#just a small kid ripping a ton of those open and scarfing them down letting the peels drop everywhere and covered in a sticky mess | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lillaxtrigger · 5 years ago

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Young Hope: Chapter 21

The salty starch of a curly french fry is dipped into a small cup of delicious ketchup; the spicy delight soon chomped in half by Kingsley’s teeth. “Mmmh...” After swallowing the piece, he goes on to compliment the flavorsome fries with: “This restaurant always makes some of the best fries. The salt and spices in each piece just burst flavor. You really outta try them Damian.” From the opposing side of the table does a tan brown hand pinch one of the longer curly fries before him; lifting it near the head of a hooded teenage boy with curly black hair drooping out from underneath. Before him, the boy watches as the long strand of potato simply droop down until it rips under its own weight; a depressing sigh escaping from his mouth as he turns away. “Hey, what’s the matter? Afraid you might burn your tongue? They’re not that hot.” Kingsley question. “I’m just not that hungry is all.” Damian moans.

Right after saying such, a small toddler smacks into his chair; Damian disappearing upon the sudden bump. The toddler looks back, staring curiously towards the seat he’d just ran into; Kingsley watching as the little kid slowly starts to approach. Right when he was near, both hear the cry of a woman; demanding the toddler to: “Get over here, Jimmy! Quit bothering them!” On those orders does the little kid retreat from the table; the boy genius looking back towards the seemingly empty seat. “You wanna talk about what’s been eating you up? You been acting more withdrawn then usual this past week or two.” Before Kingsley does the boy reappear back in his seat as a disheartened groan leaves his lungs; answering him with: “I don’t know. I...I just haven’t been the same since that whole Circe episode. Going through that whole kidnapping and life threatening drama’s just been a little hard for me.” “I ain’t really seeing anything wrong with ya.”

Beside the two, Cayenne sat woofing down the burgers and fries before her like a savage animal; bits of fries and meat spilling back onto the table as she scarfs her food down. “Ya still lookin like the same overly dramatic try hard emo pansy you’ve always been.” she mentions, her mouth stuffed with overly greasy burger pieces. “I don’t think that’s the case. I haven’t heard him speak a single poetic line the whole time he’s been around.” Kingsley denies. “I still ain’t getting what’s eating your ass. Ya got outta that circus of horrors and lesbian magic without losing a single speck of your powers. So what the big deal?” “Cayenne! He’s probably still scared about being kidnapped and nearly getting killed. I’d know I’d be.” “You did, and so did most of my cousins too. Most of the kids that went through that shit storm turned out just fine in the end.” Hearing the spice queen recall such causes Damian to let out a disheartening moan; the boy hanging his head over the batch of spicy fries. “Uh, Cayenne. Maybe it’d be best if you sit this one out.” the boy genius suggests. “Whatev.” Rising from her seat, she takes whatever food was left in front of her before taking her leave; bidding her adieu with: “Still thinking he should just get over it.”

Watching the Spice queen depart, a defeated groan leaves Damian’s lips; hesitantly agreeing with her crass judgment with: “Saying it hurts, but…she right. A lot of the kids that witch had snatched up bounced back from it all without so much as a hiccup. Like the mighty grizzly, the chilling winter of her icy grip had lulled them into a long slumber. But the comforting spring of your warming rescue had awoken them once more; springing back from the brink with more vigor than before. Alas, the cruel winter shows little mercy for me. Like the graceful gazelle, unfit slumbering through the harsh bitter ice; growing ever more frightened and frail than ever.” “Quit thinking like that. You’re not as weak as you make yourself out to be. Everyone just goes through trauma differently, that’s all. That doesn’t make yours any less valid.” The boy genius’s encouraging statement unfortunately fails to perk Damian’s spirits, remaining ever drowning in his woes.

Kingsley slapping the table baits the ghost boy’s attention; Damian hearing him offer: “Tell ya what, how about you and I go out on day through Townsville together. It’s been a while since we done something with just the two of us. We can go wherever your ghostly heart desires. Whadya say?” “I-I don’t know Kingsley. The only thing I’m really wanting to do now is just go home and cry my eyes out.” “Did I mention that the underground cafe downtown is having a poetry evening?” “...Alright, you win.” Rising from his seat, Kingsley rejoices from the agreement by concluding: “Fantastic! Just need to pay the bill and we can hit the road.” Picking up the bill, the boy genius’s chipper demeanor is swiftly cut upon viewing the cost; finding several meals that he knows neither of them had ordered. Over a hundred bucks worth of burgers, fries, sides; Jesus! Only one person was with them that could stuff themselves that much. “Ugh, Cayenne.”

Through the streets of Townsville, the duo walk together among the countless urbanites going about their day; the boy genius asking Damien: “So, you still listen to stuff like Hip Hop and Rap?” “Nn, yeah. I’ve also been branching out more towards the tranquil melancholy that Lofi has to offer.” “Glad to hear your music tastes are still intact. I’ve been seeking out stuff through techno and synth wave myself. Guess our first stop on this cheer up trip’ll be something that both of us will be into.” “Where exactly are you taking us?”

Stepping through a shop door, the specter’s question is answered then and there; beholding a vast cavalcade of music in a slew of forms. Cassettes, records, CD’s, all hailing a multitude of countless genres for all to enjoy. “A music shop? Why is our first stop here of all places.” Damian wonders as both he and his host enter. “I figured since both of us are exploring new genres, I figure we’d stop here to look through some of the new and retro stuff they’ve got stocked.” “Can’t we just do that online?” “Well, yeah. But I find there’s this oddly comforting novelty of having physical media as opposed to just pure data. Just nice to have something displayed on the shelf I guess.” Grabbing hold of the specter’s shoulder, Kingsley guides his guest towards the collection of music as he urges him to: “Come on. I bet we’ll find a ton of amazing stuff sitting in these racks.”

Along the racks of tracks, the duo search the surprisingly vast collection of synthwave music; one of which was a CD labeled “Mitch Murder”. “Think that this might be good, Kingsley?” “Mitch Murder? Oh yeah. My dad used to listen to him a lot while he’d be making gadgets and bots. I remember when I was little, I’d here the soothing synth echoing through is lab and just lull me to sleep. Really relaxing stuff there. Thinking about taking it home?” “Me? Hmm, maybe. It be rather a curious to listen to what music others might enjoy and find out what got them hooked to it.” “Really?” “Venturing out in such unexplored territory can offer a window into the souls of others. Even if it’s completely subjective, you can tell a lot about a person from the sounds that best resonate with them.” “Sounds like you know more about this stuff then I do.” “The souls of others are a very curious endeavor to explore, Kingsley. Every single life in existence is a completely unique being.”

Their search through the shop send them leaning towards the newest lofi hits; Damien trailing his finger across the cases until coming to a particular album. Pulling out the track makes the ghost boy lets out a small sigh, followed by mentioning: “The first Lofi artist I’ve discovered, a hidden diamond sparkling out in the rough that would spark a love for the secluding melody that such a genre offers.” Popping the CD out form its case, Damian flips it into the drive of a nearby music player; grabbing hold of both the headphones attached. “Care to drift along in the sea of melancholy with me, my friend?” the specter asks; offering the extra set of headphones to Kingsley. “Uh...Sure.” Grabbing hold of the pair of headphone, the boy genius dons them right over his ears; first notes and beats he listens to sound...depressing, like really depressing. Slow beats, low droning reverb, soothing piano and guitar; really sounds like something you’d listen to when wondering of the pointlessness of life and contemplating the futility of our own existence, wondering if anything that we strive to achieve will simply just waste away in the march of time until it corrodes into something far less than memory… Depressing stuff, honestly. Not really the kind of music anyone going through those thoughts should be listening to. Best to switch to a much more joyously relaxing experience.

While Kingsley moves over and flips through the countless other lofi tracks, Damian takes in the idyllic desolation playing in his ears. The depressing strums the guitar mixing with the low key strikes of the piano truly a create a comforting misery that eases the pain; as if the musician sympathizes with the woes of trauma and depression.

Such a symphony of gloom is swiftly silenced; the specter opening his eyes as he snaps back to reality. His gaze shifts over towards the player; a new CD being inserted into the slot. Looking to who changed the track, he found Kingsley holding onto the music he was listening to with a caring smile; a new piece swiftly playing for them. This time, a more upbeat, relaxing melody fills Damian ears. A piano, playing higher, more uplifting strikes sings alongside a similarly slow beat much like the previous melody. A complete contrast of the last lofi track, this one envelopes more of a chilling beat, a far more comforting rhythm. Like a friend saying: “Let’s just kick back, relax, and listen to some sweet, sweet sound.” A relaxing breath leaves the specter as a faint smile cracks between his cheeks.

After that change of tune, their journey through the genres continues unabated; both Kingsley and Damian scanning through the seeming endless walls and racks of music track. It’s in this moment that an all too familiar tune reaches the boy genius’s ears; gazing up towards the intercom to find it playing: “You used to call me on my...” Is that… “You used to, you used to” Is that really… “Yeah...You used to call me on my cellphone.” Oh my god, it’s playing Hotline Bling. It’s one of Damian’s favorites. Does he even knows its on? “Late night when you needed my love.”

Turning back to the ghost boy, he found not a single inch of his body dancing to the rhythm of the bass. “Call me on my cellphone.” Guess Damian hasn’t caught on yet. Probably too preoccupied with his woes to even notice. Perhaps a little push in the right direction might break him out of his shell. “Late night when you needed my love.”

Vaulting right over the racks between him and the specter, Kingsley slowly encroaches over to Damian’s side. “And I know when that hotline bling.” The boy genius’s head next to Damian’s, Kingsley starts to serenade along side the songs hot bassline; following the rhythm as the intercom continues with: “That can only mean one thing. I know when that Hotline Bling. That can only mean one thing.” Though not strong at first, Kingsley starts to see the specter’s body moving with the music; Damian foot stomping to the rhythm. “Ever since I left the city, you...Got a reputation for yourself now.” The further he hears Kingsley repeat the songs lyrics, the more Damian starts to break from his shy and apathetic standstill, beating his hands in tune to the bass. “Everybody knows and I feel left out. Girl, you got me down, you got me stressed out.” In the midst of harmonizing with the song, Kingsley begins to hear a low hum from the side; turning to the ghost boy to find him humming to the words. “Cause Ever since I left the city, you...” In tandem with his humming, the ghost boy starts to bop his head to the beat; slapping the racks with more vigorously. “Started wearing less and goin’ out more.” Damian’s whole body begins to move with the rhythm; Kingsley backing away from the dancing boy with a smile. “Glasses of champagne out on the dance floor.” The specter backs away from the rack of music tracks; his hood lowering to uplift his curly black hair. “Hangin’ with some girls I’ve never seen before.”

Finally, Damian turns away from the rack, dancing in full as he joins the boy genius on his chorus; singing out: “You used to call me on my cellphone.” Kingsley soon joins the phantom in his rhythmic bop; dancing side by side with Damian to the beat. “Late night when you need my love.” Both boy spin with one another, soon catching the attention of everybody in the music shop. “Call me on my cellphone.” Both boy then halt their twirl close to the carpet, slowly rising as they stay back to back to each other. “Late night when you need my love.” Once having fully risen, Damian jumps in the air and starts leisurely floating across the CD racks. “I know when that Hotline Bling.” All of the shops patrons watches the ghost boy glide through the store; the cashier even can’t help but gaze upon Damian as he moves to the rhythm of the music. “That can only mean one thing.” One of the shoppers joins in the phantoms serenade; her hips swaying with the beat. “I know when the Hotline bling.” Alongside her, the other shop patrons are gradually pulled into the rhythm; shaking their hips and bopping their heads to the music. “That can only mean one thing.” From the back of the store does a man with a shirt labeled “Manager” burst from the door; joining his patrons in their rapping chorus. “Ever since I left the city, you, you, you.” Gliding through the store; Damian twirls through the air as the other shop goers dancer. “You and be we just don’t get along.” Kingsley looks towards the ghost boy; happy to see a bright smile across his face as he sings with all his heart. “You make me feel like I did you wrong.” Damian lands back upon the carpeted floor with a dazzling flip; spreading his arms out in both directions. “Going places where you don’t belong.” The specter soon leaps back in the air; the people beneath him throwing CD cases in the air all at once. “Ever since I left the city, you-”

From the phantom’s carelessly joyous flight, Damian smacks himself into a whole wall full of tracks; the wall careening down upon another set of tracks beside it. That wall soon knocks over another wall of CD’s, spiraling an entire domino effect of collapsing sets of music tracks. The other patrons scatter away from the chaos, fleeing out the exit in panicking packs. Kingsley rolls away from the falling walls of music track, soon finding an entire rack threatening to topple upon him. Before the collection of songs could slam down upon the boy genius, somebody push him away from the descending rack; Kingsley finding himself thrust out from danger by his phantom friend. The boy genius can do little but witness the CD display tumble down upon his savor in a thunderous bang; soon seeing him buried under more dropping walls and racks.

The collapsing mayhem soon settles into a calming close; leaving the shops vast collection of music in ruin. Though the destroyed merchandise be the furthest worry from the boy geniuses mind; screaming out for his fallen friend. “Damian!” Kingsley lunges towards his buried friend without so much as a hint of hesitance; lifting up one of the falling rack as he assures him that: “Don’t worry buddy, I’ll getcha outta there soon! Just hang on!” Just as he ready to lift away the next piece of debris, the boy genius soon sees the translucent head of his friend; the ghost boy insisting that: “I’m okay. I’m okay.” Like an intangible spirit free from the physical plain of this world, Damian phases right through the toppled collection of tracks; turning corporeal once more as he lands back in front of the boy genius. “I’m fine. Don’t worry.” A hearty sigh slips out from between Kingsley lips, the boy genius admitting: “Thank goodness. I really though you were done for a second there. Are you sure you’re feeling alright?” “Trust me Kingsley, I’ve made out out of worse.” “I meant like...Are you feeling any better?” “Um...Kind of, but not a lot. Thanks for trying Kingsley.” “Hey, don’t quit just yet. This is just the first stop on the encouragement express; the next surprise in store might just fix your spirits yet.”

“You think so, huh?” a third voice questions. In that moment, a wayward fist breaches out from the rubble of the racks behind the boy genius; the emerging arm soon erupting out to show it belonging to the music shops managers. “You figure out how you’ll do the same with my store?” the manager growls. Presenting the resulting destruction to the two, he points towards the wrecked racks of broken CD’s and cracked case; reinforcing how: “The walls of records ruined, the racks of CD’s reduced to rubble, the tracks that I’ve stocked in shards. My entire music shop’s been completely destroyed! You got a way to fix all that!?” With a worrying groan, Kingsley pulls his wallet out from the depths of his pocket; slipping out from one of its folds his credit card.

Strolling through the concrete streets, the boy genius can’t help but notice Damian’s troubled glare; a gloomy moan leaving his lungs as the phantom stares out into space. “Hey, don’t look so down. I guarantee that the next stop were gonna visit will turn that frown upside down.” Kingsley promises. “You think so?” “I know so. It’s been someplace I’ve been wanting to take ya for quite awhile now. I guarantee your ghostly spirits will soar when you see it.” “Mind I ask where exactly are you planning to take us?”

Guided to his next stop, the ghost boy’s question is answered right then and there; Damian caught off guard by Kingsley surprise. Witnessing the astonishment in his eyes, a smile stretches across the boy genius’s face. “So, what do ya think? Your mood lightening up?” he asks. “I- I can’t believe it.” Standing before them be a brightly colored shop; the phantom beholding the assortment of exotic, almost otherworldly flowers displayed beyond the windows. “I’m guessing that’s a yes. Come on, I want to show ya the inside.” Taking the ghost boy’s hand, Kingsley gently leads Damian through the bright blue doorway; the wind chimes attached to the door ringing through their ears as they enter.

From within the shop, the duo beheld the quaint collection of blooming bunches surrounding them; a rainbow of flora encircling the pair. “All this is simply beautiful. The colors and fragrances all just blending harmoniously together in a symphony of natural beauty. How did you know?” the specter questions. “You kidding? With the whole array of flowers I see all over your house, it’s just a matter of putting two and two together. But all this, it simply pales in comparison to what they got set up in the back. Amazed me the first time I saw it all. It’s what got me thinking it bring you here.”

Stepping out the stores backdoor, both beholding a majestically expansive site spread before them; flora from every corner of the world and beyond gathered within a single enclosed garden, free from the influence of the outside world. The numerously vast collection of foliage leaves the phantom utterly speechless; left at awe of the overwhelming beauty of nature his eyes lay upon. Noticing the amazement in Damian's eyes, Kingsley lets out a little chuckle alongside mentioning: “Yep, that’s pretty much the same face I made when I first saw all this. Ain’t it neat?” “Neat? Neat simply isn’t enough to describe a site such as this. A wondrous union of flora from every corner of the world. The enchanting allure of such an earthly gathering simply draws forth the soul of nature within.” Having poetically described his feelings of wonderment and awe; Damian glides further into the wide collection of flowers before him.

The first set of flora to bait the ghost boys site be the seemingly dangerous cacti; planted upon patches of dry earth surrounded by brick. Drifting closer towards the green desert plants; Damian can’t help but let out an admiring sigh. “The mighty cactus, flourishing among the scorching desert sands. And yet, despite their unwelcoming appearance, they hide beauty among their prickly spines.” Glazing across the barbed patches, the specter soon finds a disturbance to the green; a bright pink flower, blooming right on the surface of a single cactus. “A single beauty; radiating among the harsh shells of the countless cacti.” Gliding his fingers across the flowers petals, Damian feels the gentle, almost silky texture of its petals. “Such a truly remarkable site bares with it a striking statement. How even the seemingly deadliest among us can show truly tender beauty.”

Breaking his site from the cacti underneath him; Damian is soon drawn towards another gorgeous site. “Ah! A deceptive contrast.” The ghost boy floats right over the prickly spines of the cacti and soon faces a glorious set of bell shaped flowers; a glass cage standing between him and the pure white flora. “The duplicitous brugmansia. The Angels trumpet. Truly a name none more deserving to represent the diabolical side of nature.” Phasing his arm through the glass, the specter delicately lifts one of the bells; continuing his description by adding: “Though their bell like bulbs may show themselves to be delectable and tempting, their petals hide an insidiously toxic poison. Even a single bite of this bell may very well send one on a terrifyingly painful trip towards the gates of heaven.” Taking his arm out from beyond the glass cage; Damian concludes is poetic statement with: “An example none more fitting for deceptive beauty. For what we may find as graceful and innocent may well be far more deadly and toxic than we perceive.”

