. One of their gloved hands released the broom and signed, ‘Were you watching me?’
The woman nodded. “Yeah. I’m sorry, I know it was probably rude. I just happened to be passing by and saw you working, and I’ve got a habit of watching people work.” A breeze passed them by - the skeleton was unbothered by the cold, and the woman’s black leather jacket shielded the skin of her arms from its nippy presence. Her tone and smile wasn’t condescending or babying like her father’s when he addressed the Janitor. “I can understand if you’d rather me not.”
The skeleton signed again. ‘I don’t mind.’
“As long as I don’t make a mess, right?”
The skeleton’s bones rattled as they nodded.
The woman laughed. “I don’t intend to, trust me. I know dad’s already got you working like a dog.” A brief few seconds of silence filled the space, then she added, “If he’s giving you too much, I can take some load off you. While I know it’s your job, he likes to shirk responsibilities he should really do himself when he can.” There was a slight bite to her tone - the Janitor knew it wasn’t directed at them. They could empathize.
‘I’m fine,’ they signed. ‘But if that changes, I’ll let you know.’
“Good.” The woman ran a hand across her scalp, fingers brushing the hair there. “I reel him in when I can. Mom would have done the same,” a small laugh left her, “though I’m sure she was far better at it than I am now.”
Mom. It was hard enough living with the reality that man had spawn, but a wife? Such a woman had to be as crazy as him…maybe. If this woman, Revon, was what the skeleton deemed sane, nice even, she had to have gotten it from somewhere. The Janitor had a really hard time imagining Crowley being into leather jackets, motorcycles, and rock music, anyway. If not her mother, the Janitor wondered who Revon got that from. If Revon wanted to keep her ability to morph into a raven, they’d likely never find out.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it then.” Revon put her hands in the pockets of her black jeans. “You need help with anything before I go?” The Janitor shook their head ‘no.’ “Alright. Have a good night, then.”
With a small salute of her hand, Revon turned to leave. After she took a few steps down the opposite way, the Janitor went the other to get back to work. The moon was almost at its highest point - it’d be the Witching Hour before they knew it. They preferred to take their break then, time enough to do their own thing. Just as the broom’s bristles hit the runner running along the stone floors of the hallway, the Janitor was interrupted once more. For who interrupted them, they supposed it wasn’t too bad.
“Oh, by the way,” the Janitor craned their skull to look back at Revon, now a good few feet away. “I don’t know if it’s in your job description, but if it is, don’t bother cleaning up around or tending to that big tree on the hill, okay?” The Janitor didn’t know which she was referring to. There were so many trees scattered about campus, and a small handful were located on hills. The woman must have sensed their confusion, for she clarified by saying, “The one we use for the Starsending event.” Oh yeah, that one. A far as they could remember, tending to that tree, indeed, wasn’t on their to-do list.
“I’ll take care of it,” Revon said. Perhaps their eyesockets narrowed or something because, once again, Revon answered the Janitor’s unuttered question. “It’s just a good bit of work, and I’ve done it for so long it’d hurt to stop. Don’t concern yourself with it, alright?” There was something behind those words…not exactly a warning, but the Janitor couldn’t find another definition for it. A plea, maybe? Whatever the context, the Janitor nodded in understanding.
“Thanks.” Revon gave a small wave, “See you later.” Maybe it was politeness, maybe actual sincerity, the way the Janitor waved back. The moment Revon’s back was turned to them, the Janitor got back to work. At the great speed gifted to them by the magic of their creation, the Janitor swept along the edges of the elongated rug - the task to be completed before they got to mopping. Better to sweep it first, so when they rolled up the rug before mopping dirt and debris would go flying, forcing them to sweep the stone floor all over again. They wouldn’t make that mistake twice.
The sound of fluttering feathers came from somewhere behind them. Right after came the sound of flapping wings. The Janitor glanced back just in time to watch a familiar raven soar into the sky, black visage just visible by the light of the moon. The Janitor watched the bird until it - her - disappeared from view, leaving the skeleton to their nightly duties. To thoughts that sometimes strayed to that towering tree and its large canopy of green on that rolling hill, and the family that, besides one irritating headmage, was left a mystery.