Away from the lethal bells, the specter continues to drift through the glorious garden. Swiftly are his eyes taken towards a small bush sporting white flora all throughout its branches. “Quite the rare site. Never in my life would I imagine laying eyes upon the delicate hawthrons.” Nearing the bush of white, Damian gently brushes his palm along the white flora; adding how: “A flower seemingly so bland and uninteresting; blending in alongside the other beauties of nature. Alas, these tiny, fragile flowers hold within their stems an extremely potent healing property; the perfect ingredient to create powerful herbal medicine.” Pulling his hand away from the delicate flora, the phantom finishes his poetic dialect with: “A bold statement on how the small and blandest in our lives can have the biggest impacts.”

Out from the side; the ghost boy hears the call of his friend; Damian turning towards the source of his voice: “Hey Damian, come check this out.” Quickly, he glides towards the boy genius; gazing up to the majestic site right behind him. Witnessing the look of amazing upon his ghostly friend, Kingsley questions him with: “Ever seen something like this before.” “Only in myth.” Standing tall above them was the grand centerpiece of the entire exotic garden; a glamorous emerald tree enveloping a regal fountain. “An emerald evergreen. I’d never thought I would lay eyes upon such a wondrous site.”

The dazzled specter begins to ascend towards the top; the emeralds shine glimmering across his body as he rises. Near the trees crest, Damian plucks a piece of emerald hanging from one of the crystal branches; holding the piece of naturally grown jewelry towards the sun. Through the glass dome, the sun shine beams through the emerald; shining green upon the phantoms face. Dancing whimsically with the piece of rock in hand, Damian recites how: “This beautiful tree of shining jade truly brings the entire garden together; standing alongside the majestic flora to create a stunning symphony to represent the earth as a whole. A magical union of natures wonder.”

Finishing his dance, the ghost boy casually tosses the emerald leaf in his hand aside; soon descending back down towards Kingsley. The piece of rock ends up lodging itself into the sprinkler set at the top; the rock blocking the fountains water flow.

Landing right beside the boy genius, Damian lets loose a blissful sigh; Kingsley questioning if: “Guessing your spirits are soaring high now, aren’t they?” “As high as the stars themselves, Kingsley. My soul has soared beyond the atmosphere and has drifted through the planets themselves.” “Great to hear. You uh...You still hung up about you know who?” “As a matter of fact, I-” Right before the specter could give his say, both hear a violent shaking of metal and rock behind them. Turning back towards the tree, the duo witness the emerald evergreen swiftly start to furiously tremble; the loose bits of jade shaking off the crystal branches.

Right in front of them does a jet of water breach out from the hard emerald; Damian turning intangible before the gushing stream could hit him. The water jet phases right through the ghost boys body, soon striking the boy genius right behind him. “Kingsley!” Damian screams; watching as his host careens across the garden. Soon, the boy genius is smacked against the shops back wall; dropping down upon the grass with a thud. Witnessing Kingsley rise from the wayward flight, a relieved moan escapes from the phantoms lips. That same relief is swiftly withdrawn when he turns back towards the evergreen; geysers of fountain water breaking out from every side of the emerald tree; the sharp shards of which scatter all across the garden. As he gazes upon the disaster acting out before him, panicking cries reach Damian’s ear; glancing to his side to find the people fleeing from the ensuing chaos. One of these passerby’s lags behind the absconding crowd as he trip right onto the tiled walkway; looking above to witness a shower of sharp emerald pieces raining down towards him. The man braces for his inescapable demise; curling up as he awaits for the shards to impale his backside. But he feels not a single sting to his back, soon curling out from his brace to notice an emerald green glow shining right behind him; gazing back to discover the specter shielding him from the lethal shower with a translucence green plasma shield. “Get out of here!” he hears his savor demand. Not hesitating for a single second, the man scampers away from the ghost boy; Damian’s shield dissipating from the palm if his hand once the emerald rain ceases.

Back upon his feet, Kingsley beholds the escalating pandemonium ensuing before him; whole chunks of the evergreen now spraying out from around the fountain. Oh god. This is getting bad, really, really fast. They got have a water pressure control around her somewhere that can shut all this down. Hoping to find such, Kingsley swiftly scans through the garden for something that fails to blend in with the scenery; an element that clashes with the background as a whole. Out from the other side, his eyes soon lay upon a gray box nestled among a bed of gorgeous lilies. Jackpot!

The control box in his site, the boy genius sprints through the tiled walkway; passing through the retreating garden patrons. Kingsley glances up to witnesses his ghostly pal surveying through the sky; Damian’s attention soon baited by the boy genius when he calls. “Damian!” Gazing down to Kingsley below, the phantom listens as the boy genius orders that: “I’m going for the water control box! Get everyone outta here!” Hearing these demands, Damian descends down to the tiled pathway towards a couple of fleeing people. Hugging both by their wastes, the phantom sweeps the two out of the enclosed garden; phasing both him and the couple right through the glass dome.

Witnessing his phantom friend working on rescuing duty, Kingsley continues his race towards the control box up ahead. Out from the evergreen does another chunk of emerald come blasting out from the tree’s surface; the large jade rock careening towards the sprinting boy genius. Rolling along the tile, he slides right under the careening jewel as it passes right over him; the rocks rugged shards just inches away from his back. Once the emerald flies by, Kingsley leaps right back on his feet and continues towards the control box.

From there, the boy genius hurries towards the patch of lilies; green shadows sliding across the pathway baiting his attention up. Above, Kingsley witnesses several large shards descending right towards his path; refusing to halt for their landing. Continuing through, he sidesteps out from emeralds piercing crash down; witnessing the sizable shards digging straight through the tile. Finding another ready to crash before him, he jumps out from the jade jewelry’s landing; pieces of tile scattering upon impact. One more jagged jade digs right into tile pathway in front of him; Kingsley moving right by the broken piece of emerald.

Within the shop itself, two scruffy looking fellows calmly browse through the selection of flora along the shelves. One of them puts his nose up to a set of blue flowers and takes in the present aroma they emit. “I’m telling ya man. These hydrangeas will really make the place pop. Be a nice site among all those moldy hallways.” one of the suggests. “Hmm. Not to sure if blue really is the color we should go for.” the other doubts as they withdraw their nose from the flower. “Well, what kind are you thinkin about?” “I don’t know, man. Something like looks more natural. Maybe something green?” “Man, don’t fuckin joke about that. You remember the last disaster that happened when green came into our lives?” Before the other gent could answer, a crowd of fleeing patrons passes right behind them; the two turning their sites to the absconding shopper. “The hell’s got them so worked up?” one of them wonder. Glancing out through the window, the other answers with: “I think I might know what.” Both gazing out into the enclosed garden, the two scruffs stare out as they watch the specter and gifted scientist zoom through the scenery; their sites specifically locked towards the racing Kingsley. “Oh ho… ain’t that a familiar motherfucker.”

The boy genius lethal race through the garden seems to begin reaching its finish; Kingsley making out the piping hooked to the water control box among the lilies. Threatening to halt his progress however be another jet of water erupting from the tree. Though none of the shards tempt to fly in Kingsley’s direction, the speeding stream of water shoots right for him. Right on the mark, the geyser of fountain water strikes him aside; the technician sent flying through the garden. Kingsley’s forceful flight starts to take a turn for the worse, soon finding himself rocketing right towards the desert dwelling cacti. Kingsley closes his eyes, knowing there’s little he can do to to stop his careen towards the sandy pin traps but brace for the spiny impact.

Just before he could feel the sting of their sharp needles, he’s is snatched out of harms way. Failing to feel any of the cacti’s deadly pins pierce his skin; Kingsley opens his eyes and gazes up to find himself held in the air by his ghostly friend. “You okay?” Damian wonders. “I’m fine. Just fly me to the control box.”

At his friends request, the phantom teen glides across the garden to deliver his friend towards the lilies. Right when nearing the control box, Damian hears his passenger then order him to: “Now, drop me down!” “What!? But where nowhere near close to the ground! You’ll get hurt!” “There’s no time to land, Damian! Other peoples lives are at stake!” Although reluctant, the ghost boy heeds to his friends request and releases his grip on Kingsley’s arms; the super genius plummeting down towards the lily patch. While Kingsley’s descent proves trouble free, his landing shows to be anything but; breaking his ankle upon the solid concrete. The rough landing makes him tumble back; the gifted technician grabbing hold of his foot as he cries out; “Ah! My ankle!” “Kingsley!” his phantom friend concerns as he starts to descend. “Don’t worry about me! Just keep getting people out of here!” With that order, the ghostly teen flies away; leaving Kingsley to limp towards the control box.

Zooming back into the fray, Damian witness a huge chunk of the evergreen burst from the tree; the emeralds trajectory sent straight towards a fleeing elderly couple. With all his might, the specter jets straight towards the couple; coming neck and neck with the careening piece of crystal. Outracing the chunk of jade by only several inches, he reaches his arms out towards the two; grabbing hold of both senior citizens. The hunk of shining rock however slams down upon all three; the tiled pathway around the crashed emerald fracturing on all sides. Thankfully, all of them remain completely unharmed; Damian intangibly leading them out of the chunk of jewelry.

Finally making it to the control box, Kingsley leans over and begins digging through his pockets; soon pulling out his beloved screwdriver. With but a single stroke, he jams the tip of his tool right between the box and its cover; soon starting to wedge the lid off. It takes only several motions before he finally pries off the lid, revealing the valves and button controls held within; immediately beginning to turn the valve clockwise. The fountain set around the broken evergreen begins to finally calm; the water spurting out from the shattered walls of emerald soon dying down as a shimmering rainbow is left in its wake.

Finished leading the elderly couple out of the garden, Damian zooms back towards his technically gifted host. Kingsley himself sits relieved; a peaceful sigh escapes him as he knows the destruction is at an end. Seeing his phantom friend approaching, he rises from the patches of dirt to complement the ghost boy with: “Thanks Damian. You’re a big help. Your bravery and swift thinking here saved everyone's lives.” “Are you kidding. You’re the real hero here. I just simply kept people out of harms away. You...Your the one that actually stopped this whole mess.” Tempting to rise from the dirt, the boy genius stands on his feet; his ankles soaring horribly upon standing. Watching Kingsley fumble back down, Damian approaches worried; asking him if: “Oh my god! Are you alright!?” “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just my ankle. I’ll walk it off.” Rising to his knees, another question pops into Kingsley head; making him wonder aloud: “Still, kinda curious to know what screwed the fountain up so bad. Piping just doesn’t burst outta nowhere like that.”

Wondering such himself, Damien glides over towards the fractured fountain; taking a curious glance at its crown. Looking within the warped pipe at the top, the phantom teen spots something green clogging the inside. Phasing said object out with an intangible hand revealed to be a solid emerald leaf, a very familiar emerald leaf actually. Upon wondering why it seemed to recognize the jade crystal foliage; the answer suddenly hits him. “Oh...Oh my...” “What’s the matter, Damian!? Find something up there!?” he hears his host shout from below. Reluctant to show him; the phantom teen slowly descends to the base of the fountain where Kingsley stands. Without a word, Damian shyly presents the jade leaf to the boy genius; Kingsley surprised how: “That little thing caused the fountain to burst? That’s nuts. How did it even get up there?” “It’s because of me...” the specter shamefully admits. “What?” “I was the one who carelessly tossed this beautiful crystal leaf into the fountain’s crown. It’s because of me that the pipes burst and caused so much trouble.” “So it’s you’re fault, is it?” a third voice blames.

Gazing towards the source of the raspy intrusion, the duo are joined by an approaching old lady pointing her finger at the phantom as she continues with: “You’re the reason the piping went haywire!?” “Huh?” Damian wonders. “Look at the mess you made out of my precious garden!” Gazing upon the destruction that the owner presented, the two see before them the countless chunks of emerald having destroyed the tiled walkway, but the various flora as well. The rhododendrons ripped to shreds, the carnations crushed, the anemones annihilated, the peonies pulverized; almost every single flower in the garden pierced by jade shards. “All the work that I’ve put into this glorious garden, now reduced to nothing but a bejeweled catastrophe! But the worse of it all is the centerpiece.” Pointing towards the crystal tree; all three of them behold the result of the fountains clog; the emerald evergreen fractured by the burst piping. “My beautiful evergreen, shattered and destroyed beyond recognition and repair. Never to be beheld in its former glory again.” Contemplating the destruction of this once gorgeous garden that he had caused, despair ridden feelings begins to well within Damian. “Look, we’re sorry, okay. We didn’t mean to cause any of this.” Kingsley attempts to defend. “You think saying that’s gonna fix my garden? You know how much I’ll have to spend to restore all this; to track down another emerald evergreen!? How do you think your gonna compensate for the destruction you’ve caused!?”

With a guilty conscience weighing him down; the ghostly teen digs through his pockets to pull out his wallet. “I can-” Getting his wallet out, Kingsley lowers his phantom friends while he insists that: “Relax, I got it.” “But Kingsley, I can’t let you pay for what I did.” “You really think that you or your parents can afford to pay for all this? I got this covered.” A weak moan leaving his lips, the ghost boy puts his wallet away.

Limping through the twilight streets, Kingsley can’t help but hear his ghostly pal beside him berate himself on how: “It’s all my fault. All the wonder and beauty held within that glorious garden, all the CD’s and records that the music shop had gathered; all squandered and ruined because of my carelessness. The very pleasantries that deliver me joy and happiness, all come to ruin by my thoughtless actions. Truly, the universe wishes for me to weep; to wallow in the sorrows of my own doing.” “Step beating yourself up so much. You managed to save a whole bunch of people today; twice myself included. Swooping in and flying people out of the face of danger. You should be proud.” “Danger that I’ve caused. None of them would even have to be saved if it weren’t for me.” “It ain’t even remotely your fault. It’s how those places were constructed that was the problem. What made that flower shop keeper think that growing an emerald tree around a fountain wouldn’t lead to a disaster.”

Even with these statements, Kingsley finds his words showing little in lifting his friends mood; Damian simply staring down onto the concrete streets. “But uh, hey! Don’t be too down. We still got one more stop left on this encouragement express, and I guarantee that this final stop will really make the day. Trust me.” Upon those words does the boy genius lead Damian down a small flight of stone steps; soon opening the door at the bottom to reveal a small bar. The specter’s eyes are set alight on beholding the small stage behind the crowd; hearing the woman on stage sound off a haiku. “The wind is blowing. With it carries the glow of spring. The lily orchid blooms.” The end of her poetic haiku is met with a slew of snapping fingers; Damian's mouth open in astonishment. “The underground theater bar. I was so busy wallowing that I’d forgotten.” “I knew this would brighten you’re mood, even if it is kinda smokey. Think your up to get on there and perform.” Kingsley asks, waving away the puffs of cigarette smoke. “Are you kidding? I can’t wait.”

Brimming with excitement, the ghost rushes to the nearest empty table; soon pulling out a notebook and pencil as Kingsley sits next to him. Teething upon the neck of his pencil, a pondering groan escape from Damian’s lungs. “Nnn, I just can’t decide. What do you think I should write about?” he asks his host. “Whatever you want to write about, Damian. Poetry is a beautiful free form art with only the limits of your imagination.” “Kingsley, that not an answer. I need inspiration, dammit.”

The chime of the mic cuts in between their conversation, both looking out towards the stage to witness a woodland dressed gentleman tapping upon the tip. Drawing the entire bars attention, the gent clears his throat and begins his poetic anecdote with: “Few have never had the pleasure to experience an enchanting encounter with the heart of Asian nature such as I; beholding the unfiltered majesty of the Thailand jungles. The sunlight shinning through the bamboo thickets revealed the beauty reflecting within our precious earth. The elephants marching through the tall foliage as they guide their young showed to me the parental bonds we humans take for granted. Witnessing firsthand the symbolic relationship between the flock of oxpecker birds and pack of hippopotami proved to be a heartwarming example of the harmonious relationship between different creatures. All stunning examples of what we as a species should be striving for.” The woodland gents description of his trip through the Asian jungle lends him a mild snapping applause from the audience.

Fresh off hearing this performance does the distinct sound of rumbling hit Kingsley’s ears; the boy genius glancing down to see his stomach in an uproar. “Esh, guess those fries ain’t sitting too well. I’ll be in the bathroom if you need me.” he mentions as he rises from his seat. “Don’t take too long in there, Kingsley. Once I’m done, it’ll be my turn on the stage.” Damian insists without looking up from his notebook. With the boy genius strolling into the bathroom, he fails to witness the next poet come on stage; a woman in gothic attire standing within the spotlight.

Grabbing hold of the mic with her nail polished hands, the goth girl begins to recount the her tale by starting with. “The waxing moon shines down upon the decrepit remains of a Norwegian castle; the midnight lunar glow illuminating the rustic and dust ridden ruins of its halls revealing a haunting beauty one of which can only behold to believe. Traversing through the keeps darkest corridors, I had witnessed a magical site before me; fractured vision of the abodes glory days flash through the hallways. Passing through these sparks of nostalgia, the very air itself felt out of time; the furnishings and decors feeling new down to the very touch. But alas, these visions fade all too soon; the battered and decayed remains of the castle returning to shambles once more. Never have a seen anything more decadent such as that Norwegian keep, as if whatever haunts its halls is attempting to recollect memories lost to the unforgiving ages. Perhaps the day shall arrive when those that linger within the castle release themselves from the grip of their troubled memories and finally rest once and for all.” Having finished retelling her trips throughout the haunted castle, the gothic woman sets the mic back onto its pedestal; the audience lending her story a much stronger set of snaps. This haunting experience also sparks inspiration within the ghost boys own thoughts, Damian rapidly scribbling down words within his notebook.

Fresh from leaving one of the bathroom stalls, Kingsley draws in as much of the ocean breeze air fresheners captivating scent as he can; a refreshed breath leaving his lips. Ahh! That smells so much better. Certainly beats the puffs of smoke wafting outside. Don’t really know how anybody can live in that nicotine fueled air.

His shadow trailing behind the streetlights out the window, the technician strolls to the sink as he takes in more of the bathrooms pleasant incense. As he turns the sinks nobs, he wonders where exactly the refreshing smell originates; pressing the soap dispenser to find the scent coming from it alone. Whoa, that is some strong smelling soap; the scent itself leaking out from the dispenser just to grace everyone with its majestic scent. Almost as if the air of the very tropics themselves boarded a plane to town just to forcefully jam themselves straight into the noses of others. Wonder who sells this stuff?

Beside him does another stall open, a shadow trailing along the tiled floor as it approaches the boy genius’s backside.. All the while Kingsley himself remains distracted by his personal hygiene. Lathering his hands with the strong smelling soap, he finally rinses his palms; washing away every last bit of the suds. Taking in the smell of his palms, a relaxed sigh escapes from Kingsley lungs; the ocean breeze soon replaced with the scent of chloroform as a rag is forced over his mouth. Struggling against his assailants grasp, the boy genius looks within the mirror to find somebody holding him tightly, unable to make out any distinct details as his vision slowly fades. Kingsley soon falls into a deep slumber, the red swirling goggles once strapped to his neck slipping off onto the bathroom tile.

Upon the bars stage, the Damian’s chance in the spotlight finally arrives; the specter shyly putting his mouth to the mic as he announces: “Thank...Thank you all for giving me the chance to tell all of you my own tale. Truth be told, I’ve had this chronicle on the back of my mind for quite a long time now, and am happy to finally share with all of you one of my stories.” Sharing such earns the phantom teenager a small set of snaps from the audience before him; Damain looking down onto the paper of his notebook.

“Through a man made portal of swirling green, my entire body was cast into the emerald afterlife. Beyond the gates of the dead, I float through a seemingly endless void of tormented spirits and haunting beings; wailing in never ending agony over the mortality they’ve lost. Among the countless lost souls, creatures beyond words drift alongside them; praying upon their despair and sorrows like emotional predators. Floating along the swirling madness, a countless cavalcade of doors rest to my sides; each one unique to the next. Living behind their wood lie the countless memories of the departed, some being little more than single lit rooms, other massive expanses as far as the eye can see; though they all attempt to keep what little shards of memory their mortal lives once held. Soon, my journey led me faced with exotic islands beyond the reaches of the living; struggling against weathers of blistering heat and freezing winds. Venturing through the beautiful paradises of lost roman cities, to the unkempt hellscapes of torturous ruined prisons; I’ve ventured out through the most alien and imaginative worlds that human imagination has yet to comprehend. But at long last, my search for home came at an end; led to the very portal I was thrust into. Without a single moment of hesitance, I bolted through the swirling gate, soon met with my loving parents arms once more.”

Upon finishing his daring story through the dimension of the dead, Damian steps away from the mic and gives the audience a graceful bow. The silence is then shattered by a wave of snapping fingers, everyone in the bar applauding the ghostly teen’s haunting tale. Hearing himself receive such an ovation brings a bright smile to his face, the phantom casting away his dark hood to reveal his long sleeved dark yellow garbs underneath. That smile however starts to dissolve upon staring back towards his table; realizing his friends failed return from the bathroom.

Entering the men’s washroom, Damian sees not a single soul beyond the door; not even a sign of his host. “Kingsley? You in here?” he calls out. Alas, he fails to bait even a remote response, hearing only the acoustics of the tile repeating his call. His sites soon turns to the stalls, checking underneath to find not a single pair of feet. Opening all three of them yield nothing either, each one completely vacant. Quite peculiar to be honest. He definitely said he was going to the restrooms, certain that he was. It’s not like him to just depart without so much as warning, especially during a day out such as this.

Upon pondering this does Damian feel something crack below his feet, glancing down and lifting his foot to find a familiar set of goggles, one of the lenses shattered by the specters foot. Picking them off the floor, he knew right away who they belonged to. This-these are Kingsley’s favorite pair! He’s almost always has them around his neck. Something must have happened. He wouldn’t just leave them on the floor so carelessly like this. Betting he was kidnapped, this is a job for the cops.

With this in mind, Damian feverishly pulls out his phone; his finger resting on the police dial. Right when he was ready to make the call, a worrying thought perks up and causes him to hesitate. Hang on! If he was kidnapped, it’s almost a safe bet they plan to hold him hostage; having him at gunpoint and could cap him at any sign of the heat. Might wanna call in somebody that can make things go smoothly. Thinking this, the phantom teen scrolls up to the “C” list; his finger hovering over Cayenne’s number. Eh, maybe not. She might wind up making things worse.

Putting his phone back, the ghostly teen lets out disheartened groan. It’s no use. It doesn’t matter who can help out, they’ll just draw attention and put Kingsley in danger. Guess its more of a solo rescue mission then. Still, there is one thing that can track him down. Something that Dad talked about a couple years back. Might be kinda rusty at it, hadn’t really had much need to practice. Oh well, guess now’s a good a time as any.

Taking in a deep breath, Damian lets out calming sigh; shutting his eyes as he holds the pair of broken goggles before him. An emerald green aura begins to emit from the ghost boys palms, soon enveloping Kingsley’s swirling goggles in their glow. From the aura do the pair of goggles start to ascend from his hands; the phantom focusing upon the eye wear until nothing else remains in his mind. With enough concentration, the aura surrounding the goggles transforms into a violet hue; soon trailing away from the pair of eye wear and drifting towards the left. Opening his eyes, Damian witnesses the aura trial phasing through the bathroom window. Walking to the small window, the specter lightly taps the glass; the window falling over onto the concrete street. From there, Damian phases out from the bathroom and in to the alley; swiftly following the aura of his friend out into the streets.

Trapped within the dim confines of a ruined room, two thugs finish tying the gifted technician from neck to toe tightly to a wooden chair; remaining oddly calm to the daring situation at hand. “Sooo...why did you guys kidnap me again?” he nonchalantly asks his captors. “For real, you saying don’t remember a thing about us?” the one to his front wonders. “Mmm...Nah.” “Not even the time we kidnapped ya a few months back?” the goon wonder, hurt by the boy genius’s lack of memory. “Eh, ain’t ringing any bells.” “Seriously, how often does ya sorry ass get ganked that you don’t recognize us?” the other behind him wonders as he walks to Kingsley’s front. “Happens more times then you’d think, honestly. Ya mind being a bit more specific?” “The Raw Shuck gang?” Mentioning their identities leaves their captive ever clueless; Kingsley simply starring at them with a confused gaze. “Those three brats you had with ya tore up our sweet hideout the last time we took ya.” “Nnn...sounds familiar, but...You sure that was you guys?” Upon this absence of memory, the two crooks are left speechless; one of their eyes beginning to well up with tears. Wiping the tear off his face, the goon pulls his partner aside to talk in private.

Facing away from their captive, the one goon goes on to mention: “Told ya our reputation’s been plummeting the past couple months. Gotten so bad that this mofo we ganked a while back can’t even remember us.” “Maybe it wouldn’t have took a nose dive down to the earths core and out the other side if we had more than one hideout. The damage that assholes kids caused took out half our gang.” “Hey, it ain’t my fault that some new brats in town are muscling in on our turfs and beaten the shit outta us.” “Who’s even stompin us out anyway? Didn’t even hear a single name.” “I don’t fuckin know. Bunch of young ass mofo’s going around callin themselves the “Yellow Jacket”. Some shit like that.” “You fuckin playin with me here? What kind of twink ass freaks just strutten through the streets like tough shit name themselves after a bunch of damn wasps?” “Well, who names their gang after a psychological test?” Kingsley interjects. From behind their back, the two goon look back towards the boy genius; glancing to each other to realize their captive listening their private conversation. Fulling turning back to their tied up hostage, the two gaze upon Kingsley with intimidating glares; one of them putting their face to the boy genius’s and threatening with: “Ain’t nobody gonna bust you outta here this time.” Both make their exit out; the other goon leaving Kingsley with a departing promise. “You gonna pay for make fools outta the Raw Shuck.”

With these parting words to the two thugs leave the boy genius tied up; Kingsley himself left apathetic to their warning. “Oh no. I, Kingsley Spicer, have been captured once again by a menacing gang of thugs and entrapped under their ropes. If only I had come prepared for this inevitable situation. Oh wait...” he claims with droning sarcasm. Loosening his wrist from the tight hold of his restraints, the boy reveals a watch from under the ropes. Pressing a button to its side causes the watches face to open; a small mechanical appendage soon firing a small laser. “I did.” the boy genius sarcastically recounts as the laser cuts through the rope holding him down. Once the last of his binds has been severed, Kingsley rises from the wooden chair, brushing off the loose strands of rope. “And people wonder why I wear a watch with smartphones around.”

Outside, Damian stares onward as a nervous gulp passes through his through; beholding the run down hospital blending into the night. “Get it together, Damian. It’s an abandoned hospital...filled to the brim with murderous thugs ready to unload their guns towards an intruder at a moments notice. No big deal, nothing to fear.” Glancing down to the pair of broken goggles in his hands, the phantom teen witnesses the voilet aura trail winding through the front door. “If I play my cards just right, I can swoop in and get Kingsley right out. All with no one else the wiser.” This strategy cemented in his head, Damian makes himself invisible to the naked eye and glides right through the front door.

Set deep within the dark corridors of the hospital, two goons stroll past an open desk sitting right in the middle of a big intersection. “So they asked you how you want your pork cooked?”. “Yeah, it was really weird. You told me that pork has to be cooked in a specific way right?” “It has to be cooked thoroughly so that all the bacteria in it get burned off. Kinda shocking that they even asked in the first place.” “Yeah, probably won’t be long before they catch the heat of the FDA. That steakhouse is a lawsuit waiting to happen, just wait.” Once the two turn the corner, their thought to be captive peeks out over the counter; glancing in both directions before sneaking away in the opposite direction.

Prowling through the molding hospital halls, stealthy technician gazes up towards the ceiling; the exit signs hanging over head beaten in. Beyond it however laid another sign, pointing where the fire escape is located. Seems like the perfect getaway at first, doesn’t it? Just slip through the emergency exit and book it as fast as ya can. But with the tempting bait lies an insidious trap. Judging by the dim lights, this place is still holding the power together. The alarm to the fire escape probably hasn’t been cut. Try and walk out through there and the blaring alarm will get the whole hospitals attention. Still, there’s gotta be another way out. Somewhere nobody will even notice anybody making their getaway. Upon wondering such does Kingsley witness a shadow creeping out from the corner; soon frantically looking around for a place to hide.

Out from beyond the corner, disgruntled goon walk through the empty hallway with a mop and bucket in hand. “Man, why the fuck do I always get stuck with janitor duty. Ain’t like anybody else is going through this moldy ass shit hole. Only got me on this one man clean up crew with just fucking mop and bucket; don’t know what makes em think that anybody can clean this whole crap dump with just these thing.” Caught up in his aggravated rantings, the janitorial grunt fails to discover Kingsley hiding within one of the open patient rooms; the door broken from its hinges. Once the angry cleaner was clear from the halls, the sneaking genius slinks away from the janitor; sadly unaware of his invisible ghostly pal searching for him on the other side of the hall.

Passing the pissed grunt overhead, Damian continues to trail through the dim hospital halls; following the violet aura emanating from his friends broken goggles. His trailing search soon takes him to a split in the middle; Kingsley’s energy venturing off in both directions of an intersecting hallway. The phantom ponders why his trail would fracture so distinctly like this; only two explanations at the top of his head. Either these thugs couldn’t decide where to stow him, or...he must have broke free! If the latter is true, then Kingsley would be attempting to sneak out towards the exit. Best track him down post haste, lest these brutish thugs catch him in the midst of his escape. Judging from where the entrance is located, Kingsley would likely be going...right. Having thought this, Damian takes a right on the 4 way hallway; resuming his rescue as he continue to follow his friend’s aura.

His invisible pursuits soon lead him to an alarming predicament. Standing before him be a whole cavalcade of thugs, crooks and grunts, mingling to one another of their criminal escapades within what looked to be a small lobby. Oh...oh boy...Okay, this gonna be tight. Just gotta not make a single sound and this’ll go as silky smooth as melting butter on top of toasted bread.

Carefully does Damian start to fly over the pack of thugs without so much as a peep; as getting close to the ceiling as he possibly can without touching it. Only a few feet of space stand between their countless heads and his body; the specter quieting his breath so not to draw any attention. As the phantom teen carefully floats over the murmuring crowd, he regrets not making enough time to practice his other ghostly abilities with his father; maintaining intangibility alongside invisibility being a skill that would have come in handy in situations such as this. Perhaps once this is all over, the father could explain how to do so without contracting overwhelming migraines.

A trouble that bares its fangs when Damian’s clothes are caught on the ceiling, the unexpected jerk making the mineral fiber tile over him tremble. Glancing back, the phantom had found the bottom back of his shirt caught along a loose wire. Hearing the murmuring cease underneath, Damian gazes down to find the crooks below him staring up towards him. “Anyone else see that?” “Yeah, part of the ceiling moved.” “I saw it too!” “Probably just rats! This place is crawling with them.” “I don’t know, I ain’t hearing any scuttling.” With the crowd under him growing curious, Damian slowly attempts to pick out his shirt from the wiring; his endeavors causing the tile over him to shake. “There! It’s moving! I knew it!” “Da faq’s goin on up there!” “Someone got a stick or somethin?” “We could just stack on each other and reach up there.” “Hell, no. I ain’t havin someones dirty ass dick on the back of my neck.” “Found a broken IV pole. Will that work?” The crowd beneath him gathering ever closer, Damian hurries to unhook his shirt from the loose wire; someone from the band of crook drawing forth with a long metal pole. Right as the goon with the broken IV pole was under him, the phantom manages to free himself from the wires grasp. The crook below begins to thrust the pole upward; Damian slipping right past its metal neck just in the nick of time. Floating away from the mineral fiber tile, the lackey instead pokes at the loose bit of ceiling; lifting the tile to reveal simply the loose cables underneath. “Huh, maybe it was just some rats.” “Well, what else do you expect from an abandoned hospital?” “Don’t know. Fuckin ghost.” “Josique, shut yo damn mouth.” Finally putting the curious crowd behind him, Damian lets loose a quiet sigh; glancing back to find not a single one of them the wiser.

The phantom then attempts takes off from the gang of goons, hoping to gain as much distance from them as possible; his getaway immediately interrupted when slamming into a wayward henchman. Both the invisible ghost and goon fall right on their asses on impact; the entire crowd behind them drawn by the unexpected fall. “You okay there, man?” one of them worries. “Ah! Anybody see what the hell happened?” the crook on the cracked marble wonders. “Think you might have tripped?” “No, felt like I ran into somebody.” The crowd of criminals behind him approaching the two, Damian wastes not one more moment to escape while he’s still remains relatively undetected; zipping right past the baddie before those behind him could realize his presence.

Peeking out from the other side of a thick metal door; Kingsley finds himself having reached the roof of the hospital; the full moon illuminating the entire top of the building to reveal not a soul wandering outside. With nobody in site, the wonderous genius steps out into the night; the cool fall winds brushing past as he shuts the door behind him. Although a little shivering, the freezing night air is welcoming none the less; taking in a breath free from the foul stench of aging mold and dried blood. It never really crosses the mind the kind of horrible odors that can originate from a hospital with cleanup being a constant need. With barely anybody around to keep up maintenance, all the fowl smelling bacteria comes out to play. Kinda surprising then that no one down there has contracted any diseases yet.

Putting these thoughts behind him though, Kingsley opts to take a glance out from the side; staring down below to spot an armed thug patrolling the face of the hospital. Pretty obvious that they’d have the front of their hideout covered, but what about the sides? Looking down to the left shows a couple of crooks creeping along their HQ’s first half. Okay, maybe the right might prove more lax. But alas, walking across the rooftop revealed the hospitals right side to be just as secure as its left. Right, they probably have the back covered as well. And just as predicted, the back shows to be just as covered as the rest of the outside. They’re not really being lazy with security, are they? There isn’t a single blind spot to climb down to and sneak off. With every corner of this place covered, there’s really only one option left to take. Digging through his pockets, the boy genius pulls out his smart phone; unlocking his screen and brings up his contacts. Hard to believe they didn’t think of taking this away.

Scrolling through his friends number, he ponders who exactly to call in this time of need; knowing all too well that calling in someone like Cayenne would risk causing one heck of a commotion and could end extremely poorly. No...a situation such as this calls for someone with a far more careful hand. Somebody who can easily slip into the shadows and go by undetected; as if turning invisible to the naked eye. But who exactly can fulfill such an insanely careful and incredibly crafty roll... Eh, Damian could fit the bill.

Finally making his decisions, Kingsley taps on his ghostly pals number; putting his phone to his ear to hear the dial tone sound off. Come on, please pick up…

On the floors below, Damian himself floats through the dim halls of the hospital in pursuing his friends aura. The phantoms search soon leads him to a run down patients room, opening the door to find before him a peculiar site. Behind the destroyed equipment at the end of the room be a lone wooden chair with a set of rope surrounding its bottom. Picking the rope off the old marble floor shows the binds having been cut in half at the back; sporting scorch marks around the severed end. Touching these marks felt hot to the touch; the smell of burnt cloth still fresh.

They definitely tried to keep him held up in here; but knowing Kingsley, he swiftly figured out a way to escape. The goons outside don’t really seemed particularly alarmed; they must not realize that he’s free yet. Gahh! Should’ve took the left instead of the right back at the split. Guess there’s not much else that can be done but backtrack and hope that Kingsley can stay outta site long enough.

Right as he ready to trudge back through the halls, the phantom’s phone blares out Drakes “In my feelings”; Damian scrambling through his pockets to pull out the source of the echoing ringing. From the side, the phantom feverishly puts his call on hold and shuts down his phone entirely; regrets of not doing so sooner flaring in his mind. Though there’s little time for self deprecation, as the specter soon hears the sound of approaching footsteps. “Who the hell’s playing Drake in here?”

Three thugs soon storm through the doorway; gazing within the seemingly empty patient room as one of them assures that: “Swear I heard it come from in here.” “Think some dumbass might’ve left their phone in lyin around?” the other wonders. “Maybe. Let’s look around. See if someone’s hiding in here.” the last suggests. All three of them start to look deeper within the ruins of the patients room, unaware of the source of the noise standing right beside them. Damian remains completely quiet as the crooks search through the broken hospital furnishings; inching closer towards the rooms open exit.

One of the lackeys soon comes across the chair surrounded by freshly cut rope. “Hey, guys. We kidnapped anybody recently?” he wonders. “Yeah, somebody finally knocked that Spicer brat and brung him back. Have him stowed up somewhere. Why?” one of them questions. “Uh, think they might have got out.” “What!?” From the other side of the room, the goon rushes to her comrades side and beholds the very same site as he. Picking the rope up, she ran through its string to come upon its severed end. “Dammit! How the hell, he get out so fuckin fast!?” “We gotta go tell the others. Who know’s how long he’s been sneakin around here?”

With the crooks alarm does Damian finally leave through the doorway; soon meeting with the blunt force of a wayward baseball bat. The impact causes the phantom to fall to the marble floor; soon becoming visible to the world once again. All within the patient room stares down onto him; surprised of his sudden appearance. “The fuck! Where the hell’d he come from!” “Swear, this town is full of freaks!” “Didn’t even see him at all. Who punched his lights out?” “That be me, mofo’s.” someone speaks up. Coming out from the hall, a forth crook wearing an odd pair of goggles comes in wielding a baseball bat. “Josique!?” “Ya’ll callin me fuckin stupid for blowin my cash on inferred goggles! Bet all ya’ll asshole kickin yoselves for constantly given me shit! “God dammit, Josique. You wastin yo greens on stupid shit stead of crack or hoes? The fucks wrong with ya?” Well, that look like a waste a greens, mofo’s!?” he gloats, points to the groaning ghost boy. Writhing on the floor; Damian’s consciousness begins to elude him; the last words he hears before blacking out be: “Just shut up and get the cuffs.”

Anxiously awaiting atop the roof, Kingsley stands by as he attempts to call for his phantom friends; the droning ring sounding out in his ear sweat drips down his forehead. A disheartened sigh leaves his lungs when the tone goes straight to voicemail; spurring the chance to leave a message and jumping back to his contacts. Guess there really isn’t much options left to take now, is there? Things might get kinda messy with Cayenne charging straight in, but what else can be done at this point. Just hope she doesn’t go overboard this time.

The boy genius scrolling back up towards the C’s in his contacts, his finger hovers over Cayenne’s number. Just when he was ready to make the call, his phone picks up an incoming call; the oncoming number soon turning to Damian’s name. Seeing his ghostly pal calling, Kingsley waits not one more moment to take the call; putting the phone up to his ear and pleading: “Damian! Thank goodness I finally caught you. Listen, I’m trapped up here at the top of an abandoned hospital. I need you come get me before the goons down below find out I’m-” “Hello, dear friend.” a deep voice greets. Kingsley nerves wind right back up when hearing the unfamiliar tone on the other end. “Mind staying on the line as you come back down, buddy? I have a guest down here that I think you be interested to reunite with.”

Held within the dim confines of a central office, Damian struggles to free himself from a set of neon green handcuff. Turning intangible fails to release his hands from their grip; a painful shock delivered to his whole body that forces him back to the physical plane. As he recovers from the sudden shock, a voice to his side warns that: “Slipping outta those cuffs ain’t gonna be that easy for ya, pal.” The specter gazes over towards a slim man donning a pale business suit; his face sporting black markings around his eyes. “I know. These are standard phantom containment cuffs. Only official phantom patrol officials are allowed access to these. How did someone like you get your hands on a pair?” Damian demands. “Kinda hate to admit it, but nabbing a pair of those puppies wasn’t easy. Had to go through a ton of black market channels just to try and find the damn things. Course since last time, we knew that it had to be a necessary investment. A little precaution just in case. And judging from the way your struggling in those cuff; I’d say it was all worth it.” Turning away from his ghostly captive, the man puts his feet up over his desks and lays back on his chair.

Right after he gloats does his office door creaks open, the boy genius himself being led in by a crook with a gun pointed to his back. “Ah, speaking of which, glad to see you back. Allow me to formally welcome you into the depth of the Raw Shucks den.” Damian steps out from the shadows, fervently asking: “Kingsley! Are you okay!? Did they hurt you!? I- Hang on second.” The phantom then turns his sites back towards the man behind the desk, wondering: “The Raw Shucks? Really? What kind of crime boss would name their gang after some psychological test?” “I was asking the exact same thing.” Kingsley adds. Slamming his fist against the desk, the boss rises from his seat; insisting that: “It’s meant to be a bad ass name! It’s supposed to tell others that we’ll psychologically ruin them. Get inside their mind. The trauma we cause’ll fuck them up. Ya get it? Come on.” Everyone in the office stands in the office in silence; perplexed of the boss’s naming reasons. Glancing to the goon holding Kingsley at gunpoint; Damian watches as she simply just shrugs. The lack of a response makes the boss pinch his nose as an irritated groan escapes his lungs. “Where the hell was I?” Snapping his finger; he reminds himself that he cut off at: “Right. Right. Threats.”

Sitting back down, the boss picks up where he left off; promising Kingsley that: “We’re gonna make you pay for crashing our party last time, Spice boy. Those brat you sicked on us ain’t here to help you out this time. Not to mention having your ghostly pal here on his leash. The bust up since then set us back big time. Rival gangs have been coming in and muscling in on our turfs, drug trafficking ring’s been shafted, heists and robberies have been dwindling to a crawl; it’s all been just a really shitty month to be honest. But ya know something?” The boss then vaults right over his desk; finishing his statement as he lands with: “All that’s gonna change real soon once we cash in on the pretty pennies both your ransoms will make. The investments we made in our hour of need will pay themselves back tenfold. With all those greens fueling are return, we’ll take back Townsville’s underbelly and conquer what lies beyond!”

His painted gaze aimed towards the boy genius, boss commands him with: “Now, hands up, phone down.” Feeling the cold steel of the iron barrel on his back, Kingsley calmly complies with the bosses orders; dropping his phone and raising both hands over his head. After picking up the mobile device, the boss glances right above his hostage’s head to find the boys hands balled tightly; immediately ordering his guest to: “Fist...Open.” With those words does Kingsley look towards his ghostly friend; Damian staring back as his eyes squint. Following the bosses words does the boy genius open his palms; releasing a small black ball that drops towards the ground. Both the boss and phantom watch as the featureless ball rolls along the marble crack; Damian’s eyes widening as he realizes his friends plan. The little ball finally explodes; Kingsley giving his phantom friend a determined smile as the entire office is swiftly enveloped in a shroud of white. Coughing up the smoke bombs discharge, the crime boss flails about to try and clear out the clouds; several gunshots sounding off in the chaos. The smoke eventually dissipates, the boss and his armed lackey finding their guest having vanished. Glancing back to his desk’s side, they saw that the phantom has disappeared as well. A small growl coming from between his teeth soon morphs into a full blown scream; the boss crushing the boy genius’s phone with his bare hands. He swiftly turns towards his goon; demanding that she: “Don’t just stand there, go after them!” Once the crook sprints out into the hall, her boss vaults back on the other side of his desk; grabbing hold of the intercom and announcing to the entire hideout. “Attention, my lovable pack of marauders. We got a couple escapees scuttling in our halls! Get yourselves armed and scramble towards the west wing, on the double!”

His announcment echoing across the entire hospital, Kingsley and Damian sprint as fast as their legs can carry them. “You really can’t phase us outta here?” the boy genius question. “Unfortunately, no. As long as these accursed cuffs cover my hands, nearly all of my powers are locked under its steel. Curse the bounding achievements of paranormal technology!’” “Damian, relax. I can get them off. We just have to find someplace to hide so I can pick the lock.”

Winding and weaving themselves through the molding halls, the duo attempt to break down every door they can in hopes of finding a place to hide; most of the doors they encounter either locked or stuck shut. Those few with no doors fail to be effective hiding places; rooms they come across either being cluttered messes or small closets.

Their escapades are eventually come to a dead end, Damian stopping in his tracks when turning the corner. Kingsley unintentionally tackles him down, both boys falling upon the dirty marble floor. “Ah, why’d you stop?” the boy genius wonders; soon looking along his side to find the answer. Rising from the floor, the duo are faced with a squad of armed goons and crook; all their firearms aimed right at the two. “Oh, wow. They gathered faster then I anticipated. That’s...quite impressive actually.” the technician admits. “Yeah, bitch. The Raw Shucks don’t slouch around. Now, you two piss ant’s scramble back your rooms before we cap yo asses.” one of them warns.

To the specters side, Kingsley whispers that: “I only packed the one smoke bomb. I don’t got anything else up my sleeves.” Gazing out to the group of armed thugs set before him, the phantom puts on his bravest face and counter that: “You might not...but I do. Stay behind me and plug your ears.” With that answer, Damian start to approach the front of the crowd; Kingsley frantically whispering: “What are you doing!?” “Something that my dad said that I should only do in emergencies.”

The phantom teen stepping to the front of the pack of lethal crooks; one of them warns the boy to: “Come on, kid, don’t be a hero. Just back away and play nice.” Breaking his determined glare, Damian takes in a mighty breath of air; the crowd before him perplexed why the boy was holding his breath. Their answer is soon given in the form of a bellowing screech; Damian letting loose powerful emerald waves from his mouth. Kingsley backs away towards the wall, covering his ears upon the horrifying screech. The intense wail starts pushing the thugs before the phantom back; the emerald waves causing them to careen into the walls. While some try to block out the unholy shrieking, others attempt to fire upon the bellowing phantom; their bullets failing to travel far as the emerald waves push them back. The constant blast of booming screams starts to make the entire hospital tremble; the walls before him beginning to give way. Soon, Damian’s tormenting wails breaking through the facilities structure, entire chunks of the hospital being blown away by his green screech.

Eventually, the boy genius hears the ear piercing screams die down; Kingsley opens his eyes to find an astonishing site. Before his ghostly friend, the entire side of the hospital had been completely destroyed; a funneling hole left remaining in the aftermath. He finally breaks his stare out into the open night sky when he witnesses Damian fall to his knees; the specter coughing up blood onto the broken marble floor. “Damian!” the boy genius shouts; rushing to his phantom friends side. Kneeling to Damian, Kingsley worries if: “Are you okay!?” Ignoring the boy genius’s question, the ghostly teen puts his entrapped hands before Kingsley. “Get these cuffs off. They’ll be here any minute.” he wheezes out. Upon this request, Kingsley frantically digs through his pockets, soon pulling out his trusted screwdriver and jamming its tip straight into the cuffs lock. As he shifts his tool through Damian’s binds, both begins to hear the echo of constant footstep approaching; the ghost boy urging his friend to: “Hurry...” Kingsley looks back to see shadows he begin to creep out from the corner, making him haste his lock picking. Finally, the specter’s cuffs come undone, the technological metal binds falling to the floor.

Damian witnesses a pack of crooks turn the corner, witnessing their barrels aimed right towards the two. Before a single one of them could open fire; the phantom bounces on the boy genius. Kingsley hears the sound of gunfire echo through the hall; looking beyond his phantom friend to find the goons behind them unleashing their salvo atop the two. Though dozens of bullets pass right through them, not one does any harm to them. The teenage genius looks down to find Damian hugging him as tight as he possibly can, the phantom turning them both intangible against the led shower. With whatever strength he bares left; the specter jumps away from the small cavalcade of armed of criminals and rockets out from the very hole that he’s created. The thugs behind them attempt to shoot the escaping duo right out of the sky, none of them coming close to land a single bullet on either of them.

In his flight, Kingsley looks back towards the hospital disappearing in the distance; admitting that: “I can’t believe we actually made it outta there in one piece. Damian, your-” Just before the boy could speak any further, his friends strength finally fades; both boy soon begin to plummet down towards the buildings below. Both soon land right on top of an apartment building; the duo rolling across the rooftop before stopping right near the edge.

Slowly rising from their rough landing, Kingsley looks on towards the direction of their escape; claiming that: “I don’t think they’re gonna pursue us this close to the city.” Turning back to his savor, he begins to conclude that: “I think we should be safe to-” Silencing his statement, Kingsley witnesses his phantom friend kneeling on his knees; the sound of sniveling sounding out across the rooftop. “What...What the matter? Are you still hurt?” the boy genius wonders, nearing Damian’s side. “I’m...so...worthless...” Taken aback by his self loathing statement, Kingsley looks to his phantom friends face to find tears trickling down his cheeks. “What?” “I screwed practically everything over. I couldn’t keep you from getting kidnapped, I broke your favorite pair of goggles, and when I tried rescuing you, I just wound up getting caught myself.” he reviews, presenting Kingsley shattered lens to him. Taking the eye wear from his ghostly pals palms, the boy genius hears him continue with: “All day, things how been taking a turn for the worse and its all cause of me. I’m nothing but trouble. Cayenne was right. I’m nothing but a melodramatic coward.” Kingsley throws his broken set of goggles aside; patting his self loathing friend on the shoulder as he denies that: “Damian, that ain’t true in the slightest. Far from it. I probably would have wound up becoming a led filled organ pinata if you hadn’t came in and got me out of that nest of crooks.” “But...you still had to come and save my spectral hide after I got locked in ghost proof cuffs.” “And you still went and blew a ton of them away. Even with those things on; you not only took them out, but blew up a whole half of a hospital, all just by screaming. We would have been caught dead if you couldn’t do that.”

Wiping away the snot from his nose; Damian adds with his retort with: “No one’s gonna believe any of this coming out of our mouths though. People like Cayenne’ll still see me as nothing more then a spineless poet.” A melancholy sigh escaping from his lungs, the teenage specter, continues with: “Much like natures mighty lifeline, the graceful honeybee. Keeping their world beautiful and full of life. But alas, those that benefit from them the most see them as nothing but a nuisance, much like I.” “Stop thinking like that. You shouldn’t care what the vast majority of people think of you anyway. Doing that’s just gonna make you get all kinds of unnecessary stress. You know who’s opinion you should really be concerned with?” “Who’s?” Pointing his finger right to his ghostly pals nose; Kingsley simply answers: “Yours.” Kingsley sees that this statement fails to waver Damian’s self doubt; swiftly thinking what he should add to cheer up his phantom friend. “But…even if you still aren’t too sure about yourself. Just know that...you’ll always be a hero in my eyes.” This final guarantee makes a smile crack between the spectral teens cheeks; a laugh soon escaping through his teeth. “Thanks Kingsley.”

Rising from the course roof, Damian stands tall by Kingsley’s side; both boys starring out up to the full moon as it shines its lunar glow down upon the town. “The full moon. Shining its brightest when facing the earth and its struggles. Much like how all of us can shine when we face our existence.” “Glad your feeling better, buddy.”

------------------------------------------------------------

Might’ve given credit about Damian earlier, but just in case:

Damian belongs to: @princesscallyie

#lillaxtrigger #Young Hope

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trashyazeohane · 7 years ago

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Wait For It - Hogwart!AU

Part 1/Part 2/Part 3

Summary: Max tries to help, David is really confused, Nikki and Neil are really good friends and Daniel seriously should choose a different time to knock on the door.

Additional comments: Kissing, Angst, Fluff, Slow Burn

Word count: 16 851

Beta-read by my amazing friend @maxvid-fan

You can also read it on AO3. Enjoy!

ﾟ｡･ * . ☆ ━ II ━ ☆ . * ･｡ﾟ

“(…) And we keep loving anyway

We laugh and we cry

And we break

And we make our mistakes (…)”

– Lin-Manuel Miranda

Christmas at Nikki’s house was nothing like Christmas at Max’s. His house was dull, empty, hollow and emotionless. It was cold and dreadful. It was ripped of all those warm tones it was supposed to have, even though the lights and colorful ribbons were scattered all over the place, decorating perfectly every possible corner in the house.

Max’s Christmas consisted of a silent dinner and too expensive gifts that never were useful and never brought even a simple spark of joy.

Nikki’s house was a mess – a very positive, lively, vivid, cheerful, warm, sizzling and beautiful mess that made Max want nothing more than to stay here forever.

Nikki’s father’s house wasn’t hollow – it was a disaster with dozens and dozens of toys (mostly belonging to Nikki’s younger brothers), clothes, half-finished furniture, half-eaten packets of biscuits and random utensils lying here and there. An iron in the middle of the kitchen? No problem. A pile of dirty clothes waiting to be washed in the corridor? Sure. An unfinished homework lying on the floor in the living room? Yeah, everyone had to jump over it.

It was a disaster, a mess without any control and Max loved it.

(Neil didn’t like it so much, especially as he stepped into a puddle of water after he had taken off his shoes.)

Nikki’s father welcomed Max with a heavy pat on the back. Nikki’s stepmother gave him cookies and pinched his cheek. Nikki’s little brothers almost tripped him when they ran through the corridor to the kitchen.

It was amazing.

Max decided to stay there for two days – he didn’t want to make things difficult for David, but he was still kinda selfish, so two days it was. He was going to sleep on Nikki’s floor in a borrowed sleeping bag. Neil too, but he brought his own one.

Max wasn’t sure how he should behave or what he should actually be doing during Christmas, but Nikki’s stepmother quickly found him and Neil a job. Nikki was left to get rid of the raccoons sleeping under the roof.

The house was loud – kids screamed, people laughed, things got broken, a dog loudly barked at the shimmering lights – and God, that was amazing.

The Christmas dinner wasn’t silent, but filled with voices, shouts, yelps, asks, answers, groans – with conversations ruling over the table to the soft accompaniment of clashing and squeaking utensils.

It was the best Christmas in Max’s life.

After the dinner they spent the evening and night in Nikki’s room, where they played something on a big, flat screen using weird thingies – controllers apparently or at least Nikki called them that. Max sucked at it first, but quickly found a way to defeat both his friends and be at the very top of the ranking. Nikki threw a giant pack of crisps at him which exploded, showering them with salty treats.

Max laughed when Neil started screeching that the salt got into his eyes.

They talked till the Sun welcomed them on the horizon.

***

“And this is a present from us!” Nikki happily said, pushing a package into Max’s chest.

“Is it gonna explode?” He asked, staring at the pink paper.

He could never be sure with Nikki nor Neil.

“Unfortunately no.” The girl sighed. “Neil killed the fun part.”

The teen huffed and stared at the girl from behind a book (his present from Max, thank you very much) with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’m so bad for not trying to kill my friend.”

“Totally.”

Max snorted and then put the package on his lap. He quickly tore through the childish, pink paper to unwrap a plain, brown box, which he then opened. Inside there were Filibuster Fireworks, tons of sweets and a scarf with a logo of his favourite Quidditch team.

Max grinned under his nose when he found a small note at the very bottom which only said ‘use fireworks only to mess with crazy Daniel’.

“Thanks guys.” Max said, feeling the happiness bubbling inside his chest, but he held it down strongly to not let it show on his face.

But it was probably a futile job, because Nikki was grinning at him like crazy. Even Neil had a soft smile tugging at the corners of his lips behind the book.

The rest of the day was spent eating the leftovers from yesterday’s dinner, watching TV, laughing at the lame jokes said there and occasionally fighting with Nikki’s brothers.

And too soon the evening came and Max had to return to the school.

Nikki’s stepmother packed him a whole bag of food (Neil too). Max had no heart to tell her that he didn’t have any place to hide it, so he just took it and thanked the woman. Nikki’s father shook his hand and smiled warmly. He told Max that he would always be welcome here.

In overall it wasn’t much, but damn, it was a lot in Max’s opinion.

***

To be honest Max was kinda tired when he returned to the dorm. Plus a soft hue coming from a candle wasn’t giving him much light, so it was logical that he didn’t see a few packages lying near his bed.

But he did notice them in the morning, when he almost crashed down because his leg got caught under one.

“What the…”

Oh yeah, his parents had also sent him a present – wrapped in a neat, gold paper. For a brief moment Max thought about leaving it here, maybe even throwing it out of the window, but then decided it was better to get this over with.

Some fancy clothes, a tie and a book – where the shirts looked uncomfortable, the tie had a disgusting pattern and the book was about economy.

Yeah, this present totally deserved being thrown out of the window. Or maybe he could burn it. It would probably burn nicely.

Max scoffed under his nose. Yeah, his parents will probably expect him to wear those things, so maybe getting rid of them wasn’t that best idea. Especially as he didn’t want nor had the energy to search for excuses.

So in the end he grabbed the pile and pushed it in the furthest part of his trunk. He had to give it a good few kicks to push it between some books, but soon the present was buried deep down and was hopefully taken off Max’s mind for at least few months from now on.

So what should Max do? He still had a few days of freedom and no detention. Of course he had a shit ton of homework he could do, but yeah… that could wait till the very last few days, so he could then curse himself that he didn’t start earlier.

So yeah, a day of doing nothing it was.

Beautiful.

***

Okay, maybe it wasn’t as beautiful as Max initially had thought, because damn it was fucking boring. The castle was so empty that he had barely seen anyone walking around!

Even the teachers’ table was almost empty. Yet he definitely saw crazy Daniel talking with a Numerology teacher.

(David was absent, but it was normal. He usually was late for breakfasts, so Max’s brain didn’t let him dwell too long on it, even though he kinda wanted to see the teacher.)

So he spent most of the day sitting in the common room and reading random books. For a brief moment he even wanted to start doing homework, but his brain quickly shot that idea down.

He wondered what David was doing. From what Max knew and heard from other people, David never really returned home. Not counting the fact that beside him there was no one here who could take care of the plants, it didn’t look like he had anyone to whom he could return.

Maybe that was why he was so gloomy during Christmas? It was a possibility, but Max had a feeling that this wasn’t exactly true. There were of course tons of rumors spreading through the school like a disease, but Max hardly believed them. They were only there to make people enjoy evenings in the common rooms.

Max hadn’t seen David for the whole day.

So Max spent this whole day doing nothing.

When he washed himself, he moved slowly to his empty bedroom (the rest of his roommates had gone home for Christmas), whistling some catchy song he had heard in Nikki’s house under his nose. A few people wished him a good night and he only nodded at them in reply.

Inside his bedroom he lit up a candle and slowly shuffled around, hiding his dirty clothes and books he had read today in his trunk. After that he stretched his hands above his head and then moved to his bed –

Only to stomp on something kinda crunchy during this process.

Max glanced down. It was hard to see anything in the dim light of the candle (he could definitely use Lumos, but well then it would be too bright), but there was an outline of something lying under his foot. He leaned down and grabbed it.

Max sat on the bed, moved the candle closer on the nightstand and looked at the thing he had stomped on.

It was a package, wrapped in a plain brown, kinda tough paper with a yellowish string holding it all together.

What the heck? Was it another Christmas’ present? But from whom? Some far away relatives? But then again why would they send it now, after so many years?

Only one way to find out.

Max grabbed the thread and pulled, untying it and letting it fall softly onto the bed. Then he slowly moved the paper away, which rustled and swished under the touch.

Max blinked.

Gloves. Typical gardening gloves. Kinda thick, navy blue gloves.

Max grabbed them, feeling kinda harsh touch of the leather under his fingertips. He rolled them over and oh! a small piece of parchment fell from between the fingers.

Merry Christmas!

I thought they may come in handy :)

David

Max stared at the gloves. There was a short silence inside his chest, but it was quickly broken when a sudden waterfall of emotions surged through his lungs – with happiness foaming at the very top and overpowering his chest and ability to breathe. It was a small present – a simple pair of gloves. Max wasn’t even interested in gardening or taking care of plants – but it still felt like he received the best present in the whole world.

It was stupid, maybe it was even childish or unreasonable – but feelings, crushes, always were. And Max was glad that currently he was alone in the bedroom, because damn, he knew he was smiling under his nose, he could sense his muscles stretching into a grin as joy stormed through his mind.

David had not only helped him have the best Christmas of Max’s life, but he had also given him a present. And he didn’t have to do either of those things!

Max’s mouth was dry as he slowly put on the gloves. They were kinda hard, as the material wasn’t bending to his will, just as the old one always did, but soon after he had the pair on his palms. He moved his fingers, wiggling them a little bit, feeling the leather bend and twist under the movement.

His heart rose inside his chest like it wanted to fly, float, run far away.

(Or maybe not far away at all, but just to the greenhouse a few floors away.)

It was stupid. It was only a pair of gloves – gardening ones – but Max still felt like he just received one of the best gifts ever.

And he felt a sudden urge to jump out of the bed and run, to the greenhouse, to the man and thank him somehow, but he quickly drowned those needs. First, even David at this hour probably wouldn’t be in the greenhouse and second… Well, there was no second reason – other than the fact that it was probably stupid.

But tomorrow he will definitely find David and thank him.

***

Easier said than done – as most things in life actually.

David wasn’t at breakfast, which wasn’t surprising. Plus Max wasn’t really sure whether he wanted to thank the man in front of the other students – not many students, but still students.

Surprisingly Daniel wasn’t present either.

Max furrowed his eyebrows, but decided not to dwell on it too much.

So this left only one thing to do and it was visiting David in the greenhouse. He was almost constantly there. Sometimes it even looked like he was sleeping there, but that wasn’t the truth. Though Max wouldn’t be surprised if the man indeed spent a few nights there, just because he fell asleep on his desk.

With every step bringing him closer to the greenhouse, Max felt more and more nervous, with the stress pulling on his nerves, like some kind of a musical instrument. The heart beat and drummed so loud in his ears that he barely heard any other sounds – including the snow crunching beneath his shoes.

And in just a few minutes he was in front of the greenhouse. A few breaths to calm his shivering chest and then he grabbed the doorknob.

Only to find out that the door was locked.

What the hell? David wasn’t here? But then where could he be?

Max tried the door once again, but it didn’t budge, only rattled loudly. After that he circled the greenhouse in search for some additional entrances. He found two, but one was barricaded with wooden planks and the other one was also closed.

Shit.

Max circled the building one more time, but when he found out there was no way of getting in, he stopped in front of it and kicked a lone pile of snow. The stress fully melted inside his body and was replaced with the mushy, muddy, uncomfortable mess of anger, disappointment and worry.

David didn’t appear at dinner nor supper and he wasn’t in his greenhouse till the end of the day.

***

When he didn’t appear for breakfast the very next day Max was kinda (really) worried.

Yeah, that something squeezing his insides, making them clench painfully, was definitely worry.

However today Daniel appeared near the teachers’ table. He didn’t smile at anyone, only gave them short, courteous nods as a greeting and then sat down to eat something.

Max observed the table from the corner of his eyes, eating bacon from his plate. It tasted perfect, but it still left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth.

Somewhere near the end of breakfast, Daniel leaned to Gwen, sitting on his left, and whispered something into her ear. The woman glanced at him, nodded and said something back quickly. Soon after Daniel took one last sip from his cup and then stood up. He was just about to move away when he turned to the table and snatched a raspberry muffin from one plate.

What the hell? Daniel hated sweets. No one even saw him sugaring his drinks, so why was he now stealing muffins?

***

The dinner was delicious, yet it felt like ash inside his mouth.

Okay, at this point Max couldn’t lie to himself anymore. David still wasn’t at the dinner. But that wasn’t the worst fact. It was Gwen, anxiously glancing a few times at a chair where the man was usually sitting.

So something had to be wrong.

Max had never stayed for the Christmas break, so he didn’t know if this was normal. And asking other students seemed like a bad idea. So this probably left two options possible – ignoring it and asking some teacher about it.

And damn, Max wanted to ignore it. But he couldn’t – even the simple idea of doing it was making him twitch internally, with his stomach churning painfully. So yeah, that was out of the question. Which left the more stressful option – asking someone about it.

(And this option had a high risk of accidentally revealing himself and Max didn’t want that.)

His best shot was Gwen. Of course he could always ask Daniel (as he was also friends with David – how was still beyond Max’s mind comprehension), but the teacher hated him, so maybe this wasn’t the best route here.

It took Max a few hours to find the courage to walk through the castle to Gwen’s office.

However he never reached it, because one voice stopped him:

“Max, can you come with me for a second? I need to talk with you about something.”

Shit, it was crazy Daniel, staring at him with that cold, deadly look.

Max didn’t have any good excuse that would help him escape the man, so he only nodded and followed Daniel into the Dungeons from which he had come out just a few minutes ago.

Their steps echoed loudly in the empty, stone corridors, accompanied by drops of water dripping somewhere in the darkest corners of this place. Not even once did the blond teacher glance back to check if Max was following him, but Max didn’t mind.

And way too soon they were stepping into Daniel’s dark office, illuminated only by a lone candle standing almost too close to the edge of the desk.

“Please sit down.”

Max was too familiar with this place. He had spent too many hours here – hours filled with Daniel giving him detentions, talking about his bad behavior or giving him long, boring lectures about acting his age. So he sat down on the used chair, feeling the familiar seat beneath himself.

Daniel circled the desk, flicked through a few pages of the open book he had there and then sat down. He intertwined his fingers and hid his mouth behind them.

Max put one leg on another and threw one hand on the backrest.

“So what did I do this time?” He asked.

Because this had to be it. Max didn’t know what he could have done wrong, what kind of thing pissed Daniel off now, but he must have done something to land here once again. He didn’t know what, but Daniel probably had no problem finding a small, unimportant reason.

However Daniel blinked, looking kinda taken aback.

“I’m not here because I have done something?” Max asked, raising his eyebrow.

“No, not this time.” The Potions teacher said, shaking his head a little. “I brought you here to ask for a… favor of sort.”

Favor? Daniel asking him for a favor?

Did Max die and was in hell? Because it had to be it. But where could he die? Maybe he had fallen from the tower and everything after that had been some weird, messed-up seconds of beautiful dreams before fully slipping away from this world? It was a possibility. A high possibility, because Daniel would never ask Max for help.

Plus he didn’t really want to do it.

“Favor?’ Max parroted.

“Or more like David is asking for a favor from you.”

Max’s heart skipped a long, painful beat, knocking on the chest heavily. He was fucking sure Daniel could hear it! Because there was no way the man hadn’t heard that!

So something indeed was wrong. This lone thought made Max flinch, made him shiver and tremble internally. He didn’t want that. He didn’t want for anything to be wrong.

“What happened?” Max found himself asking, letting his hand drop and leaning forward, closer to the desk and to the man.

Now it was Daniel’s turn to raise his eyebrow. He sighed and then flattened his hands on the desk.

“David is feeling… under the weather nowadays.” Daniel stated, stopping in the middle and looking around, like he searched for a perfect word to use in this situation. “So he is asking if you could take care of his plants in the greenhouses?”

Max was… lost. His brain stopped working for a second and only came back again after he blinked a few times. But no, Daniel was still sitting there, behind the desk, and staring intently at him.

And Max wasn’t sure how to respond. On one hand he was kinda happy about it, kinda even proud that David asked Max to help him around the greenhouse. But on the other hand he was terrified. Because it had to be really bad, if David wasn’t able to take care of his precious plants. And Max was scared of failing.

Because, to be honest, he didn’t have a green thumb. Back at home he hadn’t even remembered to water the only one plant he had had in his room and suddenly now he was supposed to be taking care of the whole greenhouse?

That was a great responsibility and Max really didn’t want to let David down.

“Why me?” He asked instead.

“I don’t know either.” Daniel stated the truth, and damn Max really felt his hand twitch, only to curl into a fist under the desk. “He asked me to ask you.”

“Why won’t you do it?”

Daniel’s eye twitched. He tapped one finger on the counter rhythmically.

“The plants in the greenhouse… don’t like me that much.”

Oh, to be honest that was really gratifying. Max wasn’t sure whether plants in David’s greenhouses liked him either, but knowing that they didn’t like the blond haired teacher was a very pleasant thought.

(Okay, it was a very amazing feeling, spreading through his chest like some kind of a virus.)

Max tried really hard to not show any emotions on his face, but he couldn’t stop the small twitch of his mouth. Daniel probably noticed it, because he furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth. Mas was expecting some kind of a snarky, unkind remark, but then the man sighed loudly and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Listen, Max. I just need an answer. Will you do it?”

Will Max do it? He wanted to do it, to somehow repay the kindness David had given and showed him, but he was terrified.

“I don’t know anything about his plants. I don’t know how to take care of them.” Max finally answered truthfully, slumping and sliding down the chair a little bit.

Daniel moved the hand back and put it into his pocket to take out a folded piece of parchment. He passed it to Max, who hesitantly grabbed it and opened.

It was an instruction – a pretty long one – which described what someone should do at specific hours, which plant should be watered, where to move them, which flower needed this or that potion and which had to be placed in shadowed spaces. It also had a small annotation where the utensils and gardening tools were hidden.

Max blinked. Everything was well thoroughly written there, step after step, in an easy, kinda sloppy, way.

Max swallowed hard. He could sense the stress pulling on his nerves, but it was also mixed with something else. Some kind of assurance and a spark of need of responsibility bursting behind his eyes.

“So?” Daniel asked, leaning back and crossing his hands.

Max could see he was displeased with the whole situation – probably the most humiliating thing he had done in his entire life was asking Max, of all people, for help.

Max took a deep breath and then folded the paper back.

“I need some keys, right?”

***

The door opened with a low croak and a whine when he pushed it and stepped into the humid greenhouse.

In the dim light of the afternoon Max could see a shift in the background, a slow movement of leaves, vines and petals fluttering around. Several flies buzzed in the air, circling Max’s head as he swatted them away. He lifted his hand and casted Lumos – a simple, blue ball floated above him, lightening up the place.

The Flutterby bush on Max’s left quivered and shook as he passed it to get further into the greenhouse.

The place without David happily singing around felt devastated, kinda scary, but mostly lonely. It seemed ten times darker, with the shadows dancing around as Max stepped above the vine and then jumped over a root sticking from the ground.

He could sense a few plants turning their pods and leaves at him, but he decided to ignore them. If they attacked him, he could always defend himself. However he really didn’t want to harm any of David’s precious plants – especially as he wasn’t feeling well nowadays.

They never had been hostile towards him, but also David always had been with him here. Now he was all alone, trying to do something at which he wasn’t good.

But he wanted to do it. He wanted to thank David somehow, to make him feel a little bit better and allow him to take his time to rest and then return back in the future, being the bright sunshine he always was.

Max took out the parchment and read through it one more time, even though he had already done it like fifty times.

He found every tool he needed and started working, moving around the thick atmosphere of the greenhouse and doing every task he should do during the afternoon and evening.

A few plants swished around him, almost peeking (if plants could peek) at him curiously, trying to decipher what he was doing and why it felt so different and unfamiliar.

Max only smiled sadly at them and then shook his head, moving the watering can to another pot.

It took a few hours to finish all the task he had to do. The sky turned black and the birds already left the place, leaving him accompanied only by the sounds of swishing around vines and leaves. When he was done, he hid everything in its rightful place, ran through the list one more time and then walked around the greenhouse to see if anything needed his assistance. Oh, there was one tilted bush which he put back in its straight position. There was also one flower which was bent, so Max took a stick and tied a thin thread around it and stalk, making it stand proudly once again. In the light coming from the orb above him he didn’t see any more anomalies, so he slowly moved to the exit and stepped outside, closing the door softly after himself.

***

Okay, waking up so early definitely wasn’t comfortable. If David had to do it every day, then no wonder he had bags under his eyes.

The early morning wind nipped painfully on Max’s nose and his fingers, so he fastened his pace and in just a few minutes he was in front of the door and taking out the keys. Opening the door now took way more strength, but it was probably due to the coldness of the night which had frozen the hinges.

Max stepped into the humid greenhouse, smiling at the emanating warmness which transferred to his skin.

A few leaves waggled, almost in a waving motion, shivering and bending around. Max clasped his hands, brushed them together to get some feeling back and then slipped on the gloves David had given him.

The morning routine was kinda shorter – or maybe Max felt like that, because now it didn’t take him twice as much time to find the needed things, tools, plants and rows. A few flowers even wiggled happily when the crystal clear water was poured on them (the note said that he should pour water on them and not only on soil) and it weirdly made Max vibrate inside.

The birds returned and flew above the glass ceiling, chirping and fluttering their wings.

Max moved to the small pot standing in the corner and watered it, bending down in the process. The plant’s leaves were kinda brown and it didn’t look like it was in the best condition.

It would probably break David’s heart to see it like this.

“Sorry, bud. Hope you’ll feel better.” Max said, not really sure why he was speaking in the first place. He wasn’t sure whether the plants could hear him, but he had seen David doing it so many times that the words slipped almost naturally from his mouth.

Maybe it was his imagination, but he could almost see the plant twitch after the words had left his mouth.

(It had to be Max’s brain playing tricks on him.)

He shook his head and stood up.

Though a few more times his mouth slipped and he found himself talking to the plants. Those weren’t big conversations, but simple words and sentences. Sometimes it felt like he had a response and sometimes not. Though once he had to scold one tree, because Max was sure it lifted its root just to make him trip.

He finished his tasks, took off his gloves – now dirty with soil, water and other different things – and then moved to the exit.

“See ya later.”

***

At some point Max fully stopped caring that he was talking with the plants. To be honest he was kinda lonely – without Nikki and Neil here, he didn’t have that many other friends with whom he could speak and most of them were at home anyway.

And if he had to be honest with himself, the greenhouse was calming him. Waking up in the morning was still a pain in the ass. However Max felt some kind of euphoria and fulfillment when one day a small pod leaned in his hand when he had scratched it.

Max was glad no one saw him smiling under his nose.

A few other plants also moved closer to his touch and Max felt accomplished – to this point one day he came here for a few more additional hours to do his homework.

But there was one plant with which Max had problems. It was the Venomous Tentacula. He had always felt some kind of hostility the plant emanated towards him. But to be honest, it didn’t like anyone, beside David, in the end. The Tentacula hadn’t tried to do him any harm on the first day, but kinda had scared Max with a sudden movement of its vines. After that he had been extra careful around it, keeping his distance in case it would try to do something. But it didn’t.

It looked down, really. The leaves were hanging sadly on the branches, swirling around whenever a small gust of wind passed them as Max opened the door, but other than that the Tentacula didn’t move much.

It was kinda sad to look at that.

Max wasn’t sure why he started to speak to it one afternoon. But to be honest the stress was eating at his nerves and he had no one with whom he could talk so openly. And somehow his heart poured so naturally from his mouth.

“I miss him too.” He mumbled, bending the water can and pouring water on soil around the Venomous Tentacula. “I know you would prefer David instead of me, but at least crazy Daniel isn’t the one doing it.” This brought a small smile to his face. “Though I kinda want to see him doing it.”

There was a flutter behind him, something similar to a laughter.

Max snickered under his nose and then moved the water can away. He grabbed a few vials and looked at them. He popped both open and then started to pour the insides on the ground, drop after drop, alternately.

“I also would prefer if he was here, you know? Without his giddy mood it’s kinda empty and lonely here.” Then like an afterthought, he added. “But don’t tell him that.”

The Tentacula didn’t move.

“I miss him walking around here. I miss seeing his dopey smile. I miss the happiness I’m feeling whenever I am around him. I miss him excitedly talking about random things. I miss seeing him almost cry when some student gets a bad grade. I miss his kindness. I miss so many simple things.” Max snorted. “Shit, it’s so stupid of me, pouring my heart out to you.” He added in a whisper, closing his eyes for a brief moment. “Sorry you had to listen to it. I’ll try not to do it in the future.”

The Tentacula still didn’t move and Max didn’t expect it to.

***

In the afternoon of the last day of the year David still wasn’t back. Max spent the last few hours in the greenhouse, doing his tasks and reading a book. At some point he sensed a movement to his right and saw a few plants bending in his direction.

“Seriously?” Max stared at them with one lifted eyebrow.

They twirled their leaves, pods, and roots, and Max could only sigh in return. He moved his chair closer to them and moved the orb of light closer to himself.

“If you tell anyone that I did this, I will personally cut all of you.”

And he started reading to them.

In the end he spent way too many hours in the greenhouse, to this point he could actually hear the fireworks being sent to the sky. Max had heard about them, but never had seen them. He closed the book and stood up, moving through the greenhouse in search for a perfect place to look at the fireworks from the inside.

He found a neat place from which the sparkly bursts were pretty visible and he stood there, staring at them in kinda childish awe. They shimmered and glimmered nicely in the dark sky, appearing, only to disappear during the next few seconds, leaving only a cloud of smoke and nice memories after themselves.

Oh, David would like them.

Max felt something sliding up his hand – and he had a giant urge to twitch and shake it off, but he knew better not to do that. He only glanced down to see, in the dim light, the Venomous Tentacula’s vine wrapping itself around his wrist and sliding further up his arm.

It didn’t look like it tried to hurt him and more like it sought comfort than anything else.

Max let it slide a few inches higher and then moved his other hand to pat it softly on the vine.

“He’ll be back soon.” He said softly.

Max wasn’t wrong.

***

Max walked through the grounds, stepping onto the old footprints and holding his hands under his armpits. His breath was coming out in thick, dense puffs, floating around his head.

Tomorrow the school was starting, so both Nikki and Neil should be back today. Well, now it was probably too early for them to be back yet.

But there was a more prominent problem. Or more like a worry. The classes were starting and David wasn’t anywhere in sight.

(And Max had something special for him, a teeny-tiny present he had ordered one evening.)

What if something really terrible had happened to him? Maybe he won’t be back for a few weeks or months? But if that was the case, then crazy Daniel would tell him, right? Max definitely hoped so as he tried to bury the dark thoughts swarming in his mind. He had to stay a little bit positive, but it was so hard. How could David do it almost all the time?

Max took out the keys, picked the right one, put it into the lock, only to find out it wasn’t moving.

What the hell? Had someone broken in? But why? Why would anyone want to steal something from the greenhouse? Besides David’s plant, there weren’t that many important things.

Wait.

With a loudly beating heart Max grabbed the handle, pushed it and opened the door with too much force than probably necessary. But damn, how could he not, when there was a slim chance, a small spark of hope that he would be –

David was inside, holding a giant bucket in both of his hands. When Max so haphazardly entered, the teacher lifted his head and looked at him. And even though Max could see the dark bags under his eyes (so terribly, terrifyingly big), David grinned at him and oh! – everything seemed so much better.

“Hey, Max! Beautiful morning, don’t you think so?”

Max stepped inside, still staring with wide eyes at the man.

“You’re here…” He mumbled.

“I sure am!” David said and then put the bucket away. He raised his hand and brushed his cheek, smearing the dirt there during this process. “Oh no, you had to wake up early today to come here! I’m sorry, I should have informed you somehow.”

Max shook his head, letting out a soft chuckle. He hasn’t even been here for two minutes and David still managed to start worrying about him, even though nothing that bad really had happened.

“You’re impossible.” Max said, raising his hand and combing it through his curls.

“Me?” David asked, tilting his head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I get… what you mean.”

Max shook his head one more time and then moved forward.

“Did you already water the north greenhouse?”

***

“Max, I missed you!” It was Nikki, almost choking him to death as she had thrown herself at him when he had been in the middle of the dinner.

Max coughed, feeling as the grip on his throat was tightening with every passing second as Nikki brought him closer for a tight hug. He patted her shoulder, hoping that maybe she would free him.

“Nik, he can’t breathe.” Neil said, stopping next to him.

“Oh sorry.” The girl said and then finally moved away.

Max took a deep, sweet, delicious breath, feeling his lungs swelling up. He put his hand on his chest and only then finally turned to them.

“Hey.”

Neil waved with a soft smile tugging on his lips and then flopped down on his right. Nikki swirled and sat on the other side of Max’s.

“How was your sweet break without your parents?” The green haired girl asked, tilting her head. Her hair was tied with the small, red hair ties with tiny, cute reindeers.

For a brief moment Max thought about telling them the truth, but decided against it. At least for now, because he didn’t want to tell his story out loud in the Great Hall, where everyone could hear him. So yeah, this story had to wait for another time.

“Great, and yours?” He said instead.

Nikki jumped into wild stories about her break, filled with snow, sledding, eating cookies, pissing off the neighbor’s dog, and spending hours in front of the TV. Then Neil told him what he had done – and the story definitely wasn’t as exciting as Nikki’s, but it still sounded pleasant – however most of it was filled with homework.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about doing it.” Nikki said at the end.

Neil facepalmed and groaned loudly. Max snickered under his nose.

He liked spending time alone, but spending it with his friends was good too.

***

Max took a deep breath, fingers tapping rhythmically on the teeny-tiny pot in his hands.

To be honest he kinda felt like vomiting – with his stomach clenching unnaturally and painfully inside his body. He knew it was stupid and he shouldn’t even feel like that, but he couldn’t stop.

Because what if David doesn’t like it? What if Max makes a fool out of himself? What if he –

No, he had to do it. He wanted to do it, even though he was terrified.

Max stepped inside the greenhouse, exhaling slowly and feeling the hot, thick air warming up his skin. Or maybe it was only an explanation he wanted to believe. Because there could be ten thousand other reasons why his cheeks were suddenly so warm.

“Hey, Max, you’re early!” David said, peeking from his office and smiling like the brightest star in the galaxy.

Max felt like he could faint. His tongue seemed like it was made from heavy, dense lead and for a brief moment he couldn’t speak.

But David quickly disappeared back into his office and Max could breathe normally again. Or at least almost normally. His one hand fidgeted and he could feel that it was sweating quite a lot.

Damn, he was nervous.

However David had done so much for him, so it was almost natural to pay the favor back.

So gathering the last few sparks of bravery still roaming around his body, he closed his eyes, inhaled slowly and then moved to David’s office.

The teacher was in the middle of gathering the gardening supplies, when Max cleared his throat.

David straightened his back and glanced at him.

“Everything okay, Max?” He stepped forward, putting the tools away and brushing his gloved hands to get rid of the dirt residing there. “You look kinda stressed.”

For a moment Max lost all coherent thoughts his brain had possessed just a few seconds ago when David looked back at him, with that worried and hesitant smile tugging on his lips. But then Max’s fingers twitched, sensing the smooth structure under them and somehow he found some shadows of words inside his mind.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Max said, patting himself on the back in his mind that he didn’t stutter. “I just… I mean… what you did really means a lot to me –”

David tilted his head and the worried tone in his grin was replaced with kind amusement.

“Yes?”

“And I… I mean…” Fuck, Max was lost, with his eyes jumping around and hands fidgeting in place. He was a disaster. A mess. But he was a mess with a job and he would be damned if he didn’t do it. “Shit, just– It’s for you!” And with that Max pushed a small, potted succulent in David’s direction.

He closed his eyes, but found the curiosity being bigger than any other emotion storming through his chest, so he slowly peeked open his one eye.

David stared with wide eyes at the small pot that was almost touching his chest. He lifted his hands and took the plant from Max’s palms – their hands brushed for a moment and Max’s heart jumped high in his throat – to bring it closer to his face.

“It’s for… me?” David slowly asked, licking his lips first.

Max nodded and only then answered:

“Yeah. Thanks… for everything.”

David opened his mouth and it looked like he wanted to say something, but it all died down when a single tear rolled down his cheek.

What?

Max snapped his head up, only to see the tears gathering in his teacher’s eyes. His heart dropped painfully down, hammering against his chest in some sick, terrific symphony.

“Oh, fuck, sorry Da– Mister David, I didn’t mean to… I mean if you don’t like it, you can throw it away or I don’t know just give it to–”

“I love it.”

“Of course I won’t be ma– Wait, what?”

“I love it, Max.” David whispered, lifted his one hand and softly patting the leaf with the mouth stretching into the happiest smile Max had seen in probably a month. Small, teeny-tiny dimples appeared in the corners, catching a few tears that sometimes streamed down the cheeks.

Max felt his throat constricting and lungs clenching with his stomach making a weird backflip inside his body.

“Really?” Max asked, literally dumbfounded.

David nodded and brought the small plant closer to his face, only to snuggle it to his tear–stained cheek.

“Yeah, it’s the most adorable present I’ve ever got.” Then the teacher blinked and sniffed. “You didn’t have to do it.”

“I know, but…” Max lifted his hand and scratched the back of his head, looking away for a moment. He could sense the heat raising to his cheek and he tried to muster all his body cells to calm down. “… I just wanted to do it.”

David looked up at him, and even though a few drops still rolled down his red cheeks, he looked like the happiest person in the whole word.

“Thanks, Max. I’ll treasure it.”

And somehow Max wasn’t surprised that he fell for David more.

***

“You did what?” Neil asked, raising his voice.

Max put a finger to his lips and tried to shush the Ravenclaw student a little. They were still in the castle and even though it didn’t look like there were that many people around, they could never be sure who was lurking around.

And the castle was full of too curious and noisy people.

“A little quieter, will you?” Max said, glaring at his friend.

Nikki looked surprised too and to be honest Max was kinda astonished she hadn’t been the one to shriek right now, but Neil. Usually she was the one to excitedly (or not excitedly) react to some news.

And yeah, Max had just told them that he had taken care of David’s greenhouse. Of course he hadn’t told them every detail, but the most important facts from the story.

“Wait, David gave you gloves?” Nikki finally asked, shaking her head first from whatever dreamland she had stepped into.

“Uhm yeah?”

“Dude, my teachers never gave me any presents. Maybe I should get a detention at David’s.” Nikki mumbled, looking up at the ceiling and scratching her chin.

She swayed back on the chair and for a brief moment Max almost saw her flipping back and falling down, but gladly it didn’t happen.

“But just how?” Neil asked, staring at him with bewilderment swirling around his eyes.

Max shrugged.

“I did everything the list said.”

And it was the honest truth. He mostly had done what the sentences written there had pointed him to do. The fact that he had done some additional things didn’t need to be said.

“But like… by yourself? No one forced you to do it?”

Max’s brow twitched.

“Is it so hard to believe?”

“I mean, kinda –”

“Neil, it’s because it was David.” Nikki butted into the conversation, grinning from ear to ear like a madman and glancing a few times at Max with that malicious glint.

Okay, you know what? On the other hand, he loved the peace without his friends in the castle. Especially right now.

Neil blinked and then glanced at the green haired girl. There was a sudden snap in his façade and the surprise immediately disappeared, replaced by full understatement.

“Oh yeah, now it makes sense.”

Yeah, now Max really was astonished how he could had missed them in the first place.

***

It was a calm afternoon filled with soft brushes of leaves moving in the greenhouse, delicate light coming from the candles and spells floating above their heads and warm hums coming from David’s lips.

It was one of those afternoons, when a lone thought invaded Max’s mind. Lately more often and often he had to brush it away, sweep it under a carpet, and hide it behind the door.

Although that said he started to like doing it. He started to like spending time in the greenhouse. He started to enjoy the company of the colorful plants, which lately started to turn to him and touch his skin. He started to find peace in the atmosphere and mostly in the presence near him.

He liked spending time with David.

And it was dangerous.

Of course, in the past he had had detention with David, but they had been shorter and he had still been a kid – kinda confused with his feelings that had swarmed his mind and heart back then.

And now he was older, turning into an adult in just a few days.

Oh, right, his birthday. It wasn’t that far away. It was even too close in Max’s opinion.

Max didn’t really like his birthday. Or to be more precise he often forgot about it. He didn’t understand why people made such a big deal out of it. Or at least he had thought so until he had met Nikki and Neil – for whom not celebrating the birthdays was a grave sin.

But even Max had to admit that this year was different. Because this year he will become an adult. Or well, at least this was what the wizarding world’s laws said.

(There was some small spark of enthusiasm inside his chest, but Max tried really hard to forget about it.)

And on such a normal, calm, peaceful and beautiful afternoon David dropped the bomb.

“Max?”

The teen hummed and then sprayed another leave with a mixture of some potions. Gladly David understood that he was listening and continued:

“You know… you helped me a lot nowadays and I thought that maybe we should shorten your detention?”

Max literally slipped, while standing, and almost crashed face first into the Valerians he was spraying. The flowers fluttered under his force. Gladly he somehow caught himself in time.

“W-what?” Max stuttered, looking back, only to find David staring back at him.

“I mean… you worked so hard through the whole detention and then you helped me during the Christmas break, so I thought it would be fair to let you off the hook earlier.”

But stopping the detention earlier meant stopping meeting David so often and, damn, that thought, that lone, terrible thought made Max’s insides squeeze painfully, twisting and curling like they were put under the Incarcerous Spell.

Max stared intently at the teacher to the point David blinked and then looked away, hesitantly with hands brought closer to his chest, fiddling with the small shovel resting in his palms. The eyes which had leaped to the floor, returned to stare back at Max unsurely.

“You don’t want that?”

No. Max didn’t want that. But the Max David knew would never say that. The Max David probably was familiar with would grab the first chance with both hands to run away from this place. The Max would grin at that idea and then bid farewell, while exiting the door, not even letting David finish.

But he… he didn’t want that.

What to do, what to do, how to plan his next movement to not accidentally shorten his detention? Oh God, even Max couldn’t believe he was thinking about it. Why was he acting so weird around David? Why could this man make Max do things he wouldn’t normally do! Like trying hard to make someone happy!? Or care for some plants? Or be happy after simply seeing someone!?

Why!?

But, God, he didn’t want to stop it. Max didn’t want to stop seeing that smile which made him all warm inside. He didn’t want to stop hearing this delicate, kind voice around him. He didn’t want to stop the heavy beating of his heart – that felt so alive and full and vivid and amazing.

“No.” Max finally said. “I almost destroyed the corridor I… I deserve it.” Though that wasn’t the full truth, but it was the closest to it, the closest to the truth that could make David change his mind. “Plus I don’t think Mister Daniel will agree.” He had a horrific habit of making Max’s life miserable for his own amusement and fun.

“I’m sure, if I talk with him –“

“No, it’s okay I don’t…” Max licked his lips. “I don’t mind.”

David blinked and then the gentle smiled surged onto his mouth, wavering a little, but holding strongly in the end nevertheless.

“O-okay, if that’s what you want.”

Max shrugged, trying not to show that this was exactly what he wanted, and returned to his work.

***

“Where is Neil?” Max asked, breathing at his hands to try to warm them up a little bit.

“Uhm… he went to some shop to buy uhm… a cauldron?” Nikki, next to him, mumbled, casting her gaze away with a hesitant smile tugging at her lips.

Suspicious.

The two of them walked through the snowy streets of Hogsmeade, maneuvering around students and other people who also visited this place. The happy chatters floated above the crowd, mingling with shouts and chirps of birds perched on the nearest branches. A man and woman on the right were arguing loudly about the prices of eel’s eyes that were staring at the people passing them by. On the left two lone boys were standing with their noses and cheeks glued to the window of Honeydukes, surrounded by the heavenly smell.

Max sighed and looked up at the gray sky. Damn, not enough sun today. He wondered if David moved the Flitterblooms so they would get enough sunlight. But knowing this guy, this was probably the first thing he had done today morning. Oh, wait, the drying petals probably should be moved –

Max felt a heavy tug and stepped away, missing being stomped by a horse.

“Watch out!” Nikki shouted, way too late.

If she didn’t drag him away, Max would actually be lying under the horse’s hooves, probably also in pain.

“Oh, sorry, got lost in my thoughts.” Max mumbled.

“Yeah, I can see. I fucking hope that they were filled with David at least.”

“Louder, Nikki.”

“I hope they were fi–“

In this very moment Max slapped his hand over Nikki’s mouth, silencing her.

“That wasn’t a challenge.”

The girl grinned and then licked his hand, leaving a wet, disgusting trail of saliva on his skin.

“Yuck! Nikki!”

Max brushed his hand on her coat and then both of them entered the Three Broomsticks.

Neil appeared almost forty minutes later, trying and failing miserably to hide a package that was clearly sticking out from his backpack. Max eyed it suspiciously and only hummed in reply to Neil’s greeting, taking a few big sips of a butterbeer standing in front of him.

Nikki already had finished two mugs.

“What were you doing?” Max asked instead, from behind his mug.

“Buying new quills, ink and parchment.”

Max hummed in reply, glancing at the girl. He didn’t point out the obvious fact that their stories were different. Of course he could, but why should he? They had to have their reasons to not tell the full truth to him, and Max, even though he didn’t like it, respected it. To some point that was.

Plus something told him that it had to do with the package in Neil’s bag, standing secure between his legs, so no one would focus on it too hard or try to take a peek.

Damn, at first Max wasn’t interested in it, but when Neil tried to hide it so hard he kinda was curious what was inside.

But till the end of their Hogsmeade trip Max hadn’t once been able to even get a look from where the package had come from.

It was so irritating!

***

“I don’t think it was your fault.” David suddenly said, without any sign that he was going to suddenly start speaking.

Max glanced at him and then moved the cup away from his mouth.

“What wasn’t my fault?” Max asked, having no idea what his teacher was babbling about.

To be honest Max had no idea about most of the things David was talking about. Most of which were related to the Muggle world. There were times when David would suddenly jump into long talks about this or that – like, what the heck even was an Apple phone? Max had no idea, but David could talk for almost half an hour about the differences between it and An… An–something.

(Max liked listening to David, seeing him so openly talking about random things, especially after the break.)

But this was on a whole other level.

“The fight.” David said, glancing down at the cup of tea he had in his hands. “I mean the one that gave you this detention. Not all the other ones.”

Max snorted and put his own cup away, next to the gloves David had given him.

“I did destroy the corridor.” He stated, lifting his one leg and resting the ankle on the knee. “Or almost destroyed.”

“I know, but…” David swirled the cup in his hand. “I don’t think you would do it without a reason.”

Max smirked under his nose, rested his elbow on the table next to him, only to put his chin on his palm and glance at the teacher sitting next to him.

“Like what?” He asked.

He kinda expected to play a little game with David – with the teacher trying to guess the correct answer and Max denying every one, simply because he didn’t expect David to even guess right.

Yet the man did, on the very first try.

“Like you wanted to protect someone.”

Max’s heart hammered loudly and his chin almost slipped from the palm, but he gladly and miraculously somehow remained in his place, not doing much beside twitching, which definitely had to give him away.

David looked at him.

“What happened?” He asked, staring right into Max’s eyes and damn –

David could break every wall Max had put around himself. He could in mere seconds destroy every barrier put in front of Max’s mind. He could smash to pieces every resolution Max had in himself.

Max swallowed hard, feeling as his stomach churned under this gaze, with his heart playing a symphony inside his skull.

“You know, the usual. Wizards from magical families bullying people from not fully magical ones.” He stated.

David blinked.

“But you are–“

Max quickly closed his eyes and shook his head slowly.

“Not me. But…”

Should he say the truth? But wizards teasing other people due to their blood relations wasn’t anything new. It was happening around the whole castle every day. Max never had offended anyone because of their ancestry, simply because he didn’t give a flying fuck about such stupid shit.

But some people did.

And during that day it had been one of the worse encounters.

“… Nikki.” Max finally said, glancing away for a second. “I guess it was just a bad day for everyone. Pikeman and his stupid friends stopped us and started insulting her. Usually those things don’t get to her, but that day… they kinda did. So I gave them a piece of my mind, which they didn’t like and well…”

He remembered the anger surging through his veins as he had listened to their venomous and spiteful words. Oh how much he had wanted to strangle them, to grip their necks and choke hard. How much he had wanted to make them scream in fear. How much he had wanted to make them pay for what they had said and done.

Maybe Max sometimes acted bad, maybe he sometimes forgot about anniversaries, maybe there were times when he said something mean to his friends without meaning to do so. He had made so many mistakes, errors. He had tripped so many times on the road of trying to be a friend. He had done so many things that he would change right now.

But he wouldn’t change his friends.

And he didn’t regret what he had done that night.

“Were you…” David licked his lip nervously. “… the first one to attack?”

“No.” Max quickly said. “Niksslip did. He casted Confringo.” There was an audible gasp coming from his right. “But missed.”

“Max, they should be gravely punished for what they did!” David almost shrieked with hand moving to his mouth. “Such kinds of spells shouldn’t be cast at each other in the castle!”

Max shrugged.

“Then you don’t know about half of the things which are happening around the castle when the teachers aren’t looking.”

David stood up suddenly.

“I need to talk about it with Daniel.” And with that he marched to the exit.

Or well he would do it, if Max’s hand didn’t shoot forward and catch his wrist, preventing him from moving further.

“Dav– Mister David, no.” Max said, raising his head and staring at the red haired teacher.

“Max, they need to be punished for what they did. I– I can’t allow students to get hurt! I can’t allow them to feel like they don’t belong here when they do!” David whimpered, trying to break his hand free and get to the door.

“Now there is nothing you can do. You can only make things worse.” Max said with his mouth pinched in a tight line, frowning at David who was struggling to escape the grip.

“But I have to do something!” David tugged harshly, but Max did too.

“You can’t.” Max said, raising his voice maybe too high, definitely having a tone that was inappropriate while talking with teachers, but he didn’t care. “It all happened a few months ago. We all healed and moved on. There is no use in going back and opening old wounds.”

David stopped struggling and lifted his face a little to stare at Max.

Something in David’s disheartened façade broke Max’s heart, made his breath stop in the middle of his throat, made him choke on this little bit of oxygen still residing in his lungs.

(He hated that look.)

Max loosened his grip on David’s wrist and with some fear noticed that the skin there turned pink. He kinda expected the man to retrieve his hand quickly, maybe even dart to the exit, but nothing like this happened. David was still staring at him with this devastated and miserable look on his face.

It didn’t fit him.

“Besides I think I punished them enough. They will definitely remember my Fiendfyre for some time.” Max slowly said, putting a mischievous smile on his lips, hoping and praying that this way he could –

Oh, David chuckled. He laughed softly under his nose, closing his eyes and barely moving his shoulder.

It was a sweet sound, which tickled Max’s chest and made him breathe once again, filling his lungs with delicious air.

They stayed like that for a few seconds, with Max holding David’s wrist and the teacher not moving away, when the male opened his mouth once again.

“You did it again.” He said softly, voice barely above a whisper.

“Did what?” Max asked, raising his one eyebrow, not sure what the other one meant.

“Almost called me by my first name.”

Oh shit.

“I’m sorry–“ Max quickly jumped to excusing himself, apologizing for the slip, but he was even faster interrupted by David’s giggles.

“No, don’t worry. I don’t mind.” He said, opening his eyes and staring at him. “I kinda like it.”

Max’s heart beat loudly as he snapped his head up and looked back at David who was smiling softly back at him. He could hear it resonating in his ears. He could hear it hammering almost painfully in his chest. He could almost hear it echoing on the glassy walls of the greenhouse.

He was almost sure David and every plant here could hear it.

David slowly retracted his hand.

“We should get back to work. We need to cut Aconites’ roots to dry them!”

It took Max a few seconds or maybe minutes to collect himself.

***

It was a day like any other.

Or at least Max thought it would be a day like any other. Because it started normally. He woke up, went to wash himself, put on more or less clean clothes, grabbed a few essentials for the morning classes and then slowly walked through the Slytherin common room to the Great Hall to eat much needed breakfast.

It was a day like any other.

Not counting the colorful streamers which were suddenly blown into his face, coming from both sides as he literally just sat down. The green, red, blue and yellow papers swirled for a few seconds around his head, blocking any way of seeing who actually had shot him – but he didn’t need to see to know who it was.

Nikki and Neil. It had to be them. They were the only crazy ones who could have done that.

But why? Did they want to murder him by making him choke on the small bits and pieces of paper fluttering around and now even getting into his mouth?

“What the fuck?” Max mumbled, trying to get the glittery scraps from his eyes. Shit, noisy little fuckers, getting stuck in places they shouldn’t even be touching.

And then he felt something being put on his head, messing up his black curls. And only when he managed to get the last few bits of the rainbow colored paper off his face, he could fully see what was happening around him.

Nikki was grinning from ear to ear at him with Neil standing next to her, who also looked well… happy, but kinda hesitantly happy. Almost like he expected Max to suddenly draw his wand and cast Expelliarmus. But they weren’t the only people here. There were also those two nerds from Ravenclaw with whom Max occasionally talked – Nerris and Harrison. There was also the other Neil – a tiny Hufflepuff, smiling at him, holding a ripped piece of paper. And of course, the most annoying of them all, Preston. Why was Nikki hanging with him anyway? Ah yeah, the same house and all that shit.

Max stared at them, eyeing everyone individually, until they opened their mouths and shouted:

“Happy Birthday!”

Oh.

Max stared at them, kinda pissed, kinda surprised and kinda – also – pleased.

Because they remembered.

And Max totally forgot. Yet again.

Max had to stare at them for a good minute, because they all started to look at each other nervously, whispering some questions and shrugging in replies.

“Did we get the wrong date?” The other Neil asked, standing on his tiptoes to whisper into Nerris’ ear.

“No, I think it’s the right one.” The girl answered, though she hesitantly glanced at Nikki and Neil.

“We got it right. Don’t worry, Max always acts like that.” Neil said, looking at them and pushing his glasses higher with a paper tube he had in his hands.

Max reached, grabbed a small piece of a tomato and flung it at his friend, who surprisingly dodged in time and the fruit hit a head of a random student behind Neil.

Max would say that he felt bad, but he didn’t.

“And he’s back.” Neil murmured, apologizing then to the person assaulted by Max’s tomato.

“Fuck you.”

Neil smiled at him, shaking his head softly.

“You may be an adult, but you’ll never change.”

Max grinned.

***

This day was the same as any other, yet it was different for a whole other reason.

Everyone sat at the table with him and ate breakfast, talking irrepressibly about everything and nothing in particular. Nerris gave him the enchanted dices – that were rolling the number he would think about or close, so he could cheat. Harrison gave him a colorful cube that will definitely waste Max’s endless hours while he will try to solve it. The other Neil gave him a book which described every constellation – poor guy probably thought Max was interested in them, but to be honest Max only had needed help with his homework. So that’s why he had asked the other Neil about the stars. Preston probably beat everyone by giving him the dark glasses that, while being on a nose, would cast an illusion that he had a beard.

So even though the presents were lame, Max really loved each and every one of them.

Near the end of the breakfast, his family owl dropped a small package in front of him, together with a letter. But Max liked his good mood, so he only threw the present into his room before going to classes and deciding to check what his parents had sent him later.

Much later.

Through the day a few of his friends also wished him a happy birthday. Even a few teachers gave him best wishes while passing him in the corridor. Some even let him slack off a little bit.

The dinner and afternoon classes were spent in the same cheerful atmosphere.

Max simply felt happy, with the joy bubbling inside his chest and spreading to his limbs, overpowering his mind, to this point it was sometimes hard to maintain his usual emotionless façade.

(He felt like maybe his life wasn’t that bad. He had good people around him, who loved and cherished him, so… yeah, it wasn’t that bad.)

Max felt like nothing could destroy this day.

Life had a funny way of doing exactly that.

***

“And this is a present… from us!”

Max eyed the package suspiciously, but after a few seconds he grabbed it and brought it closer to himself. He got rid of the sparkling paper surrounding it and was met with a simple brown box underneath it.

Nikki gleamed at him, but Neil looked kinda nervous. Or very nervous. His hand fidgeted as he corrected his glasses, pushing them higher on his nose.

Max opened the package to stare at… a blue sweater. It had to be hand–knitted, because the material was uneven in some places and crooked in others. But it was a sweater, made from the warmest wool he had ever felt – and the best written message at the very front.

(He had actually said it a few times in his life. Me? Sarcastic? Never!)

Max grabbed the sweater and took it out, only to see that beneath it there were at least seven more balls of yarn, two pairs of new needles and a frame. A plain white frame. But this single pearly white frame held a picture of the three of them, smiling at the camera. Or Neil and Nikki were smiling, Max was simply pleased.

They had made it during the vacation after their third year, when Max had run away from his home to crash at Neil’s house for a week.

That time had been a blast.

And yeah, maybe the present wasn’t much. Maybe it was childish, kinda stupid for some people or just too cheesy, but Max could feel a soft, prickling sensation in the corners of his eyes.

“Uh, the mistakes are mostly my fault. Knitting is not my thing.” Neil said, scratching his shoulder and staring everywhere, but at Max.

“This is the worst present I ever got.” Max mumbled, then took off his robe, put on the most disgusting (amazing) sweater and threw his dark robe back on his shoulders.

“I think he likes it.”

Max decided not to answer, instead he palmed the material in his fingers, smiling stupidly at the soft sensation under his skin.

They sat on the wooden stairs directing them to the Clock Tower and talked about small things, unimportant things, important and difficult topics, putting in a few jokes from time to time and even sharing some deep secrets.

It was an amazing day.

But everything good had to come to an end.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

Oh, Max immediately felt blood boiling inside his veins, storming through them with brute force.

“Fuck off, Pikeman.” Max snarled, looking up the stairs at the very center of his hatred.

The said teen indeed stood there, staring down at them with his chin darted up.

“Well you’re standing in my way. And I want to walk down the stairs.” The male said, glancing at them and furrowing his eyebrows.

But of course he wasn’t alone. His two dumb friends had to be with him. Niksslip and Petrol.

“There is a lot of space next to us for your fat asses to walk down.”

Maybe Max shouldn’t be so hostile right now, but the memories of the last fight were still vivid in his brain, were still swirling in his mind, were still reappearing in his nightmares, because what if he had been just a second too late, one small movement too short, one thought too slow –

Nikki glared at the trio, hand moving to her waist to rest protectively on her wand. Neil looked disinterested, but his hand was also close to his weapon. Even though the Ravenclaw was a major nerd, in dire times he didn’t hesitate. And Nikki… Nikki was simply reckless.

Pikeman snorted in reply, but obediently started to walk down the stairs with his two friends following his every step.

They eyed each other suspiciously.

Max could feel the thick atmosphere on his lips, the electricity and anger swirling in the air between them. It looked like it only needed a small spark and then everything would start to burn.

His heart beat so loud, so spastically inside his ribcage, banging vehemently on his ribs. Max unclenched his fist (which he didn’t know he had tightened) to relax it for a second, so he was ready to attack at any moment.

Pikeman, Niksslip and Petrol passed them and Max found pleasure in a sight of a scar on Pikeman’s face, which he was sure he had given him during the last fight.

Served him well.

“How is your detention going?” Pikeman suddenly asked, stopping next to Max and staring at him with hands behind his back.

Max couldn’t see the wand and wondered if it was already being held.

“Good. How is your pride?”

The red haired – so so different color from David’s warm one – male’s eyebrow twitched as he glared down at Max, who still sat on the stairs.

“Definitely better than your style.”

Billy snorted, but Petrol looked unfazed.

Max furrowed his eyebrows and his hand moved to the hip, but he held strongly.

“I don’t think you should be talking about style with a face like yours.”

This time it was Nikki’s turn to giggle. Neil simultaneously moved his palm to grab the handle of his wand.

There was a twitch in Pikeman’s body and Max was sure that he would attack, would draw his wand to cast something, anything, but everything remained in the thick air between them.

Pikeman didn’t move forward though, he remained in his position, almost beside Max but still one or two steps higher.

“Hilarious, Maxwell.”

Max smirked, like he just received a compliment.

But the boy didn’t stop talking, he didn’t stop to think that maybe it was all wrong to say or even mention. Or maybe he did that only to rile Max, to make him angry, to make him furious, to make him want to jump to his feet and kill the person right in front of him.

“But please do tell me if Mister David is any good in bed. I may know a few people that would want to check those suspicions.”

Max felt like he was burning. Like he was sizzling with fire under his skin that wanted to explode and hurt the person standing right in front of him. He wanted to scream and throw himself at the male and strangle him and see the color drain from his face. He wanted to see Pikeman’s face twisting in agony with the fear rippling through his eyes.

Max wanted to see it all with his own eyes. But David would probably move past all of those bad things thrown at him, he would welcome them with a smile stretched over his lips and warm words.

So Max remained in his place, glaring at Pikeman with the hatred he felt emanating from every part of his body.

The boy had to know that he had hit a sensitive spot, because he continued.

“Oh, why such an angry face?” The prolonged words hung in the air, slicing through it with perfect precision. “Are you jealous? Oh poor little Maxey! What? Even the good David didn’t want you? But it’s not surprising –“ There was a dry chuckle leaving his lips. “– who would want a fuck up like you, right?”

It hurt. It hurt like hell. But Max decided he wouldn’t budge. Or at least not in the physical way.

“Well, your mother found someone.” Max said, quickly searching for the perfect words to use here. “So I think I have a high chance actually in comparison –”

“You –“

Pikeman moved, together with his two friends behind. Hands were pushing away the folds of the robes to grab the wands –

Surprisingly they weren’t the first to attack.

Well maybe attack was too big word to describe this moment.

Surprisingly it was Neil who did it. But he didn’t take out his wand. No, no. He did something else. He reached into his pocket, took out something glittery and then threw it at the trio that was already shouting some words under their breaths.

They were enveloped in a cloud of pink, glittery streamers.

“Run!” Neil shouted.

No one had to be told twice. Max grabbed his package and they all ran down the stairs as fast as their legs could take them.

Max could hear loud curses coming from behind them and when he glanced back, he saw the puff of pink dust dissipating. Pikeman’s face was red, blaring red, as he lifted his hand and cast a spell. Max wasn’t sure what spell, but the only thing he knew was that it was too dangerous.

And yeah, fluttery, white light exploded near his head, leaving black, scorching soot on the stone wall.

Shit, it was bad.

“Run, run, run!” Max yelled, ushering his friend out the door while he grabbed the wand from his belt.

Only when Nikki and Neil were outside, Max glanced back. The trio were running down the stairs, glaring at them, all with wands in their hands. Max didn’t have enough time to think thoroughly about the consequences of his actions as he casted an Impediment Jinx.

This time he didn’t destroy anything, only slowed the trio down. But not for long.

Max jumped out of the building. They had maybe a few seconds or so. Not enough to get to the main part of the castle, but enough to hide.

They all searched for a perfect place, gasping and huffing loudly. Max felt the passing time on his skin as his eyes desperately searched for some safe hideout. And after five or so blissful seconds, Nikki pointed at a small, partially destroyed niche. Most of the walls were destroyed, with pieces of concrete lying on the ground. But at least half of it was still standing.

Plus it was in the direction of their escape.

The tree of them ran to the niche and hid behind a half–broken wall, crouching down, so not even an inch of their body would be visible.

Max could hear his heart inside his ears, beating loudly and almost stopping when he picked up the sound of the door to the Clock Tower bursting open.

“Where are you!?”

Well Max definitely wasn’t going to answer this question. And it looked like Neil and Nikki didn’t really want to raise their hands either.

They could hear the steps outside, shuffling around the grounds in front of the tower, muttering curses to each other. There was a brief silence and then someone cast a spell, causing a small explosion of rocks nearby. Too close for comfort.

And Max suddenly thought that maybe their hideaway was the worst option here. Because if they found them, Max and his friends would have no place to run. They would have to duel – something Max didn’t really want to do right now.

Because, to be honest, Pikeman and the rest were all a year higher than them and knew some highly offensive and dangerous spells. And Max didn’t want to see his friends getting or being hurt.

Why oh why had he opened his mouth!? Maybe Pikeman was right. Maybe Max was a fuck up. Maybe he was a mess. His friends were in danger and it was Max’s fault. They shouldn’t suffer because of his stupid mistakes and even stupider choices.

Max took a deep breath when he heard the ground rumbling too close for comfort.

As much as Max could he turned around to Neil and Nikki and whispered.

“Wait a little bit and then run.”

Neil was the first one to shake himself from the shock.

“Max, what are you –“

But Max didn’t hear the rest of the reply, as he jumped to his feet and leaped from their hiding place, leaving his present and friends behind. Miraculously, Pikeman and his band didn’t look in his direction so he had a few additional seconds to run through the ground and get away from the hideout.

“Hey dumbfuck!” Max shouted, holding a wand tightly in his palm.

The three of them immediately turned to him. Hands were put into motion, raised up to the sky and there was a soft glint of light –

Max wanted to say more, to rile Pikeman a little bit more, but it looked like he didn’t need to.

Now he needed to get the hell out of here and hope, pray, that his friends will be okay.

So Max ran. He ran through the school grounds, feeling the cold winter air moving through his veins and the wind swishing past him, messing with his clothes and hair. It was so chilly, so freezing outside, but he barely felt it, with the adrenaline rushing through him and a few explosions appearing too close to him for comfort. The white snow crunched under him with every step he took – faster, faster, faster, far away, as far as he could – it was a sick cacophony inside his ears.

Max felt like he could faint, but he pushed his body to the limits, he forced his legs to move even though they were heavy and he was so so tired. But he miraculously still managed to jump over a stone fence and then tumble for a second on the ground.

(Faster, faster, faster, further away from the danger!)

“I’ll kill you!”

Max had no doubt that it could happen.

He had no time to glance back to see how many of them was following him, but judging by the heavy sound of footsteps definitely more than one. The sparkling, bursting spells quite confirmed his suspicions.

Oh, if he and his friends get out unscathed from this chase, Max will start listening during Potions. He will even answer Daniel’s questions, without being forced to! He won’t even wait till the last day to finish his essay.

He will do all of it!

Max felt like his lungs could collapse, like his heart could jump out of his hurt chest. But step after step he was getting away from the people behind him with their footsteps becoming some kind of background noises.

But he still needed a place to hide! A place to lay low for a few more minutes.

Max lifted his head, looking around for the first time in like forever and unfortunately he noticed that, even though he was dumb as fuck, his mind was miraculously even dumber.

(Or maybe it was too smart.)

Because he, of course, ran to the greenhouse.

Max had no other options, so he jumped to the front door and prayed hard with all his heart that it will be open.

It was.

Max wanted to scream in joy, but the only thing he did was fling the door open. After glancing back, he literally stormed inside. It took him two or maybe three steps, still looking back at the door he had shut down with too much force, to crash into someone.

They tumbled down to the floor, yelping. Max heard a small shout in front of him. There were movements, small kicks and pushes, there was sudden darkness and Max’s clothes fluttered around him, a small whimper of pain, a blurry vision jumping in and out of focus, before Max’s mind could fully process what had happened. Or tried to fully process what had happened.

“I’ll kill you, Maxwell!” Came a shout from the outside, too close for comfort.

Max’s brain acted on an impulse. His wand moved, making the lock in the main door move, blocking the pathway in and making all the candles inside the greenhouse die immediately, engulfing them in darkness. When the footsteps, running ones, came too close to the greenhouse, Max grabbed the body in front of him, or whatever part he could actually grab, and rolled them both weirdly and painfully under the table, pushing away the pots and smearing dirt around.

It wasn’t the perfect cover, but it was the best thing they could have now.

Max’s breathed hard. He felt his chest moving heavily up and down. He could sense his heart running wildly in his chest, trying to work properly to get the needed oxygen to his veins and organs. He could feel a weird pulsation in the back of his skull.

“Max, what is wrong?” David asked, his hot, but quiet breath tickled the skin near Max’s cheek.

Because yes, Max had the worst luck in the entire universe. Yes, he had crashed into David face first after entering the greenhouse. Yes, he had made both of them fall down on the dirty and rough ground. And yes, he had rolled them under the table to hide from the chase.

And now David was lying on the crummy ground under him, while Max prepped himself on his elbows above the teacher.

The situation couldn’t get any worse.

But of course it could.

“Max?” David repeated himself, wiggling a little beneath him and trying to move the hand which rested between him and Max, quite uncomfortably probably. “What is happening?”

“Shh…” Max shushed him and then glanced at the door.

There was a short span of time where nothing happened, a blissful two seconds or so, where Max hoped that maybe Pikeman gave up.

But the doorknob wiggled and then a loud thud resonated in the air, when someone probably punched the door.

“We know you’re there!”

Max wanted to curse. He wanted to scream and shout. He wanted to punch and kick and kill someone. He wanted to do all of those things, but he couldn’t do even a single one.

David’s breath hitched in his throat – it was weird, but Max could feel the movement reverberating inside his body. He could even sense David’s chest moving up, only to stop for a second.

“Don’t hide there!” The handle moved again, but this time too the lock kept them at bay.

Max swallowed hard, tightening his grip on the wand and glancing at the door. Even though the table was giving them half cover, they probably would still be pretty visible from the sides, especially from the window. It will probably take Pikeman and the rest a second to notice them. Or at least to notice Max who was above.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

There was a short span of calmness and then the footsteps moved to the side. The glassy side!

(No, no, no, no, no!)

Max felt his heart leaping painfully in his throat when he glanced to the side. Maybe if he ran through the back door, David would be safe and Max would only spend a few weeks in the Hospital Wing.

Max could feel air on his cheeks, a soft murmur leaving David’s lips, a shuddering resonance in his chest almost glued to his teacher’s one. There was a beat when nothing happened. Then Max could hear a flutter of something moving, a swishing sound of sneaking around, a tiny whisper of leaves quivering.

Then slowly, step after step, the image of the glassy side was blocked by the giant leaves, vines and tentacles moving around, intertwining, hanging or interlocking.

Max could only stare in awe as the plants moved, swirled, maneuvered, twirled and intertwined together to form something resembling a curtain – a green, beautiful, vivid curtain which would hide them from the outside world.

“Thanks.” David whispered.

And not even a second later they could hear loud footsteps behind the glass wall. Max could even see shadows moving behind the windows, but most of them were blocked by the plants, leaves and vines.

“Damn it! I can’t see a thing inside!” Pikeman yelled – Max could recognize this voice anywhere.

It seemed like the teen glued his face to the window, if the sounds were any indication.

“All I can see are those stupid plants.” Another voice added. It was Billy, definitely.

So Petrol was left with Nikki and Neil. They could take on one guy. Max believed in them.

David’s chest stopped moving as he stared at the glassy side. Max couldn’t see much in front of him, but he had a feeling that David furrowed his eyebrows.

“Fuck, we should burn them some day.”

Yeah, it was definitely a frown, followed by a clench of the fist still squeezed between their bodies.

“Do you think he’s here?”

Max stopped breathing.

“I’m not fucking sure. I think I saw him going in here, but it’s so fucking dark outside!”

The only source of light was the moon hanging low on the sky.

Max moved a little, trying to find a comfortable position between them, and he only managed to brush his body on David.

Not a good idea!

“Damn him. I’ll kill him the next time I see him.” Pikeman shouted and then it looked and sounded like he kicked the wall, because the glass shuddered heavily.

The leaves fluttered unhappily, but other than that they didn’t move.

“Let’s go. Some teacher could see us. Maybe Petrol had more luck.”

There was a short pause when nothing happened and then Max could hear a soft crunching of snow beneath the moving away feet.

“I swear, if I see…” But the words mingled and mixed together, forming a gibberish something which disappeared in the dark night around them, followed only by a faraway sound of laughter.

Max waited for a few more seconds, before he let out a loud breath through his mouth and nose.

Miraculously he was safe. Somehow.

There were another few heartbeats of silence when he listened intently to any other sounds that could indicate that they were back, but nothing like this happened. The leaves only fluttered above them and the vines twitched, retracting slowly to their previous place.

“Max… what the heck was that?” David whispered.

And only then Max finally managed to look back at the person in front of him? Below him? Being squished between him and a probably very cold floor?

And even though the adrenaline had been moving furiously through his body, now it felt like it stopped and then spurted once again.

“Eh…” Max licked his lips slowly and then glanced to the side. How should he answer? Should he tell the truth or lie? But he got David pretty deep into it, so… “Pikeman?”

“That didn’t answer my question.” David furrowed his eyebrows, wriggling his fingers that were between his and Max’s chest.

“You know… the usual happened…”

“The usual?” David said, huffed even. “Did you get into another fight?”

“To be more precise, I was running away from a fight.” Max quickly added, barely pushing the words through his throat.

“Max, what happened?” David asked, looking up, tilting his head just oh so slightly that Max could almost see his own reflection in the green, lush eyes.

“Pikeman and his gang decided to bug us. A few not quite nice sentences were thrown at each other and suddenly we found ourselves running away from them.”

David gasped, opening his mouth a little. The gust of hot air brushed past Max’s face.

“Max, we need to tell the principal!”

“So they could bug us even more?” Max quickly shot back, raising his eyebrow and lifting one corner of his mouth.

“But if they are bugging other students –” David shifted beneath him, but Max actually didn’t move, didn’t budge, didn’t twitch even an inch.

“Telling the principal will make the matter worse for some students. Did you think that there was no bullying around the school? Well then I have some bad news for you.” Max snorted back. “It is happening. Telling the principal won’t do shit and you can only harm someone by doing it.”

David was already opening his mouth – and oh how Max wanted to close it, to finish this pointless argument that was taking them nowhere. He wanted to end it. He wanted to shut David up. He wanted–

Max’s heart shuddered in his chest as he sensed another soft movement beneath him, as he felt another scent hitting his nose, as he heard another whisper of rustling clothes.

Max’s throat was dry.

He should move away, but he couldn’t. He felt like he was petrified.

The air around them was thick, heavy, but filled with something that was almost buzzing in his ears.

And then David’s mouth moved, turned into a small, hesitant smile and a low, kinda dry chuckle left his lips.

“You’re actually pretty caring, Max.”

“What?” Max snapped.

“You could simply let me tell the principal and you would be free. But you don’t want to do that so you won’t harm other people.” David said with sparkling eyes. “That is very noble.”

Max stared for a few long seconds, before he snorted loudly, right into David’s face at this point.

“I’m far away from being noble, David.”

Oh, he did it again. The name so naturally slipped past his lips. Max knew why this was happening. He often used teachers’ first names while talking with his friends, but he controlled himself around the real teachers. But with David there were times – short, small spaces and spans of intimacy – when Max’s brain couldn’t function properly, when it felt like reality was altered.

This was one of those moments, when even though Max had feared for his life a few minutes ago, now he felt at peace, calm and simply, kinda, happy.

David didn’t comment on the slip. Or at least not verbally. The corner of his lip twitched a little though and he tilted his head, making one lock curl on his forehead, and miraculously, somehow, moving closer to Max.

“I still think you’re kind, Max.”

Max wasn’t kind. But, God, he wanted to be. Nikki was kind. Neil was kind. His other friends were kind. Gwen was kind. David was kind beyond understanding. And Max kinda hated it, because spending time with David made him want to be a better person. And he was terrible at this. He couldn’t so naturally do something nice. He was a mess at this. It was all too hard and Max was so, so tired.

Max wasn’t a nice person.

“I’m not.” He said, feeling his heart thrumming loudly inside his chest as he sensed David breathing with him in synchronization.

“You are.” David said, grinning at him, like it was some weird, childish game. And damn, he looked so sincere, he spoke without even a particle of hesitation, like he fully believed his own words.

Max really wanted to believe them too. But they weren’t true and he knew that.

“No, I’m not. Just stop.”

Stop making him almost believe it.

“You can’t make me stop.” David said, a hint of childish bravado hanging on the last tone.

But Max could. He could make David stop believing it.

Because Max wasn’t a good person, no matter how hard he wanted to be or believe it.

And maybe it was the exhaustion hanging tightly on his bones, maybe it was the adrenaline still rushing through his veins, maybe it was the memory of almost being caught and killed.

Or maybe it wasn’t that.

Maybe it was the whole atmosphere of the greenhouse. Maybe it was the soft whisper of the leaves above him. Maybe it was the sensation of feeling David’s breath near his chest and on his skin. Maybe it was the beautiful feeling of comfort while being so near. Maybe it was his heart’s fault.

Maybe it was all of the above. Maybe they all were the reasons.

But he simply acted on an impulse – or maybe a need that was hiding inside his mind for a long period of time and now it grabbed the chance, holding onto it dearly.

Because Max seized the moment, grabbed the opportunity and kissed David.

There was a sudden spark inside his head, a sudden burst of emotions, a sudden vibrating sensation inside his chest as he felt his lips touching David’s in front of him.

It was amazing, it was astonishing, it was everything and even more than he had imagined through this whole time.

Max knew his brain – the rational part of it – was sending him loud alarms through his head, but he shut them down, smashed to pieces as he tilted his head a little bit, to feel more, needing to feel more and more of the lips under him.

David’s hand, resting between them, twitched. Max relaxed his fingers and moved them to intertwine with David’s hair scattered on the cold stone.

Maybe it was happening for a few seconds, maybe even a full minute, he wasn’t sure. However Max moved away, feeling the sudden need for air.

Max opened his eyes to stare at David beneath him. To say that the teacher was surprised would be an understatement. David’s eyes were wide, looking right at Max in response. His mouth opened a little bit to take a few big gulps of air with his chest heaving between them. His cheeks were flushed with bright, red colors, scattered all over the freckles, almost making them invisible.

But Max was sure his face was even worse, he could sense his cheeks blazing beneath the skin.

There was a short span of time, a sudden stillness, a small period of hesitation or incomprehension that floated between them.

And Max’s heart hammered loudly inside his chest. He threw every caution to the wind and dove down for more.

David’s lips weren’t particularly dry, they weren’t plump and soft either, they weren’t perfect in any definition of this word, yet they were the most amazing thing Max had ever tasted. Max could feel shivers running down his spine as his tongue moved, licked the bottom lip, hoping and praying, needing more and more and more.

David’s hair was soft under Max’s fingers.

There was a short heartbeat, a sudden gasp leaving David’s lips and Max used this occasion.

(Because he wasn’t a kind person.)

Max slipped his tongue inside, tilting his head so he could taste and feel more.

And it was amazing, astonishing, exciting and beautiful. It was too much and too little at the same time. It was a waterfall of energy surging through his body. It was a heartbeat soaring in the sky as he kissed David deeply, moving his tongue around, tasting every place he could.

David’s other hand moved and clenched Max’s robe tightly, grasping it as their bodies moved and brushed together, trying to find a perfect position.

Max tilted his head and, damn, it had to be his imagination, but he could swear he sensed David doing the same.

David tasted amazing, kinda sweet, but with a bitter aftertaste, that made Max move deeper and deeper, pushing his body further, trying to get more of the heat emanating from David’s body, trying to feel more of David as Max’s tongue roamed around.

It was intoxicating, it was addicting and it was stunning, incredible and wonderful. Max could feel his heart trying to jump out from his chest. He could sense every place where David’s body touched his own.

Max took more and more, swirling his tongue around, trying to get more and more and more. Then after a few seconds he found David’s tongue, unmoving, just like it was from the very beginning.

(Please, please, please! Max needed it!)

Max swirled his tongue around, hoping for some kind of a response, needing some kind of an reply, pleading for some answer, because, God, he wanted more.

Max’s heart jumped high, loud, painfully inside his chest when he felt a small movement, a sudden twitch, a short response from David. He felt like he could burst and explode with the sudden happiness surging through his limbs and chest, because a second later or so David’s tongue moved, making small, tiny, hesitant circles on Max’s one.

Max moved closer, got himself comfortable between David’s legs and brought himself as close as possible – enjoying the soft shudder that ran through David’s body, the short moan leaving his lips as their lips crashed, mingled and mixed together, the sudden tug of David’s hand on his robe as they brushed together, mouths moving passionately to–

Stop immediately when they heard a knock coming from the back door.

“David? Are you still there?” Daniel’s voice seeped under the door, not even a second later after he had knocked.

The connection was lost as they separated their lips. They turned their heads in the direction of the back door.

It felt like Max’s heart stopped beating when he saw the door handle moving.

TBC

#Maxvid #Mavid #Hogwart!AU #my art?#my stories?#Wait For It

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